Onya Sonia

sonia rykiel SS09/getty

What a hoot Sonia Rykiel’s show must have been last night in Paris. Staged in Saint Cloud, guests were wined and dined beforehand and later pelted the runway with flowers from their table arrangements. Rykiel’s shows have, of late, tended to culminate in mad sashaying romps of barefoot giggling models, but this one was extra giggly – a celebration of the designer’s 40th anniversary in business.

Opening her boutique during the May 1968 riots, at a time when the haute couture establishment was experiencing heavy losses - with one notable subsequent closure, in Balenciaga – Rykiel, now 78, was a pioneer of the Paris prêt-à-porter revolution.

To help celebrate 40 years of skinny knits and jersey suits and dresses, 40 international designers, from Karl Lagerfeld to Martin Margiela, created outfits in homage of la Rykiel – many of them apparently using the designer’s trademark poodle-esque red mane and kohl makeup as their creative kickoff points. There are some pretty hilarious pictures.

No idea at this stage who created Myf Shepherd's rather macabre-looking Sonia doll (^), but note Shepherd's expert pose interpretation - not of Zoolander's Blue Steel, but rather, Ayesha Makim's infamous knicker flash to the camera pit at Fashionassassin.




sonia rykiel SS09/getty