• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.873-882
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• 2010

Knitwear has become a part of fashion since aristocratic trend-setters of Medieval Spain and France began wearing luxurious silk stockings. However, in more recent times knitwear emerged as a fashion item in the early 20th century when jersey two-piece Channel dresses became popular amongst the French upper classes. Knitwear then evolved into genuine going out clothes through Sonia Rykiel in the 1970s. Sonia Rykiel has made a great contribution to developing knitwear, which she transformed from being used only in informal dresses or clothes for home wear, to a boarder in use in high-quality dresses such as those worn at parties. Unlike most designers who tend to make very different styles each year, she has restricted her clothes to those made with knitwear. The study examined the designs and formative characteristics of her knitwear in order to clarify why Sonia Rykiel's knitwear fashion is apparently so timeless. Results showed that her garments consistently used black oriented color combination, strife patterns, intarsia techniques and application of diversified subordinate materials and other materials that overcome earlier limitations of knitwear. In addition, her designs consistently express the typically Parisian sophisticated urban femininity through practicality, sensuality and playfulness. Overall, her fashion has shown that it exists for women in action through practical design within the scope of demode, the philosophy in her early days, and it has led her to hold great power over knitwear fashion for the past 40 years.