About the Book:

HARD TO FIND BOOK, only a very limited number of copies are still available.

Traces the French designer's rise to success in the world of fashion and features photographs and sketches of some of her creations.

Sonia Rykiel represents the liberated woman in every sense of the word, both in her creations and her lifestyle. Known to North Americans as "the Queen of Knits," this striking redhead started her career in the most extraordinary fashion. Married to the owner of a boutique that sold clothing somewhere between custom-made and ready-to-wear, she never could find a sweater that she herself wanted to wear. So she asked one of his suppliers in Venice to make up a special wool sweater just for her – slightly cropped, very fitted, in pale grey. The sweater went back for alterations seven times – first it was too long, then too short, the armholes too big – until finally Madame Rykiel was pleased – so was Elle magazine, who used it on a cover, making Sonia Rykiel instantly famous. In 1968, she opened her own boutique on the Left Bank's fashionable rue de Grenelle, and soon designed sweaters for mass-market mail-order catalogs. Encouraging women to adapt her clothes to their individual lifestyles, she introduced such novel ideas as clothing to be worn inside-out, seams being as important as surface. Sonia Rykiel created her own perfume in 1978, launched a career as an interior designer (whose most elegant creation was the decoration of the luxurious Hotel Crillon on the place Vendome), and in 1980 was elected one of the world's ten most elegant women.

What people say:

"These four volumes continue the 'Universe of Fashion' series of 11 titles published since 1996. Each volume in the series is devoted to a notable fashion designer and follows a simple template: ten to 15 pages of biography, 50 pages or so of photographs illustrating the designer's work, a career chronology, and photographic credits accompanied by thumbnails of the larger photographs (a nice touch). The volumes resemble miniature exhibit catalogs, providing quick glimpses of the lives and work of people who have molded the fashion establishment during the last few decades." — Library Journal

About the Author:

Patrick Mauriees is a Paris-based writer of many notable titles on fashion and design.