Sonia Rykiel : why couldn't the brand be saved?

Paris - The announcement came on 25 July 2019, the immediate judicial liquidation of the fashion brand Sonia Rykiel left 135 employees in a state of shock as well as a large number of people and lovers of the fashion house both in France and abroad. How did it come to this?

There was a crowd at the funeral of Sonia Rykiel on 1 September 2016 at Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris. There was also a large crowd at the inauguration of the ‘Allée Sonia Rykiel’ in September 2018, an unprecedented distinction in Paris for a fashion designer, that coincided with the celebration of 50 years of the brand. It was also a first in the streets of Paris. In fact, neither Christian Dior nor Yves Saint Laurent have streets named after them. And it was a special moment when the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, and then Nathalie Rykiel, Sonia Rykiel’s daughter, said that “to name a street in Paris after a person, no matter what its size, is to mark that person out for eternity.”

The heatwave overshadows current affairs

However, this week eternity seems to have shrunk to nothing. On Thursday 25 July, when the court in Paris pronounced immediate judicial liquidation, the pain over the struggling brand was doubled. The very next day, on Friday 26 July, 10 stores closed permanently and left employees out on the pavement awaiting the outcome of negotiations about their severance pay. But the most serious consequence is the disappearance of the Sonia Rykiel fashion brand that has been part of the French national heritage since 1968. “Despite the support of the fashion industry for the employees of the brand, we are all very upset by the feeble reaction from those in high places,” confides an ex-employee of the fashion house to FashionUnited. “Everyone who is someone was there to pay tribute at previous occasions and sat on the first row for the catwalk shows but now no one has protested against this decision. Not even the French Minister for Culture.” With a heatwave at its peak and in the middle of the school holidays, the quiet surrounding the news is chilling. When people are campaigning for women’s rights, for control over their bodies and professional inequality, the preservation of the name and memory of Sonia Rykiel, who always fought for women’s freedom, seems more important than ever.

A burial and several broken marriages

So how did such a tragedy come to pass? There are several explanations. “Sonia Rykiel always knew how to surround herself with the right people, it was one of her great strengths; she knew how to delegate and leave things to others,” one ex-employee recalls. Three men in particular supported her for 20 years and participated in the success of the fashion house: the former managing director, Gilles Carpentier, the commercial director, Didier Grospiron, and her ex-son in law Simon Burstein.” The family firm that always kept immaculate accounts entered a new phase with the arrival of Nathalie Rykiel as chairman in 2007. The previous male managers were thanked and Nathalie breathed new life into the fashion house. In 2008, Sonia Rykiel employed 430 people, generated 108 million euros, operated 65 stores and sold its collections in more than 1,900 multi-brand stores in 30 countries. How did the brand, that up until then was self-financing and that for a long time cut an exceptional figure in French fashion, tumble into the red? Over the years, the turnover shrank, then stagnated in 2011 (90 million euros). In 2012, there was a surprise: the company sold 80 percent of Sonia Rykiel to the group First Heritage Brands, a holding company owned by the Fung family, originally from Hong Kong, which also owned the leather goods company Delvaux and the shoe company Robert Clergerie.

The announced objective was to go international. After the death of the designer in 2016 a quarter of the workforce was dismissed. Also the creative direction of the brand changed a lot. After the Scotswoman April Crichton (2011), and the Canadian Gerald da Conceicao (2012), Julie de Libran was appointed in 2014 but left the fashion house in March 2019. “Her talent was not in question but the marriage did not take,” says the ex-employee who prefers to remain anonymous. “Sonia Rykiel is a fashion house that needs humility, you have to honor its codes and in particular you shouldn't intellectualise it. The Rykiel woman was all about zest for life, stripes, glitter, words and in particular humour”.

The curtain falls

But isn’t it because the entire industry and the times have changed? “Madam Rykiel was demanding but she was loved and respected, she exchanged ideas with her teams; the doors to her office above the Saint-Germain store were always open and, as the historic hub of the brand, the building is still owned by the Rykiel family today. It is one detail that did not help in the search for new buyers. Among those interested was Emmanuel Diemoz, former director of Balmain, who was also a candidate for taking over the Carven brand a year ago, but did not reach an agreement with it. In the end, after the tender for bids and the takeover of the Parisian firm, of the dozen entities that declared their interest, just one bid reached the judicial administrators. It was the bid by Nicole Levy and her son, Julien Sedbon, entrepreneurs in the real estate sector who proposed to buy the firm, hold on to 39 employees and to relaunch the brand online. But in the end, it was not even defended at the Commercial Court. The die was cast! Around the same time that Lola, the grand-daughter of Sonia Rykiel and daughter of Nathalie, has launched her own brand named Pompom (stylish and sporty fashion items with tassels and pompoms, a detail that she is fond of), the brand that her grandmother founded has come to an end. “At the beginning, a few months ago, there was no question of liquidation,” our source concludes. “But since then the name of Sonia Rykiel seems to have melted away in the face of general indifference. Today, this jewel of French culture is being extinguished, with a second burial for Sonia Rykiel. It is hard to believe, it’s a sudden end that none of us could have imagined.”

This article was originally written and published in French for FashionUnited France before being translated into English.

Photo’s: ©Sonia Rykiel, s/s 2019 - flagship Sonia Rykiel opening in Madrid, May 2018 ©Manolo Yllera - Looks ©Sonia Rykiel s/s 2020 collection by Julie de Libran.