Sonia Rykiel's opens her second store in Paris - embrace the spirit

Sonia Rykiel has been around for quite a long time. Nevertheless, she continues to evoke the same apprehension for her red-hair as she does with fashion.

Rykiel, 77, who recently gained total control over "her" label, has opened an elegant store in charming Paris. Just a few footsteps aways from Louis Vuitton's enormous store, she placed a boutique that depicts a certain dainty refinement that her garments lack of. The vibrant colors that most of her designs carry are nowhere to bee seen - luckily.

Rykiel's garments are like poison. They trick your eye, and convince you they are something they are not. These luring pieces, once fooled me- and that's why I'm so angry with Sonia Rykiel. It was about early February and I was at her shop-in-shop in Galleries Lafayette; I remember I was looking for a new cardigan, so I saw this really nice one at one of her racks. I picked it up, tried it on, and I liked it. I went to the cashier paid for it - around $350 - and left satisfied. When I got to my home country, I took a second glance at it I saw that it was nothing more than a cardigan, a simple cardigan. I had not only paid a vast amount of money for a worthless piece, but I had purchased an item made of a poor fabric somewhere in Asia. Funk. I know it's my fault, I'm a lousy shopper, but I need to be angry with somebody else than myself; and that is her.