By Laurent Folcher
“After my somber-palette fall runway show, I wanted to challenge myself working with colors,” said Julie de Libran, Sonia Rykiel’s artistic director, as she introduced her resort collection — a fresh, playful, kaleidoscopic lineup that was anything but subdued. Stripes are at the core of the Rykiel vocabulary and de Libran worked them in abundance: multicolored on woven cotton tweed jackets, bold and contrasty on a knit skirt suit with plastic thread embroidery down the front zipper, diagonal on sequin mesh dresses, or cascading like lasers on a knit halter dress embroidered with micro sequins.
Another leitmotif was vermilion red, which popped on allover satin bombers with matching shorts or as red patent-leather sandals worn with flouncy dresses in crinkle-pleated cotton, a highlight of the collection. A sense of fun emerged in a profusion of rhinestone pins and brooches, another Rykiel signature, used like charms to decorate a denim jacket. And this season, de Libran’s denim also mirrored the collection’s vibrant hues.
