The Sonia Rykiel show can always be relied upon to be happy-go-lucky, full of smiling girls with big, bouncy hair.
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This season, though Nathalie Rykiel clearly decide it was time to inject a bit of grit into proceedings. A chicken wire fence ran down the length of the catwalk, which was lit with fluoro strips and, for extra moodiness, filled with smoke. And, gasp, the models had their hair pinned up.
There was quite mix of references, in fact, because when the collection hit the runway it was filled with Scottish checks and tartans - trousers that looked as though they’d been made from wool rugs, complete with fringing along the sides, and matching bags, checked wool trousers suits and coats and capes paired with fur stoles that made it seem as though the Sonia Rykiel girl had been taking her sartorial cue from Wallis Simpson.
There was still evidence of the Parisan influence too of course, a clutch of knitted sweater dresses that were Rykiel through and through, and some beautiful long gowns in eye-popping shades. And then, perhaps inspired by the chicken wire (or maybe it was the other way round) there were some more sporty offerings, namely long, quilted baseball jackets.
But while the starting points may have been different, the fun and energy was still there - the girls all loitered at different points along the fence once they’d done their walk down the catwalk, and skipped hand in hand back down for the finale, accidentally breaking the lights along the way.
