Fashion designer Yumi Katsura, who helped popularize Western bridal wear in Japan and designed a gold cape for Pope John Paul II, has died at the age of 94, her office said.
After studying haute couture in Paris, Katsura opened Japan's first bridal salon in 1964 at a time when traditional kimonos still dominated wedding ceremonies and Western-style gowns were worn by only 3% of brides.
Starting in New York in 1981 with the "Yumi Line" silhouette gown, she opened stores around the world, including in Italy and France, "influencing brides not only in Japan, but around the world," her office website says.
In 1993, she made a robe for John Paul II for religious services that took two years and demonstrated the weaving of hakata-ori, a technique used to make kimonos.
That same year, the pontiff, who died in 2005, wore the cape and matching gold mitre at an Easter service that was broadcast around the world.
"When I received the letter of thanks from the Pope, tears rolled down my cheeks," Katsura recalls, adding that it reinforced her sense of mission to "transmit Japanese beauty to the world."
In 2012, Katsura said. Katsura, whose real name is Yumi Yuki, also set a Guinness World Record for the most pearls - 13,262 - on a wedding dress.
However, she admits she didn't wear a wedding dress to her own wedding.
"White is not the right color for me," Katsura said in a 2018 interview. "I wore a dark green velvet dress."
"My mission is to make women around the world happy," she told another interviewer. / BGNES