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Remembering Hanae Mori, Japan’s pioneering fashion designer who died at age 96: she founded the first Asian haute couture brand, dressed Grace Kelly and was a businesswoman in a ‘gentlemen’s country’
STORYAgence France-Presse

- While Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto and Comme Des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo are ‘passionately avant-garde’, Mori loved tradition ... but Coco Chanel inspired her to stand out
- She started out in cinema, creating film costumes, but soon her fashion empire spread from Tokyo to New York and Paris, with public figures such as Nancy Reagan donning her clothes
Over the decades, Hanae Mori’s luxurious creations were worn by Nancy Reagan, Grace Kelly and countless members of high society.
But she was also a pioneer for Japanese women – one of a tiny number to head an international corporation.
An employee at Mori’s office said on Thursday, August 18, that she died at home “of old age” on August 11, and that a private funeral had taken place. She was 96.
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The designer’s trailblazing career took her from Tokyo, where she started out making costumes for cinema, to New York and Paris – and in 1977 her label became the first Asian fashion house to join the rarefied ranks of haute couture.

The exclusive French club sets exacting standards for their hand-crafted – and extremely expensive – garments.
“When humans work with their hands, their creativity expands,” Mori told AFP during a 2006 retrospective in Tokyo, where a robot modelled a replica of her classic Chrysanthemum Pyjamas, a kimono-like robe made from hot pink chiffon and silk.

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