Colette Colette Colette (; Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954) was a French mime, actress, journalist and novelist, nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. Colette was widely known for her 1944 novella "Gigi" (1944), which subsequently was the basis for the film and Lerner and Loewe stage production of the same name. The writer was the subject of numerous biographies, songs, and films, including 2018's "Colette". Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette was born on January 28, 1873, to war hero and tax collector Jules-Joseph Colette and his wife Adèle Eugénie Sidonie ("Sido"), "née" Landoy, in the village of
Gabrielle Duchêne Gabrielle Duchêne Gabrielle Duchêne (26 February 1870 – 3 August 1954) was a French feminist and pacifist who was active in the French section of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). Gabrielle Duchêne was born into a bourgeois family in Paris on 26 February 1870. Although she became a socialist, she was a wealthy woman. She became interested in politics with the Dreyfus affair, and then became involved in philanthropic work. In 1908 she co-founded "Entr’aide" (Mutual Aid), a cooperative for the makers of lingerie and fashion items. In the following years she fought against exploitation of