Renowned stylist Hanae Mori has died at the age of 96. Japanese Kyodo News Agency.

According to the same source, Hanae Mori passed away on August 11 at her home.

Hanae Mori, known by the moniker “Madama Butterfly” for the butterfly-inspired designs that have become her hallmark for decades, has signed lavish creations worn by Nancy Reagan, Grace Kelly, members of the Japanese royal family and the Japanese elite.

She was one of the few women in Japan to lead an international fashion company and was a pioneer among her compatriots in this regard.

Her career has taken her from Tokyo, where she made her film costume debut, to New York and Paris, where in 1997 she saw her fashion house become Asia’s first to join high fashion.

Her first collection, presented abroad (in New York in 1965), marked the meeting of “East” and “West”.

Celebrities in Japanese fashion such as Ise Miyaki, who passed away earlier this month, have followed in her footsteps.

Despite the closure of her Parisian atelier in 2004 after her last fashion show in the French capital, Hanae Mori’s boutiques remain open in the Japanese capital. Her perfumes are sold all over the world.

^{Source: APE-MPE, AFP.}