Quotes from Sonia Rykiel

My first conversation of the day is with my daughter, Nathalie. I call her every morning; it is a ritual.

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.

I am a perfectionist. It has always been this way.

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.

A woman who walks well parts crowds - it's something we should all be taught to do.

My breakfast is very important.

Like Picasso, I go through blue periods, green periods, or grey periods.

I just can't live without chocolate - I have between two and six pieces every day.

To me, the biggest revolution of the 20th century was the pill.

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.

I was supposed to be a mother like my mother, who didn't work.

I don't think I would ever have plastic surgery; there isn't anything I'd want to change.

Perfume is like a parenthesis, a moment of freedom, peace, love and sensuality in between the disturbances of modern living.

My shows are about the complete woman who swallows it all. It's a question of survival.

First I made a dress because I was pregnant and I wanted to be the most beautiful pregnant woman. Then I made a sweater because I wanted to have one that wasn't like anyone else's.

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 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 became the world's queen of sweaters without even knowing how one was made.

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.

When a woman confuses what she is with what she wears, then something is wrong inside.

Paris was a melting pot.

We are working women. Also, we have the problem of children, of men, to take care of our houses, so many things. I try to explain that in my clothes. They are clothes for everyday life. That is the real life of woman.

I don't want to show my pain. I resisted; I hesitated. I tried to be invisible, to pretend that nothing was wrong. It's impossible; it's not like me.

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.