Michèle Rosier

Early life and education Born Michèle Raudnitz in 1929, Michèle was the child from Hélène's first marriage to Jean-Paul Raudnitz. At age 10, Michèle was the first child to read The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a close friend of the family. She studied at the Nightingale-Bamford School in New York.

Journalism Rosier started out as a journalist for her father's daily paper, France Soir before becoming chief editor of the magazine Le Nouveau Femina that took its name from the earlier French woman's magazine Femina launched in 1901 by Pierre Lafitte and discontinued in 1954.

Fashion In the early 1960s, Rosier founded V de V (which stands for Vêtements de Vacance, or 'Vacation Wear'). She also designed for at least two other lines: dresses for Chloe D'Alby, Due to her love of plastics, she was nicknamed the "Vinyl Girl," and has been credited with introducing vinyl to Paris fashion before André Courrèges, to whom she was compared by the International Herald Tribune for her "style without nostalgia."

Rosier, herself a keen skier, produced particularly distinctive ski-wear whose streamlined design was in stark contrast to previous models. In 1966 Eugenia Sheppard proclaimed that Rosier's slimline skiwear had "defeated the old-time bulky teddy-bear look". She offered helmets with rotating green-to-clear visors (designed by Monique Dofny) and her "stainless steel" and silver suits in nylon and lurex were described as "pure James Bond,"

Rosier also designed for White Stag in the US, and Jaeger in the UK. One of her clear PVC raincoats for Young Jaeger was chosen by Ernestine Carter as part of the Dress of the Year for 1966, along with a Simone Mirman hat and a Young Jaeger black and white dress. She designed parachute jumpsuits for Raquel Welch to wear in the 1967 film Fathom. In 1988, V de V was purchased by Sergio Tacchini.

Films Since 1973, Rosier worked as a film director and screenwriter for French-language cinema. Her first two films George Who?, a biography of George Sand, and Mon coeur est rouge (My Heart is Red), which deals with a female market researcher, have been described as feminist. She then produced television documentaries before returning to films with Embrasse-moi (Kiss Me) (1989).

As producer, director & writer Mon coeur est rouge Paint my Heart Red(1976)

As director & writer George qui? a.k.a. George Who? (1973) Embrasse-moi (1989) Pullman paradis (1995) Malraux, tu m'étonnes! (2001)

Director only Ah! La libido (2009)

Television documentaries Le Futur des Femmes (1975) La Demoiselle aux Oiseaux (1976) Mimi (1979) Un Café Un! (1981) Le Gros Départ (1982) Botaniques (series of five short documentaries, 1982)