Yumi Katsura: Japanese Fashion Designer Extraordinaire
Yumi Katsura: Japanese Fashion Designer Extraordinaire
Raised with a keen eye for details and structures, the Japanese fashion designer Yumi Katsura has become one of the world’s leading bridal fashion designers. While she started her craft at a very young age watching her mother run a dressmaking school, Yumi officially began her career by attending Kyoritsu Women’s University, and cemented her aspirations of becoming a fashion designer by studying the art of haute couture at the eminent École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne.
Yumi had an uncanny insight into Western dress designs from the beginning, despite her lack of exposure to them at the École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. She first rose to prominence in 1964 with the opening of Yumi Katsura Bridal Salon in Tokyo. Just 12 short months later, she presented the first bridal collection show ever held in Japan. Drawing from nature—ocean, mountain, forest, etc., all of which inspire her—and from her knowledge of haute couture, she brought the Western bridal dress into a nation where such a design was still in its infancy; at that time, only 3% of the Japanese population utilized Western bridal dresses.
By the 1980s, Yumi had successfully expanded her business to the United States, France and England, participating in various Japan Fashion Fairs. In 2005, she opened a bridal boutique in Paris and the Yumi Katsura Bridal House in New York by 2006. Moreover, she hosted China’s first bridal show; designed a vestment for Pope John Paul II; and presented her designs in various countries and events, including at the prestigious Donna Sotto le Stelle show in Italy, amongst the likes of Chanel, Giorgio, Armani, Missoni and Etro. Currently, Yumi has over 85 franchise shops throughout Japan, China and France combined.
Wedding dresses, for Yumi, are indispensable – she has created over 650,000 of them. As much as she draws from nature, she equally emphasizes the role of new technology in fashion-innovation. Yumi is always on the lookout for new technology that can accentuate—or, perhaps, even weave into reality—her stylistic patterns. Given her proclivity for natural landmarks and the revelatory moments she has from new technology, it seems only natural she incorporated Western patterns in the traditional kimonos in her latest bridal collections, “Wonderful East Meets West.” Some of her traditional bridal gowns can be seen in the Yumi Katsura Bridal Museum in Kobe, Japan.
That’s not to say Yumi has forgotten high fashion. She recently designed a wedding dress that has yet to be worn made of 1,000 pearls, a green 8.8-carat diamond, and one of the only two 5-carat white gold diamonds: It is the second most expensive wedding dress in the world, costing $8.5 million!
About the Author
Anand Tripathi is freelance writer and copy editor. He has background in academic writing, including in the fields of psychology and diabetes, and is a versatile reader and writer. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.
