Sonia Rykiel fall/winter 2010 collection

Who: SONIA RYKIEL

Where: 55 Boulevard Vincent Auriol.

Front Row: Stephen Baldwin and Beth Ditto — the pop star was mobbed by photographers. She even cried “Help me” to her friend!

Vibe: Queen of knitwear Sonia Rykiel sent out a collection that was the embodiment of joie de vivre for fall. Luxurious knit and fur confections in vanilla, caramel, and crème brûlée hues that looked good enough to eat were donned by smiling, skipping, high-fiving models wearing huge pom-poms on their heads — too cute. Though Rykiel’s models take to the catwalk with the same coquettish flair each season, the act doesn’t tire — after all, models looking glum in riotously glamorous attire never makes much sense, so why shouldn’t they be grinning? Following the initial palette of muted tones, fun multicolored striped knit dresses and leggings stepped out, as did form-fitting and slouchy sweater dresses, chunky cardigans, and delicate collared silk shifts in royal blue, peach, charcoal, and black. The collection revolved around the covetable knitwear Rykiel is famed for and, changing it up a little, included some gorgeous Mongolian fur pieces that wowed the crowd.

Biggest Hit: The incredible Mongolian fur coats and puff-ball dresses that closed the show to Nirvana’s “Come as You Are” — Nathalie Rykiel dancing with the models for the uplifting finale.

Toughest Sell: The oversize men’s suits — just a little too large and bulky. The opening look swallowed up the model, and a red-and-black ’40s-inspired number was too comical.

From the Designer’s Mouth: “I knew nothing of fashion when I started in this industry. I designed clothing in my own way … that’s why I started putting stitches inside out and upside down, and stopped doing hems. When people questioned how I made clothes, I said, ‘This is my way.’ It was not the right way to make fashion, but I was experimenting and doing things the way I thought was interesting and nice. I liked to make dresses without hems, to put words and phrases on my sweaters like “champion’, and ‘black is beauty.’ I got into fashion by pure chance — I made a sweater in the ’60s because I couldn’t find any I liked. It was a small, fitted, schoolboy-style sweater — somehow it made the cover of Vogue. After that I became the queen of knitwear around the world. I didn’t understand why people liked that sweater so much; I just made it because I felt clothing was always too big for me and I wanted to make clothing that fit me well.”