Like Picasso, I go through blue periods, green periods, or grey periods.
— Sonia Rykiel
I was a tomboy, always fairly eccentric, and convinced I'd grow up to be an actress.
French women famously take care over their appearance, but this wasn't instilled in me as I grew up. I was taught that beauty comes from different places, from the inside and from the outside.
I don't think I would ever have plastic surgery; there isn't anything I'd want to change.
I don't read e-mails because I hate them.
I came from an intellectual Parisian family. My father was a watchmaker; my mother was a housewife. We discussed politics, art, sculpture - never fashion.
My mother knitted a lot, but I never did; it was no fun.
I am a perfectionist. It has always been this way.
The lead of a film that wove around me, I played all the roles. I traveled the world; I loved life, pleasure. I adored to write, create.
When I started in fashion, for the first 10 years, I said to myself every day, 'I'm going to quit tomorrow.'
It's important to keep on keeping on, to feel good about yourself and be happy with who you are.
The natures of men and women are very mixed, and for me, the most fascinating type of woman is the one who is a little masculine, has a little of the man in her, and the sort of man who is fabulous is the one who is a little woman, too. It's impossible not to mix them!
I don't know how to knit.
As soon as the show is over, I always think, 'How will the woman I design for go forward?' It's so important to start quickly because I can't let her get away.
Everyone knows that life is very expensive and you can change, you can turn, you can play with clothes with a lot of accessories.
I've never been interested in dressing one woman. What's interested me was to have a philosophy. It hasn't been important to put a woman in a blue dress. I wanted to dress women who wanted to look at themselves. To stand out. To be women who were not part of the crowd. A woman who fights and advances.
A woman and a dress, very often, fight against each other because they are not at the same place. Sometimes you see the woman moving the belt around. She is making the robe her own. She needs that. Otherwise, the dress doesn't exist.
A woman who walks well parts crowds - it's something we should all be taught to do.
My favourite feature is my hair. It has always made me look different. It was so red when I was born that my mother thought I had blood on my head. When I was a teenager, I looked like a tomboy, but then I understood that I could be a woman who was an intelligent mix between a lady and my mannish side.
I care a lot about my looks, although I'm not too adventurous. Every day I dress the same way in a kind of 'uniform' of black, although in varying fabrics - it's always black.
1968 was the beginning of the hippie movement in fashion. That movement made fashion change completely. It was not necessary to be always dressed up. You could be dressed the way you wanted - it was absolute freedom.
My first conversation of the day is with my daughter, Nathalie. I call her every morning; it is a ritual.
I wanted women wearing my sweaters to give the impression they were naked. The aim wasn't to impose outfits but to stay as close as possible to women's bodies and their freedom of movement.
I wasn't interested in fashion originally. Fashion was for other people.
How can you live the high life if you do not wear high heels? I don't understand why women wear these ballet pumps. They are only good if you walk like a ballet dancer, and only ballet dancers do that.
I invented a sweater so small, so close to the body, that Women's Wear Daily nicknamed it 'The Poor Boy Sweater' and consecrated me queen of knitwear.
I'm not brave, I'm not fantastic. I'm like any other woman. I'm unhappy. I'm difficult. I'm sad. Am I strong, too? Maybe, but not always. There are days when I don't want to see anyone. The most important thing you learn? You can live with it.
I hate wasting time getting dressed. I like to put something on and just think, 'Yes. That's it.'
I hate the word 'feminine!' I mean, there is a woman and a man, and when I say 'woman,' it suggests all that is radiant, tender, fascinating, gentle, demoniac, exaggerated! 'Feminine' makes me think of somebody who is spindly and over-sweet - I don't like that!
For me, luxury isn't just the real thing. It's also fake. Swarovski crystals or real diamonds? It's a game.
The Rykiel woman? She doesn't have time to stop time. She's too busy running. In her hands she's carrying a tote, a baby, a book, a camera.
Paris was a melting pot.
Women should look at themselves and decide for themselves what color or length they should wear.
Artifice is art.
It's not true that clothes look better on skinny girls; what counts is the attitude.
Knowing yourself, and learning to love yourself as you are, is the beginning of beauty. I think the most important thing is to show off what's most beautiful about you and to hide what's less beautiful.
My view is that you have to deal with who you are. It's hard work, in a way, but somebody has to do it.
I just can't live without chocolate - I have between two and six pieces every day.
As soon as I am up, I brush my hair. I eat breakfast first: tea and brown bread, and sometimes a fresh fruit juice like orange or grapefruit. I write notes on the previous day in my notebook, then I shower.
I was fascinated by stripes from the start. On clothing, they follow a woman's movements.
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.
I don't know why some women don't wear make-up. Every woman should gild the lily.
People are going to figure out that I don't know anything. I always thought I'd be discredited in the end.
I have no regrets in life, and you know what? If I could, I'd go back and do it all again.
A man is attractive when he is slightly disturbing like a woman, a woman when she's a little disturbing like a man.
Everything I do is really an expression of myself, through colors and shapes and, at the same time, I try to explain what I feel not only as a creator but also as a woman. I cannot separate one from the other.
I became the world's queen of sweaters without even knowing how one was made.
With only one bag, you can change your outfit completely.
You can have a conversation with your eyes.
A dress will never make a woman sexy, fatale, magnificent, mysterious. It's a way of walking, of standing, or existing, the way you give your hand or your regard. That's what makes the dress.
