Sonia Rykiel, known for liberated fashion style, dies at 86

French fashion designer Sonia Rykiel has died after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease, her daughter Nathalie confirmed today (Thursday 25 August).

Rykiel knit knowingness into her clothes, which were soft wrappers for the hard bodies of active women and working mothers like herself.

For the generation of women who came of age in the heady 1960s and ’70s, Rykiel, with her hallmark bright orange hair, came to symbolize the new era of freedom.

Designer Sonia Rykiel has died aged 86.

She is considered the first to introduce new techniques such as inside-out stitching and no-hem finishes.

In 1995, Rykiel stepped down from her role as CEO and artistic director of her eponymous brand but remained close to the label and acted as its honorary president.

The famously redheaded Rykiel was born to Russian and Romanian parents just outside Paris in 1930.

“I always thought I’d be discredited in the end”. “I lived in trees or on my bicycle”.

“I don’t want to show my pain”, she wrote in her 2012 book called Don’t Forget It’s A Game. My mother got so exasperated she would throw them out. Everything was abominable. So I made one.

A muse to Andy Warhol, and a fierce lover of the color black (“If it’s worn right, black is a scandal”, she once said), Rykiel was one of the most progressive women’s wear designers of her time. “His name was Henri Matisse”.

The pioneer of Parisian womenswear had been suffering from Parkinson’s, a progressive neurological condition, for about 15 years.

In 1954, she married a clothing store owner, Sam Rykiel, with whom she had two children and whom she later divorced. Following an unfruitful quest, she decided to just make a design of her own. “I wanted a maternity dress and I couldn’t find anything I liked”.

Rykiel stumbled into the world of fashion accidentally. She also penned novels, opened a sex toy shop and starred in the 1994 film Pret-a-Porter.

Under her management the brand launched a diffusion line Sonia by Sonia Rykiel and childrenswear. Belgian designer Martin Margiela sent out a long red-fringed coat in homage to Rykiel’s frizzy red bob.

The French government honored her years of service to fashion, making her an officer in the Legion of Honor in 2013.

Culture Minister Audrey Azoulay praised Rykiel as “a committed feminist” and “exceptional entrepreneur” who “created a style and work that endure”. As she told Purplein 2010, “The Rykiel woman is intelligent – but intelligent with a social fabric that she invents. I followed my instincts”, is how she described her design process in the early days. “I put all that into the clothes”.