PARIS • A "rebellion" has ended. Fashion mourned on Thursday the demise of troubled French fashion label Sonia Rykiel that once symbolised the defiant spirit of 1960s Paris.
A court in the French capital ordered the winding up of the loss-making brand founded by the Queen of Knits, once an icon of youthful revolt against the stuffy fashion establishment.
The designer, who died nearly three years ago from Parkinson's disease at 86, popularised dressing all in black and made her name with the "Poor Boy Sweater" that film star Audrey Hepburn made a key part of her look.
Despite the boom in luxury French fashion, a buyer could not be found to take on the label since it went into receivership in April.
"It's like she has died a second time," declared veteran French designer Agnes Trouble, founder of the Agnes b. brand.
"It's the end of an era. Dior and Saint Laurent are (now) about bling - they no longer have the Parisian elegance they used to have" and that Rykiel symbolised, she noted.
Rykiel's first boutique opened on the Left Bank of the French capital in May 1968 just as students took to the streets outside demanding an end to the old order.
She was credited with making wearing black from head to toe the epitome of Parisian cool, once saying she did not like wasting time choosing colours.
"I like to dress very simply - perhaps a black crepe jacket and black crepe trousers," she said.
Red-haired Rykiel caught the revolutionary spirit of the time with easy-to-wear clothes that often bore political slogans. She signed a famous feminist declaration in 1971 that paved the way for the legalisation of abortion in France.
So great was her influence on Paris fashion in the 1970s - when the scene was dominated by friends-turned-bitter-rivals Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint-Laurent - that she was known as "Coco Rykiel", a nod to pioneering female designer Coco Chanel.
But last year her brand - half of its sales were in France - lost €30 million (S$46 million).
Several investors expressed interest in taking the house on, including former chief of Paris brand Balmain, Mr Emmanuel Diemoz, and a Chinese conglomerate, but all came to nothing. Sonia Rykiel's four boutiques and six other outlets will close immediately.
Her name, however, lives on in part of a chic Paris street where she used to do her vegetable shopping, which now bears her name.
Fittingly, her brand celebrated the honour last September by staging its very last proper Paris fashion week show at the market.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
