Hanae Mori (Japanese: 森 英恵, Hepburn: Mori Hanae, /həˌnɑːeɪˈmɔːri/, 8 January 1926 – 11 August 2022) was a Japanese fashion designer. She was one of only two Japanese women to have presented her collections on the runways of Paris and New York, and the first Asian woman to be admitted as an official haute couture design house by the Fédération française de la couture in France.[1][2] Her fashion house, opened in Japan in 1951, grew to become a $500 million international business by the 1990s.[3]
Career
Mori was born on 8 January 1926[4] in Muikaichi, Shimane.[5] After graduating from Tokyo Women's Christian University, she married and attended dress-making school.[5] She opened her first atelier, Hiyoshiya, in 1951,[6][7] and over the next several years designed costumes for hundreds of movies.[8] In 1965, she presented her first New York City collection, "East Meets West." Twelve years later, she opened an haute couture showroom in Paris, leading to her 1977 appointment as a member of the Chambre syndicale de la couture parisienne.[9]
Amidst company financial struggles, Mori sold the ready-to-wear and licensed apparel operations in January 2002 to an investment group formed by Japanese trading company Mitsui & Co. and the Rothschild group in Britain.[16][17] Opting for fast-track corporate rehabilitation, the company then applied to the Tokyo District Court for protection from its creditors on 30 May 2002, as it had ¥10,100,000,000 (US$81,000,000) in liabilities.[18][19]
Mori announced her retirement in June 2004, stating that she would be closing her fashion house after the Haute Couture Show for Fall 2004 in Paris.[16] She held her last fashion show in July of that year.[20]
In 1946, Mori met Ken Mori (1912–1996), a textile businessman who she later married.[23][24]: 20 Ken died on 16 October 1996 of a heart attack.[24]: 24 [6] Mori had two sons with Ken named Akira and Kei. Both children help run Mori's business.[6]
Mori died at her home in Tokyo on 11 August 2022, at the age of 96. No cause of death has been revealed.[4][25]
^Holland, Oscar; Ogura, Junko (18 August 2022). "Hanae Mori, pioneering Japanese fashion designer, dies aged 96". CNN. Retrieved 25 August 2022. She also became the first Asian designer to be accepted into the prestigious Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, making her one of a select group permitted to use the term "haute couture" to describe her hand-crafted garments.
^10 November 2015. "デザイナー森英恵さんのファッションと文化" [Designer Hanae Mori's fashion and culture]. Middle Edge（ミドルエッジ） (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
