Less than three years after leaving Showroomprivé, the Dayan brothers speak with L'OFFICIEL about their new project: the revival of Sonia Rykiel. 

Digital entrepreneurs and brothers Eric and Michael Dayan are on their next adventure: <a href="https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/sonia-rykiel-owners-to-start-with-social-media-eric-michael-dayan-1203628332/">reviving Sonia Rykiel</a>. The duo, who previously co-managed <a href="https://www.showroomprive.com/">Showroompriv&eacute;</a>, a French e-commerce site, are using their complementary skils (Eric with the wholesale&nbsp;knowledge, and Michael with his product development expertise) to return a long-standing French brand to its former glory. However, before they do that, the Dayan brothers, as expected,&nbsp;prefer to clarify immediately that&nbsp;this is not a&nbsp;buyout operation.&nbsp;&ldquo;We did not buy a brand, we bought a story,&quot; they tell L&#39;OFFICIEL.

&quot;We have a little pressure, as if we had inherited a story and we had to make it continue with modernity,&quot; says the Paris natives. But&nbsp;who better than brothers to take over a family home like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/30/style/sonia-rykiel-bankruptcy-what-happened.html">Sonia Rykiel</a>? After leaving Showroompriv&eacute; in 2018, of which they remain shareholders and members of the board of directors, they were able to travel, spend time with their families, and invest in promising start-ups and real estate. Nevertheless, the taste for challenge quickly called them to order.

In July 2019, to everyone&#39;s surprise, the press announced&nbsp;the compulsory <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/30/style/sonia-rykiel-bankruptcy-what-happened.html">liquidation of Sonia Rykiel</a>. &ldquo;We discovered that at the same time as everyone else,&rdquo; remembers Michael. &ldquo;At the time, it didn&#39;t even cross our minds to take over the brand, as it was obvious that a large group would take care of it,&rdquo; continues Eric. However, one Thursday evening in the fall of the same year,&nbsp;they imagined&nbsp;themselves taking on the job. The Sonia Rykiel case was going&nbsp;to the commercial court on the coming&nbsp;Monday morning. By Friday, a team was formed. They had a weekend to prepare their takeover offer, and&nbsp;the planets seemed more than aligned. The offer was placed on the judge&#39;s table 15 minutes&nbsp;before the hearing, the last in a stack of 21 serious cases. The&nbsp;bidding session took place live in a packed court. The rest is history.

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With Showroompriv&eacute;, they already had&nbsp;a foothold in fashion. &ldquo;We worked with more than 2,000 brands, which allowed us to familiarize ourselves with this issue of image, distribution, and digital strategy,&rdquo; explains Eric. Now, on the other side of the industry, they have both discovered the very different world of creation, including&nbsp;a new vocabulary,&nbsp;in the luxury market.

Looking at the former store, the recent transition is more than obvious to the&nbsp;naked eye: a panel in the colors of the house and a few prototypes&nbsp;dress mannequins. Here, there&#39;s no star artistic director, but rather a studio composed of internal talent and artisans who were already working with Rykiel before she sold the brand to the Chinese group Ling Fung. For certain pieces that clearly lack brand identity, the brothers plan to call on fashion school students to rethink them. &ldquo;Ultimately, why not appoint a conductor, who would serve the brand, but we don&#39;t need to stick a label next to Sonia Rykiel.&rdquo;

The buyout includes 50 years of documentary and clothing archives, a stock of tens of thousands of pieces, more than 400 intellectual property titles, the more casual <a href="https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/designer/sonia-by-sonia-rykiel">Sonia by Sonia Rykiel&nbsp;line</a>, as well as&nbsp;the protection of the brand, various clothing lines in several countries, and license contracts (perfume, sunglasses, household lines, children, etc.). The only thing missing is the brick-and-mortar shop. As a part of their recovery strategy, the Dayan brothers felt&nbsp;it would have been indecent to take over, for example, the 2,000 square meters of the Saint-Germain-des-Pr&eacute;s store.&nbsp;

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The revival of the brand&nbsp;began with the reopening of their social networks in early May. On the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/soniarykiel/">Sonia Rykiel&nbsp;Instagram</a> this summer,&nbsp;the comments section showcased people&#39;s excitement for this new era. &ldquo;The more [anticipation], the better,&quot; the siblings reply, &quot;it allows us to recreate desirability.&quot; Yet,&nbsp;without an online shop, the relaunch was at a standstill. Thus, a new <a href="https://www.soniarykiel.com/en">website</a> was born at the end of October&nbsp;in the form of an e-boutique bringing together some iconic and sacred pieces from the Sonia Rykiel archives. The change of ownership is obvious, so rather than erase the past, the Dayan brothers are letting archives come to life. Stripes, mesh, rhinestones, velvet, visible seams&mdash;the strongest looks are there. Nevertheless, despite&nbsp;being&nbsp;delayed by months due to COVID-19, the first collection under the Dayan brothers&nbsp;will finally see the light of day in February 2021.

While there was no question of whether or not to enter&nbsp;the frantic <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/categories/fashion-week">fashion calendar</a>, this is a&nbsp;time when some of the greatest have chosen to leave it. According to the Dayans, a&nbsp;successful launch&nbsp;will, above all, be a question of recycling key parts, engaging a responsible approach, and staying&nbsp;in tune with the times. The brand&#39;s values such as femininity, elegance, joie de vivre, and even independence will continue to be upheld. Prices, which had taken off slightly under former artistic director&nbsp;<a href="https://www.juliedelibran.com/about">Julie de Libran</a>, will drop to align with the younger target demographic. &ldquo;Sonia Rykiel has never been a brand of followers,&rdquo; recalls the duo, opening the designer&#39;s old sketchbooks. &ldquo;On the contrary, we have to be avant-garde.&quot;

As they dive into the archives of the house,&nbsp;little signs and coincidences&nbsp;prove that this project was intended for them. On the Paris stock exchange, the code name of Showroompriv&eacute; is none other than SRP, the same initials as Sonia Rykiel Paris. Their father, who passed on the entrepreneurial fiber to them, is named Sam, the same as Rykiel&#39;s husband&nbsp;who encouraged her to get started in fashion design. By chance, they also came&nbsp;across an old drawing&nbsp;which says,&nbsp;&quot;Good luck L&#39;OFFICIEL,&quot; as well as a chocolate mousse recipe. The brother conclude,&nbsp;&quot;The brand has a very strong sympathy capital, a certain authenticity, and a capacity to bring [people] together.&quot;

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The Owners of the New Sonia Rykiel “Did Not Buy a Brand, but a Story"

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