Hanai Mori
Hanae Mori
From and article in 'Japan Today' in 2002: (edited)
"It's not hard to imagine the rural prewar Japan on a hot summer's day and the sound of laughter carrying far across the green rice fields of Shimane Prefecture in western Honshu.
One girl is named Hanae and, despite the high spirits of childhood, she finds time to take in the vivid colors of the flowers, the wind caressing the growing rice plants and the erratic flight of tiny insects.
One insect in particular arrests her attention - the colorful butterfly drifting lazily from flower to flower under an azure sky.
It is this latter image that, over half a century later, characterizes the matured, refined woman known the world over as Hanae Mori, couturier, fashion designer and woman of impeccable taste."
After her marriage this student in Japanese Literature, Hanae Mori turned to designing and eventually opened her first studio in 1951 in Tokyo.
She soon became involved in the growing cinema industry, and designed more than 300 costumes for the films of the greatest directors, such as Ozu and Yoshimura.
When television began to take the place of cinema, Hanae Mori was about to renounce to creation. At this moment, in 1961, she met as a customer for the first time Coco Chanel in Paris: decisive meeting which made her become aware that she was intended for the Haute Couture.
"When I first began in 1965 in the U.S., it wasn't as international as it is now. There was some distinction between East and West and Africa. I was a designer from a faraway country, so I questioned myself: Who am I? What am I?" recalls Mori. "I spent two years trying to figure out who I was, what I was, what I could do with Japan and how I could express Japanese beauty. What I think is important is to ask yourself where you're from - to know your identity, to establish your identity, and to understand your culture and tradition and then express that to the public."
"East meets West", such was the description made by the enthusiastic criticism when she presented her first collection in New York in 1965. Major American department stores, such as Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and I. Magnin, recognized the originality of her designs and ordered her models. Then she opened two boutiques in New York, one at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and one on Madison Avenue at 79th street. In 1975, she showed her collection in Monte-Carlo in the presence of Princess Grace, and in 1977 she opened her Haute Couture house and a boutique in Paris. The same year she became member of the "Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture" Ð rare privilege for a woman and exceptional for a foreigner.
Cultural Ambassador
Link between the Oriental culture and the Western culture, Hanae Mori initiates Japanese women with the luxury and the beauty of the Parisian fashion and, at the same time, mixes acutely the touches of Japanese aesthetics in the creations intended for her Parisian customers.
For her, fashion is an alive art. It is in her so rich cultural heritage, in particular from the traditional Theatre No and from the Edo period, that she draws her inspiration to create the beauty without ever betraying her origins.
Hanae Mori took up with the art of costume for opera and ballet: in 1985 she realized costumes for the opera "Mrs Butterfly" at La Scala of Milan, then those of the opera Electra for the 1996 Salzburg Festival and, in 1986 those of the "Cinderella" ballet directed by Rudolf Noureev for the Paris Opera.
Mrs Mori dresses a lot of personalities, as Princess Masako for whom she realized her bridal gown in 1993 as well as a lot of dresses for her official receptions.
Pioneer
Hanae Mori is a pioneer: in Japan where a woman is traditionally confined in the roles of wife, mother and housewife, she broke with these constraints to build a fashion empire. Hanae Mori is considered as one of the very first Japanese business women.
In 1995 Mrs Mori launched her first perfume called Hanae Mori, follow-up later by Hanae Mori Haute Couture and Hanae Mori Homme.
Achievement
Hanae Mori received "Neiman Marcus Award" in 1973.
In 1989 the French government named her Chevalier in the National Order of the "Legion dÕHonneur" and the same year she was decorated with the medal of the order of the cultural merit "Bunka Koro Sha", rewards which crowned her contribution to the brilliance of the international fashion. In 2002, Mrs Mori is high with the rank of Officer in the Order of the "Legion dÕHonneur".
Today Hanae Mori shares her time between Place de lÕAlma in Paris and Omotesando in Tokyo.
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At the time of writing, the practicing Haute Couture houses are as follows:
Balmain, Pierre : Cardin, Pierre : Carven : Chanel : Dior, Christian : Feraud :
Givenchy : Lacroix, Christian : Lapidus, Ted : Laroche, Guy : Rabanne, Paco :
Ricci, Nina : Yves Saint Laurent : Scherrer, Jean Louis : Ungaro, Emanuel
