- Author
- Karen Van Godtsenhoven (UGent)
- Organization
- Project
- Abstract
- Through the central concept of movement, interpreted in three different ways, this article delves into the life and work of French fashion designer and author Sonia Rykiel, who treated fashion design as a form of transmedial écriture. Rykiel’s unruly and innovative concept of the ‘démode’ was launched in the context of a generational and relational movement of resistance against authority, liberating women from the changing diktats of the fashion industry (breaking out of generational hierarchies and frameworks of fashionable time). Secondly, it was an embodied and feminist movement, a democratization of fashion enabling the physical mobility of women who wore her skirts with undone hems, as well as reversible, adaptable jersey sweaters with exterior seams, central components of the démode concept. The démode also allows for a contextualization of Rykiel’s work with regards to the notions of écriture féminine and female pleasure as expressed by French feminists of her day, including Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray and Antoinette Fouque of the MLF (Mouvement de la Libération des Femmes). As such it is a breaking free of patriarchal structures, including garment construction, as well as breaking free of the masculinist ’68 revolution. Finally, the movement between different media, from garments to writing and “written garments” (transmediality) is analyzed as an artistic statement, expressing a desire to be both naked/ blank page as well as to write and to dress oneself.
- Keywords
- fashion, démode, movement, feminism, Sonia Rykiel, transmediality
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Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-01J0K5J3HA597BH9WBRF3END6X
- MLA
- Van Godtsenhoven, Karen. “Of Women Who Move Forward : Sonia Rykiel’s ‘Démode.’” ELEPHANT AND CASTLE, edited by Fabio Cleto et al., no. 32, 2024, pp. 59–71, doi:10.62336/unibg.eac.32.521.
- APA
- Van Godtsenhoven, K. (2024). Of women who move forward : Sonia Rykiel’s “démode.” ELEPHANT AND CASTLE, (32), 59–71. https://doi.org/10.62336/unibg.eac.32.521
- Chicago author-date
- Van Godtsenhoven, Karen. 2024. “Of Women Who Move Forward : Sonia Rykiel’s ‘Démode.’” Edited by Fabio Cleto, Stefania Consonni, Carmen Sancho Guinda, and Karen Van Godtsenhoven. ELEPHANT AND CASTLE, no. 32: 59–71. https://doi.org/10.62336/unibg.eac.32.521.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Van Godtsenhoven, Karen. 2024. “Of Women Who Move Forward : Sonia Rykiel’s ‘Démode.’” Ed by. Fabio Cleto, Stefania Consonni, Carmen Sancho Guinda, and Karen Van Godtsenhoven. ELEPHANT AND CASTLE (32): 59–71. doi:10.62336/unibg.eac.32.521.
- Vancouver
- 1.Van Godtsenhoven K. Of women who move forward : Sonia Rykiel’s “démode.” Cleto F, Consonni S, Sancho Guinda C, Van Godtsenhoven K, editors. ELEPHANT AND CASTLE. 2024;(32):59–71.
- IEEE
- [1]K. Van Godtsenhoven, “Of women who move forward : Sonia Rykiel’s ‘démode,’” ELEPHANT AND CASTLE, no. 32, pp. 59–71, 2024.
@article{01J0K5J3HA597BH9WBRF3END6X,
abstract = {{Through the central concept of movement, interpreted in three different ways, this article delves into the life and work of French fashion designer and author Sonia Rykiel, who treated fashion design as a form of transmedial écriture. Rykiel’s unruly and innovative concept of the ‘démode’ was launched in the context of a generational and relational movement of resistance against authority, liberating women from the changing diktats of the fashion industry (breaking out of generational hierarchies and frameworks of fashionable time). Secondly, it was an embodied and feminist movement, a democratization of fashion enabling the physical mobility of women who wore her skirts with undone hems, as well as reversible, adaptable jersey sweaters with exterior seams, central components of the démode concept. The démode also allows for a contextualization of Rykiel’s work with regards to the notions of écriture féminine and female pleasure as expressed by French feminists of her day, including Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray and Antoinette Fouque of the MLF (Mouvement de la Libération des Femmes). As such it is a breaking free of patriarchal structures, including garment construction, as well as breaking free of the masculinist ’68 revolution. Finally, the movement between different media, from garments to writing and “written garments” (transmediality) is analyzed as an artistic statement, expressing a desire to be both naked/ blank page as well as to write and to dress oneself.}},
author = {{Van Godtsenhoven, Karen}},
editor = {{Cleto, Fabio and Consonni, Stefania and Sancho Guinda, Carmen and Van Godtsenhoven, Karen}},
issn = {{1826-6118}},
journal = {{ELEPHANT AND CASTLE}},
keywords = {{fashion,démode,movement,feminism,Sonia Rykiel,transmediality}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{32}},
pages = {{59--71}},
title = {{Of women who move forward : Sonia Rykiel’s ‘démode’}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.62336/unibg.eac.32.521}},
year = {{2024}},
}
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