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Oscar Holland, CNN | Junko Ogura, CNN
Hanai Mori, the first Asian fashion designer to break into the exclusive world of haute couture, has passed away at the age of 96.
The Japanese designer, who was worn by celebrities from Hillary Clinton to Empress Masako, died Thursday, her office told CNN in an email. No cause of death was disclosed in the company’s statement, which was previously held with close relatives.
Born in 1926 in Shimane Prefecture, Japan, Mori opened her first Tokyo studio, Hioshiya, in 1951 and another three years later. Much of her early work was in making costumes for the film industry during what is now considered the golden age of Japanese cinema.
But her aspirations were global – even when the names of Asian designers were registered in the capitals of Western fashion. In the year During her visits to New York and Paris in the 1960s, when she met Coco Chanel, the French designer suggested she wear a particularly bright orange dress.
“It helped move the balance out of my eyes,” Morey said years later in a 1990 profile in The Washington Post. Make my dress stand out.
And she did just that, often combining Western imagery with Asian motifs, like the butterflies she later dubbed “Madame Butterfly.” Morey In 1965, she performed her first overseas show in New York.
Along with her husband and business partner, Ken, she grew her brand with Japan’s growing economy. In the year In 1973, she opened a showroom on New York’s Seventh Street and four years later on the famous Avenue Montaigne in Paris, where she counted many European fashion giants as neighbors. She also became the first Asian designer to be accepted by the prestigious Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, making her one of a select group allowed to use the term “haute couture” to describe her handmade clothes.
Over the years, her designs have appeared on major runways and been worn by stars from Grace Kelly to Princess Grace of Monaco. She has also designed costumes for major stage productions, including “Cinderella” at the Paris Opera House and, fittingly, “Madame Butterfly” at Milan’s La Scala.
Despite her international status, Mori continued to take on prestigious commissions in her home country as well. She designed a series of flight attendant uniforms for Japan Airlines, the most famous of which – a bold short polyester knit dress – was widely worn in the 1970s.
Mori dressed Japanese athletes for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. The following year, Japan’s Empress – then Crown Princess – Masako wore Mori’s custom white gown to her wedding.
Despite starting a successful perfume company, Mori’s company faced serious financial problems in the 1990s. In the year In 2002, the year she was named a corps officer of the French Legion, she sold part of her businesses and filed for bankruptcy protection, the New York Times reported. Two years later, she closed her Paris maison, effectively retiring. But she remained active in her later years, designing costumes for the opera and collaborating on several exhibitions celebrating her decades-long career.
CNN-Wire
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