PARIS, Oct 6, 2006 / FW / --- Gold was on the invitation and on the runway of the Sonia Rykiel show for spring 2007, and her Rive Gauche friends, among which French writer Régine Deforges, sat first row as usual.

Among the general atmosphere of grim for the season, the Rykiels’ runway looked more and more like a ray of feminine strong hope as the girls walking it seemed to be going to or coming from a jolly good party backstage.

At one point, Sasha Pivovarova, who has been the serious-looking face for Prada campaigns, was even smiling so much that one could wonder what kind of exhilarating potion could have provoked such a change in her. Or was it just the pleasure of being allowed to have fun with her girlfriends, at last, during a fashion show?

In this merry atmosphere though, the first striped dresses and various loose outfits had erased, lost or forgotten the usually bright coloured graphics, giving in to the season’s trends of only black and white.

They were followed by black dresses with discreet see-through inlays and omnipresent matching stiff bows mixing with cleverly strapped one-piece bathing suits.

All girls were wearing black lacquered headbands or caps adorned with various crystallized motifs throughout the show. By the time we had reached the compulsory-for-spring-2007 set of white clothes, their head accessories would dare a little touch of insolently bright colour that was only announcing something else.

Everything (shorts, skirts, dresses, trench coats) was in the general mid-thigh length. With her all white looks, Sonia Rykiel then also treated us with a full set of knitwear pieces with bundles of 3D flowers that Rykiel excels in, but which will no doubt prove more than warm or heavy for the season.

Colour came in first with shades of pink between old English rose and pale mauve, shoes having changed along the way from flat lacquered black sandals to platform shoes with high and strong heels.

One coral dress mingled with many pink pieces and monochrome tones of English or French mustard were displayed on wrap-up mini-dresses with small flounces, same fabric three dimensional bows and flowers appeared, and on the brand’s classic garments of fur-like marabou.

Silver sequined dresses on an old pink base, shiny yellow satin dresses led back to a final set of black combinations, before the final parade.

All the girls in the show came back wearing simple tube dresses in he same order of colours (but black) displaying on each front a huge print of a different expression from winking eye to pure ecstasy.

The atmosphere of exploding feminine triumph and joy reminded me of the excitement and liberating spirit at the end of some performances of the Vagina Monologues.

By the way, I have noted that the soundtrack for the show was composed of pop songs from the 1970s and the 1980s, only sung by French or American female interprets. Only when Sonia and Nathalie Rykiel came out holding shoulders gloriously down the runway did a male voice dare intrude this only-reserved-to-women universe to hum loudly: “Love is in the Air”.

In a word, a joyful surprise among the season’s shows for the season, for a collection with no real new style statement from mother or daughter.

Sonia Rykiel

Sonia Rykiel

Sonia Rykiel

Sonia Rykiel

Sonia Rykiel

Sonia Rykiel

Sonia Rykiel

Sonia Rykiel