Yesterday afternoon I took a stroll down rue Rivoli and popped into the museum of Les Art Decoratifs to check out the Sonia Rykiel exhibition.

If I had to sum up in one sentence what I took out of it, I would say that I now understand my mother-in-law a lot better! She is a born and bred Parisian and she personifies the ultimate Sonia Rykiel woman. But I’ll get back to that a bit later.

The exhibition is enchanting. It’s almost like walking into Ms Rykiel’s personal scrap book – with photographs, personal letters, sketches, video reels, voice recordings and magazine front-covers hanging on the walls and of course a splendid journey through her fashion styles ranging from her first knitwear creation the ‘Poor boy Sweater’ to her little black dresses bedazzled with rhinestones.

The exhibit is arranged by her various themes rather than chronologically and is in essence a celebration of her 40 years in fashion showcasing around 200 of her most iconic outfits. Unfortunately miss-matching to her personality, the exhibition is made to look very museum-like and a tad dry, which in my opinion is the exact opposite of the vivacious, colorful designer who inspired dreams for so many women. What does make the exhibition captivating is simply that it’s all about the legendary SR.

Sonia Rykiel amongst many other things became the darling (some even say the ‘Coco Chanel’) of the 1960′s through her prêt-à-porter creations for the newly emerging, vibrant woman who started rejecting the haute couture of the Rive Gauche back in the day. Women wanted freedom and to feel sexy and Sonia Rykiel gave them just that – she brought to life the color black and her knitwear made any woman feel and look simply fabulous. She epitomized modernity and became an inspiration to new attitudes and free expression (as evident in her trademark almost random words etched into her clothing). I would be lying if I didn’t say that I desired for a change room to just pop-up and let me try on some (or most) of the clothes on display! I too wanted to feel all liberated and care-free like the models portrayed wearing her dresses…

As a tribute to this fashion icon, some of the world’s finest designers (such as Jean Paul Gaultier, Nina Ricci, Karl Lagerfeld for Channel to name but a few) let their imagination run wild and created dresses in the image Sonia Rykiel which were proudly flaunted down the runway at her 40th anniversary summer 2009 collection show. Apparently the crowds went wild with the collection, as do the visitors who get to admire the creations behind the glass windows at the exhibition!

It’s really hard to highlight just a handful of the pieces on display but 2 that really stood out for me was a knitwear preppy ensemble by Rodarte with “Obama” written across the chest as well as a series of dresses and coats with bigger than life-size imitations of Sonia Rykiel’s flaming red hair either draped or integrated all over the outfit itself (as seen in the photograph of the model wearing the Sonia-like-hair coat by Maison Martin Margiela)

I also loved the collection of her shiny brooches! Lips, bows, stars, flowers and butterflies that most Rykiel women would pin to an all-black outfit drawing attention to the naughtiness that lies within!

The exhibition ends with words by big names on what ‘la femme Rykiel’ means to them, the more I read over them, the more I just thought that a photograph of my mother-in-law should just be pasted all along the wall instead. I am certain that she is the very woman Sonia Rykiel had in mind while designing her creations. Other than my mother-in-law’s dominant use in black clothing and rhinestones, she definitely echoes the liberated, avant-garde and casually glamorous “Femme Rykiel”. Her wardrobe is homage to Sonia Rykiel, as is evident in her slightly rebellious attitude to life. And now I know better who inspired her and what she stands for.

My only criticism of the exhibition is that it is all purely in French making it hard for non-French speakers to take in all the information – mmmm…are the French trying to keep their fashion secrets all to themselves?

Totally worth a visit though, in fact, it’s a must. After all, fashion is so deeply integrated into the history and culture of Paris – to understand Parisians is to first understand their language of fashion through great names such as Sonia Rykiel.

Exhibition is on until 19 April 2009