Queen of knitwear gives women freedom of movement / "解放女性行動自由!" 針織女王引領潮流　　　　　　　　　　

French fashion designer Sonia Rykiel, known for her brightly coloured striped sweater dresses and was dubbed the "queen of knitwear" , passed away last month at 86. Paying tribute, fellow French fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier called her work 'revolutionary'. Let's take a look back at her story. Born in 1930, Rykiel was one of the first designers to create tightly fitting sweater dresses that revealed women's body contours. Early adopters of her style included actress Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve and Audrey Hepburn. Rykiel got her start in fashion by designing knit maternity dresses for herself, and opened her first women's ready-to-wear shop on the Left Bank in 1968, with the aim of creating a counter-culture to stiff, bourgeois dress codes with inside-out stitches and extra-short skirts. At that time, France was rocked by violent student riots. Her empire grew to include menswear and children's lines as well as accessories and perfumes. Rykiel's daughter Nathalie has long helped manage the fashion house. ==KATY PERRY, US Recording Artist== Oh my gosh, she's one of my favourites - besides Castelbajac, Sonia Rykiel is the one I want to go and see. (Reporter: '' And are you wearing Rykiel tonight ?") Katy Perry: "Of course, as it should be." In 1995, she passed on her company's creative and management leadership to her daughter Nathalie, just around the time she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. The business was among France's last major family-owned labels until it was sold to a Hong Kong investment fund in 2012. That year, Rykiel wrote about her life and her illness in a book called "Don't forget that I am acting." ==SONIA RYKIEL, French Fashion Designer (2012)== I have the impression of having advanced and of being at this moment at the crossroads of two paths. There is something happening in fashion and it's difficult, but at the same time it's exciting to see what will happen in the future. In a statement, French President Francois Hollande paid tribute to Rykiel as a 'pioneer' and said "She had invented not only a style but an attitude, a way of life and gave women freedom of movement." TRANSLATED BY：JESSICA OY