Ursula Rodel

Ursula Rodel

Designer for a culture of life

The dy­namic ca­reer of Ur­sula Rodel began in the 1970s. As a fash­ion de­signer she rev­o­lu­tionised the Swiss fash­ion world and be­longed to the avant-garde of those days. Her un­mis­tak­able style, to which she has re­mained loyal until today, is typ­i­fied by dis­tinc­tive, time­less cuts and lines which help to un­der­line fem­i­nin­ity. Rodel al­ways places the em­pha­sis on func­tion be­cause her de­signs are tai­lored to women's needs. After train­ing at the School of Art Trades and Tex­tile Pro­fes­sions and at the
Lon­don Col­lege of Fash­ion she founded the ‘Thema Se­lec­tion' Prêt-à-Porter label with Sissi Zöbeli and Katha­rina Bebié. The ac­com­pa­ny­ing bou­tique be­came a com­pre­hen­sive art work in its own right in which every­thing down to the small­est de­tail bore Ur­sula Rodel's sig­na­ture. The de­signer soon at­tracted the at­ten­tion of the in­ter­na­tional avant-garde film world. After an in­tern­ship with Tirelli Cos­tumi Roma she was re­spon­si­ble for cos­tumes in films by Claude Berri, Fed­erico Fellini and Daniel Schmid. Most re­cently, she was the make-up artist for her long-stand­ing friend Cather­ine Deneuve on the film set of ‘Dancer in the Dark' (Lars von Trier).
Ur­sula Rodel now lives and works in Zürich Kreis 4 - since 1986 as a de­signer for life cul­ture under her ‘Ur­sula Rodel Création' label. In ad­di­tion to a year as a guest lec­turer at the Uni­ver­sity of De­sign and Art in Basel, she has been ad­viser and de­signer to such pres­ti­gious com­pa­nies as Cartier, Fab­ric Front­line, Omega and Joop! Her paint­ings and il­lus­tra­tions are also well-known as a blend of fash­ion de­signs and erotic im­ages in the style of the 1950s. She sells them along with fur­ni­ture and ac­ces­sories in her stu­dio. The Fed­eral Au­thor­i­ties are ho­n­our­ing Ur­sula Rodel with her many tal­ents for her wide-rang­ing cre­ative ac­tiv­i­ties and think­ing which ex­tend far be­yond the lim­its of fash­ion de­sign and the fron­tiers of Switzer­land.