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PARIS — A little more than a month ago, Sonia Rykiel, she of the pyramid of red hair and the famous “poor boy” sweaters, died from complications of Parkinson’s disease. She had been a trailblazer in her own cast, who stocked her shops with literature as well as striped knitwear; who designed for women’s real lives, not just for their fantasy lives. Her clothes favored function: They reversed to become new outfits and came with straps to be carried if not worn. “They are clothes for everyday life,” she said in 1987.

Ms. Rykiel retired several years ago, after a 40th anniversary year capped by a show where fellow designers paid tribute to her work. Her legacy seems to be in good hands: Her daughter, Nathalie, and a granddaughter, Lola, are still connected with the house, and the design duties are being handled by Julie de Libran, a former Louis Vuitton lieutenant who took over in 2014. But in this, the first season since Ms. Rykiel’s death, her absence will surely be keenly felt. In the days before the house’s new collection was to be presented on Monday, a few figures from fashion recalled the Rykiel — the woman and the label — that they knew.

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, model and former French first lady

“Most of all, I remember her. She was a very special lady. She was very funny, very gentle and very kind with the models. I remember having lovely afternoons at Sonia’s, trying on the clothes. The shows were like a girlie moment — there was nothing sacred about it. She liked a woman that would move, she liked a woman that would work, she liked a woman that would take care of her kids. She was a very modern woman. She was one of the first designers that would give freedom to the woman — with the stretchy sweaters, you could do anything. You could go to a cocktail party with the same outfit, just by putting on earrings or some other pair of shoes.”

Carine Roitfeld, founder of CR Fashion Book

“Years ago, I did some advertising campaigns for her with Mario Testino. It was at the same time we were working for Gucci, so more than 15 years ago. When you spend some years working with her, she was more crazy than anyone else — I mean crazy in the good way! More fun, more spirited. She was great, Sonia; she was a genius person, very charismatic. And I know Lola in New York — she may be the next spirit of the family.”

Virginie Mouzat, fashion editor in chief, Vanity Fair France

“She was one of the rare fashion designers with whom you could have a talk about literature. She was an avid reader, a writer and also a lover of publishing. It’s very St.-Germain-des-Prés, very Rive Gauche. I love the way she literally weaved together words and fashion, ideas and fashion — the two things together made the whole thing, and the woman, the founder, unique. She was doing this while being extremely feminine at the same time. From the outside, you could think that it doesn’t go together, but it went together, intimately. It made this woman even more sexy — even though sexy doesn’t naturally match with her. It’s more complicated than that. It was all about seduction: intellectual seduction and also physical seduction. A magic combination.”

Laura Brown, editor in chief of InStyle

“When I was 14 years old, in 1988, Australia celebrated its bicentennial. There was a big group fashion show at the Sydney Opera House — it had the Missonis, it had Claude Montana, it had Rykiel. I watched it on television, and it was one of the first immersive fashion experiences I had. I was watching it, and I thought: ‘Wow. This is the most glamorous thing I’ve ever seen.’ I felt like I was fed by it. The world of fashion had come to where I am but it was still a world away. Honestly, whenever I think of my first fashion vision and when I knew I really wanted to do it, it goes hand in hand with Sonia Rykiel. I cannot divorce my desire to be in fashion from Sonia Rykiel.”

Sarah Andelman, creative director at Colette

“Hers were always the shows where, at the end, the models loved it, they laughed, they would run — it’s full of life. It’s so Parisian. I remember the big show in the park with a few designers giving their interpretation of Sonia Rykiel. This was very, very moving. Someone did a dress like her hair — I’m not sure if it was Castelbajac or Jeremy Scott? — a full red-hair dress. It was incredible.”