Julie de Libran is the quietly talented Frenchwoman whose appointment as creative director of Sonia Rykiel, that most Parisian of French fashion houses, has been the greatest homecoming of her career. We sit down with Julie to find out about the journey that has led her full circle.
By Natalie Trevis
Gianfranco, Miuccia, Gianni, Donatella and Marc. Recently appointed creative director of Sonia Rykiel, Julie de Libran, has worked with some of the greatest fashion talents of all time. Little wonder then that she announced her arrival at Sonia Rykiel in true style, presenting a bohemian carnival of a show for spring/summer 15 in the form of a joyful collection that remained true to the house (the Seventies revival could not have come at a better time for Julie’s vision) but with an added injection of youth and modernity. The louche jumpsuits, precise knits and sheer ruffled dresses looked like exactly the sort of gamine-spirited clothes that ingénues Kendall, Gigi, Edie and the Jagger sisters, who led the charge on the runway, would wear in real life. Loving the house as she does, it makes sense when Julie tells us that her energetic debut collection ‘with all the great models’, ranks as one of her most precious fashion memories.
Success was destined to come Julie’s way, less by luck than hard work, talent and an unsurpassed grounding, including serving as design director for Prada alongside Miuccia and then creative and studio director for womenswear at Louis Vuitton under Marc Jacob’s helm. We ask Julie about a career highlight so far. ‘Working with the best where I've learned so much,’ she replies, ‘they were all very good schools.’
Born in Aix-en-Provence and later spending some of her childhood years in California before moving to Milan and Paris to study fashion, Julie couldn’t deny her destiny as a designer. ‘I was designing and making clothes at an early age but only at eighteen years old did I know I could go to a fashion school and learn to become one.’ And she hasn’t looked back since. Until now, a behind-the-scenes talent, not yet a household name, Julie has been an understated influencer in fashion since the Nineties, with a Parisian aesthetic emerging in luxe detailing yet simplicity of form. As an admirer of Sonia Rykiel since childhood, it is fitting that she now takes the throne; there could be no one more respectful of the label’s heritage. Julie acknowledged as much in the heartfelt handwritten note on every seat at the show. ‘Like many French women who were born in the 1970s, I have happy childhood memories of my mother wearing Sonia Rykiel…arriving here has felt curiously like a homecoming.’
Rather than turning away from the recognisable codes of the brand Julie has turned towards them, eschewing the temptation to offer a more complex, reimagined version of the house which might alienate its loyal following. ‘I decided to take stripes, that are timeless and make you happy, to all its levels, weaving in tweed, jacquards, trompe l'oeil, intarsia, sequins, ribbons, fringe,’ she tells us. Sonia Rykiel would undoubtedly approve, herself once having annotated an illustration with the words, ‘La beauté sera toujours rayée’. Beauty will always be striped.
That Julie’s designs appeal to real women is a recurring motif. She works in cashmere, silk and cotton, providing tactile comfort (something that is too often sacrificed) alongside crisp design. The sky is the limit for Julie de Libran in a prescient role that was always meant to be hers. ‘I want Sonia Rykiel to be a whole universe between the Home collection, children and Sonia By. Then I would love to create a perfume,’ she notes confidently. Her description of the Sonia Rykiel woman as ‘feminine, sensual and individual’ is manifested throughout the collection. ‘I want them to say it’s desirable’ she emphasises. ‘I would like women to find a wardrobe at Sonia Rykiel, desirable pieces, surprises.’
