Quotes from Sonia Rykiel

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 have no regrets in life, and you know what? If I could, I'd go back and do it all again.

Wherever I go, I buy shoes.

Everyone knows that life is very expensive and you can change, you can turn, you can play with clothes with a lot of accessories.

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 have the feeling I've always done what I wanted throughout my life.

People said making clothes inside out was not proper. I disagreed, because clothes that are inside out are as beautiful as a cathedral.

I am what I am. Before I was not so proud to make fashion. My family thought fashion wasn't very interesting. So I hid that.

Fashion should be a kind of bouillon de culture.

It's important to keep on keeping on, to feel good about yourself and be happy with who you are.

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.

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!

I love chocolate. Black chocolate with marshmallow inside, caramel inside. If I could only have two foods, I'd take some fantastic chocolate. And some terrible chocolate. I love the Clark Bar.

It is a very important matter, as a woman, to juggle everything... Your professional life, family, children etc.

What pushes me forward is everything I have learned: political, social, cultural. I put all that into the clothes.

I am like the lover of Roland Barthes "who's always running in his head". I'm always searching, and "eating" everything from my life, in order to put it in my dresses!

I wanted a maternity dress, but I couldn't find anything I liked. Everything was abominable. So I made one. Then I made a pullover. 'Elle' put it on the cover. Then WWD elected me the Queen of Knitwear.

When I started in fashion, for the first 10 years, I said to myself every day, 'I'm going to quit tomorrow.'

I have the impression that the women around me are like me - smaller, taller, fatter, thinner - but in fact, we are all the same.

For me, luxury isn't just the real thing. It's also fake. Swarovski crystals or real diamonds? It's a game.

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 don't think that clothes have anything to do with the personality. That comes from the woman herself.

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 color is black. And black, if it's worn right, is a scandal.