Sonia Rykiel Gives Us Flashbacks

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Although we almost completely forgot about it, the Sonia Rykiel pour H&M collection arrived in stores on Saturday with a little fanfare and nowhere near the amount of insanity of the Jimmy Choo collection. Although, probably nothing will top that, unless H&M collabs with Marc Jacobs or something.

Anyway, we stopped by the Westfield Century City mall to see what we could see, and all we saw was a small display right by the door with lots of signage and French icons, but not a lot of actual, you know, merchandise. Granted, we didn't get there until mid-afternoon, so some things could have easily sold out, but there didn't really seem to be too much room on the racks for tons of sold-out clothes to be missing from.

What we did find was a lot of cheaply made knitwear and shiny plastic accessories. The knits in the collection were thick, but very loose and very stretchy, so that when you put something on, it stretched to the point of being see-through. Which we don't think was the original intention. The $40 rhinestone-studded sweaters looked like they came out of a 1980's bargain basement, the $60 plastic wedge shoes looked like something we played dress up with as a child, and the $50 pink tiered dress and $70 drawstring-waist jumpsuit just scared us.

We did like the $25 knit ruffled leggings, the $25 decorated mini-bags, the $4 tote bags and the $6 - $10 fun, colorful bangles. And the striped scarves. Those were awesome.

Overall, the collection looks like what American elementary school kids wore in the 80's. To be fair, though, the Century City location didn't seem to carry the entire line, so maybe there are a few redeeming pieces out there at other locations.
· Sonia Rykiel pour H&M [Official Site]
· Closer Look and More Deets on Pricing for Sonia Rykiel pour H&M [previously]