“I have never followed fashion. What is fashion to me? I just think of things that inspire me, that inspire women, and I design that way.”

French fashion designer and writer

Sonia Rykiel was a French fashion designer and writer, active across the late 20th and early 21st centuries. She was known for her knitwear, her influence on modern fashion, and for being called the “Queen of Knits.” She created the Poor Boy Sweater, which appeared on the cover of French Elle, and helped redefine knitwear with designs and techniques that made her name in fashion. She founded the Sonia Rykiel label in 1968, opening her first store with clothing, accessories, and fragrances. She also wrote, with her first book published in 1979. She later revealed that she had Parkinson's disease and died of complications from it on 25 August 2016.