Japanese fashion designer Hanae Mori, who died on August 11 at the age of 96, was the first Asian to enter the elite of Paris haute couture with a

style that blended East and West with finesse

.

Nicknamed

Madame Butterfly

because of her fetish motif, butterflies, Mori died on August 11, the Kyoto news agency said on Thursday, citing the dressmaker's office and without giving further details.

Mori's lavish handcrafted creations were worn by

Nancy Reagan

,

Grace Kelly

, and countless members of

Japanese high society including Masako

, who became Empress of Japan in 2019.

She was also a pioneer among Japanese women, one of the few to head an international corporation.

The designer used to emphasize the need to transmit to the new generations

"the importance of craft creation",

pointing out that "the capacities of the human being are disappearing in this age of information technology".

"When human beings work with their hands, their creative abilities are amplified," he told AFP in 2006.

Born on January 8, 1926 in a rural area in western Japan, Mori

studied literature at Tokyo Women's Christian University

.

But she decided to reorient herself towards fashion after marrying Ken Mori, a manager in the textile industry.

Coco Chanel reveal

At the age of 25, in a Tokyo that was reborn from the Second World War, he opened his first store in front of a cinema.

And it was lucky: coming out of a movie, a Japanese director noticed her designs and commissioned the costumes for his next film, the first of hundreds of Japanese feature films in which she would collaborate.

After these

beginnings linked to the big screen

, her career took her to New York and Paris, seeking inspiration by exploring as a client in galleries and haute couture stores.

So she

went to Coco Chanel's studio

who, after quickly studying her client from the "land of the Rising Sun", suggested a bright orange outfit to contrast with her jet black hair.

That advice perplexed her and became a revelation for Hanae Mori: "The whole Japanese concept of beauty is based on concealment (...) I suddenly realized that I had to change my approach and

make clothes that help women to stand out"

, she explained later.

His first international collection, in 1965 in New York, celebrated the "East-West Encounter", a motif that would mark his entire creation: a

mixture of the Western touch, with the traditional aesthetic codes of Japan

and motifs inspired by those of kimonos, like cherry blossoms, birds and many, many butterflies.

His definitive consecration took place in 1977 when he opened his workshop in Paris and entered the Chamber of Haute Couture of that city, the first Asian to obtain it.

Although she closed her Parisian atelier in 2004, after her last show there,

Hanae Mori stores still operate in Tokyo

and her fragrances are sold all over the world.

spread the wings

In January, he summed up his feelings about the fashion industry in a special column for the Japanese newspaper

Yomiuri Shimbun.

"

Fashion

is something that

pushes

you, gives you

the courage to spread your wings

and allows you to have adventures," she wrote.

At its height, Mori's fashion and business empire occupied an entire building in Tokyo, designed by architect Kenzo Tange, but it was later torn down and replaced with another structure in typical Japanese speed.

From

the loss of the building

to the departure of his haute couture fashion house, "it wasn't all positive," he reflected in the column.

"It was like my butterfly's wings were ripped off

. But this butterfly was able to fly around the world for 70 years because I loved making clothes."

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