FASHION Magazine

Paris’s longtime queen of knitwear Sonia Rykiel revealed today that she has been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for the past 15 years. The reveal comes direct from Rykiel’s just-released-in-France book N’Oubliez Pas Que Je Joue (translation: Don’t Forget It’s a Game) co-authored by French journalist Judith Perrignon. Rykiel had decided to speak out because she could no longer mask the symptoms of the degenerative disorder.

In the book, Rykiel assigns the code ”P de P” (“Putain de Parkinson” or “bitch of Parkinson’s” in English) to the disease, amidst frank writing about living with it. She reveals that for years, her colleagues at her fashion house (which her daughter Nathalie took helm of in 1995) helped keep the secret by attempting to prevent photographs from being taken of her using her walking cane. “I don’t want to show my pain. I resisted, I hesitated, I tried to be invisible, to pretend that nothing was wrong. It’s impossible; it’s not like me,” she writes.

Whether it was done to hide her pain or an attempt to protect her resilient image, the sad secret couldn’t have been easy to keep. We applaud Rykiel’s bravery and hope her story will help raise awareness to the importance of finding a cure to make Parkinson’s a thing of the past.

Nathalie Rykiel explained the reason for the Sonia Rykiel collab with H&M: they copied her! In an interview, the creative director revealed that she told the chain that if they wanted “[their] girls to wear Sonia Rykiel from H&M, let’s let them have the real thing!” [Nylon via Fashionologie]

Valentino partner Giancarlo Giammetti has learned just how far Facebook networking stretches, especially when it involves negative press. After watching the Valentino spring 2010 show in Paris, Giammetti took to his FB page and changed his status to read “not sad … just surprised. … We have always supported the new designers and we love them, but this time we have to distance ourselves from this ridiculous circus.” After a flood of comments, Giammetti deleted his status, “…because it was becoming [too] heavy.” [The Cut]

Do the shoes on the left look familiar? An intrepid commenter on Fashionista has uncovered the secret source of Alexander McQueen’s alien footwear—a video for ’70s rock band The Tubes’ “White Punks on Dope.” [Fashionista]

André Leon Talley smack talks Golden Globes style: “When you start watching red-carpet shows at 6:00 p.m. and don’t see a stunning dress until 9:00 p.m. — Julianna Margulies’s ruby paillette crepe robe de style with cutouts, by Narciso Rodriguez — it’s sad what passes for style in Hollywood.” [Vogue, via The Cut]