The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 1968–2019
Sonia Rykiel made the 'Poor Boy Sweater' famous — by 2019 the brand was gone
Sonia Rykiel built a $75M fashion house from one sweater. Family infighting and wrong owners ended in 2019 liquidation; the brand sold for €10M.
Sonia Rykiel · First Heritage Brands · G-III Apparel Group · 2019-10
What happened
Sonia Rykiel launched her label in 1968 with the 'Poor Boy Sweater' — a tight-fitting striped knit that became one of the defining fashion items of the 1960s. She opened her first boutique on Paris's Left Bank the same year and quickly became known as the 'Queen of Knits'. By the early 1990s, the company reached $75 million in revenue, with womenswear, menswear, childrenswear, accessories, and perfume sold through 250 retailers in 40 countries.
The 2000s brought succession problems. Nathalie Rykiel took over as president in 2007, but the transition was not smooth. In 2012, Hong Kong's First Heritage Brands (Fung Brands) acquired 80% of the company. The investment did not stabilise the brand. Nathalie Rykiel sold the family's remaining 20% stake in 2016, and the new owners closed the Sonia by Sonia Rykiel diffusion line and laid off workers. The label that had once been a pillar of Parisian fashion was being dismantled.
By mid-2019, the situation was terminal. A Paris commercial court rejected the only remaining bidder and ordered the brand's liquidation. The rights to the Sonia Rykiel name were sold later that year for a reported €10 million to brothers Eric and Michael Dayan. In 2021, G-III Apparel Group acquired the brand. The company that had defined French knitwear for 50 years was now a licensing asset owned by an American clothing manufacturer.
Why it happened
- Sonia Rykiel was the brand — when she stepped back, there was no creative or business heir to sustain the house, and the succession plan relied on her daughter who could not keep the business stable.
- The 2012 sale to First Heritage Brands brought capital but no fashion strategy — the investment firm did not understand how to run a Paris fashion house, and the relationship soured.
- Closing the Sonia by Sonia Rykiel diffusion line in 2016 removed the brand's accessible entry point — what remained was a high-end label with no bridge to younger customers and no volume to fund it.
- By 2019 the brand had been through two owners in seven years, each extracting value rather than investing in it — a family label cannot survive being treated as an asset to be stripped.
The lesson
A brand that is the founder is at risk when the founder leaves. Sonia Rykiel was the 'Queen of Knits' but the crown did not pass — it was sold to investors who did not know what to do with it.
Aftermath
Sonia Rykiel as a fashion label no longer exists in the form its founder built. The brand was acquired by G-III Apparel Group in 2021, an American company best known for producing licensed clothing for other brands. The company employs the Sonia Rykiel name as a licensing property, producing collections that are distributed through department stores rather than through the Left Bank boutique that started it all. The brand that dressed Françoise Hardy and defined 1960s Parisian style is now a trademark owned by a New York-based manufacturer.
Sources
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