Yumi Katsura, a bridal fashion pioneer in Japan who once designed papal robes for John Paul II, has died at the age of 94, her firm Yumi Katsura International announced Tuesday.
Synonymous with wedding dresses in Japan, over a career spanning more than half a century, Katsura had developed a unique style that combined traditional Japanese techniques with French motifs.
After studying fashion design in Tokyo and Paris, she became the first designer of Western wedding dresses in Japan in 1964 and opened the country’s very first bridal shop the following year, when only 3% of brides wore a Western dress to their wedding instead of a wedding dress. traditional kimono.
Katsura began to shine abroad in the 1980s, when she attended the New York fashion show for the first time in 1981 and opened China’s first bridal fashion show in Beijing in 1986. In 1993 she designed vestments for the late Pope, which she wore for the Easter Mass of the same year.
In 2012, she won a Guinness World Record for the most pearls (13,262) on a wedding dress. Her most recent fashion show took place on March 5 in Tokyo, where she unveiled her latest collection of around 70 items.
