My greatest memories of childhood revolve around the dining table. It was always the centre of everything. Our house had a huge kitchen and dining room on the ground floor. The whole family would sit together, eating, drinking and chatting. It is the best time for family bonding.

Our family home was in Neuilly, a quiet suburb of Paris. The house was built in the 19th century and was made of brown bricks, with huge shuttered windows. It had four big bedrooms and there was a large garden at the back, where I used to love to run around and climb the trees like a tomboy.

I lived there with my family until my twenties, when I married. My parents were from Romania and Russia, and the house was decorated in a typical Slavic style. The floors were wooden parquet and the windows were wide, with simple linen drapes.

My father was a watchmaker and my mother spent her time looking after us girls - me and my four sisters, Dan-ielle, Murielle, Janine and Françoise.

We didn’t have a lot of precious antiques or paintings, but the house was full of books and we had an old baby-grand piano that my mother persisted in trying to teach us to play.

There was a wonderful atmosphere in our house – it was full of women – and my mother and sisters all vied for my father’s attention, but it was always my mother everyone doted on. She was the centre of everything.

My bedroom was on the ground floor, and the window looked out onto the garden. I shared it with one of my younger sisters. Being the eldest, I felt I had the right to be a bit bossy: I was forever telling them what to do. The room was always terribly untidy, though. We had two single beds and the floor in between was strewn with books and chocolate.

Neuilly was where I developed my love of reading: my parents had so many books everywhere. I remember the rows upon rows of bookshelves as soon as you came through the door. I would be reading two or three books at once, something I still do now. I tend to sit down with a book – Balzac and Baudelaire, as well as more contemporary writers – every morning for two hours before I go to my studio.

Most of the rooms in our house were painted red and white. My mother loved red, but she said that it was terrifying when I was born with my red hair – I looked like I was bleeding. Yet having red hair has been an integral part of my character.

As a child, I wasn’t at all interested in fashion. I was interested only in reading and chocolate. I got into fashion purely by coincidence. My husband had a clothing shop. When I couldn’t find a good sweater for myself, I asked the factory he worked with if they could make one that I designed. When it was delivered to his store, the customers loved it, and a journalist from Elle magazine saw it too. The next thing I knew, the sweater was on the cover of the magazine. I became the queen of knitwear without knowing anything about knitting or fashion.

Now I tend to wear black every day. I wear the same uniform of clothes, and my flat is painted throughout in black. I find it an intelligent colour, the colour of philosophers, writers and artists.

My parents were proud of me, and encouraged me in everything I did, but they raised me in another type of world, far removed from catwalks and fashion shows. At home, we talked only about literature, culture and art. Fashion was not something deemed serious enough to be discussed. It was a superficial thing.

The thing I loved most about living in the house in Neuilly was being with my family. The atmosphere between us was special. My home is quite different now – it is a top-floor flat with a large balcony. There is one large sitting room and the other small rooms lead from it. I designed my home myself – with the help of an architect – as well as the furniture and the lighting.

There are rooms for my two children there [now aged 45 and 51] if they should want them. I have a huge dining table – no doubt that was something I inherited from my mother’s style. I have a lot of special artworks, portraits by Andy Warhol and sketches by Karl Lagerfeld and Christian Lacroix.

I have lived in Paris all my life. I love it. It is what inspires me – the food, the people, the theatre, the museums, the architecture. So many of my favourite places are here. I’m never tired of Paris.

www.soniarykiel.fr

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