![]() ![]() She is vibrant and outspoken in a culture of deference, reserve and respect for elders. She is as different from her mother-in-law as the cars they drive: Pamela tools around Tokyo in a hunter green Toyota RAV4, while Madame Mori is chauffeured in a black BMW sedan with an interior speckled with her signature red butterflies.Īnd it isn’t just Pamela’s nearly 6-foot height that makes her stand out in Japan. In many ways, however, Pamela was an odd choice for such a tradition-bound company. “She is California open-minded, and she used to be a model and likes the fashion business.” ![]() “Pamela’s never afraid and never hesitates,” Oishi says. Pamela has brought a fresh approach, says Nao Oishi, a Tokyo-based fashion writer who has known the Mori family for years. She inspired the company’s new “Studio Line,” aimed at the daughters of many Hanae Mori customers. So they turned to Pamela, who married into the family at 19 after meeting Aki while modeling in Japan. Madame Mori and her two sons-Akira, who succeeded his late father as company president in 1996, and Kei, who heads the Paris business-wanted to keep the business in the family. Nevertheless, new energy and broader appeal were needed to revive the fashion house’s sales amid a withering recession in Japan, its largest market, and to expand internationally. She also will continue to oversee the higher-end off-the-rack clothes that are popular with wives of well-heeled dignitaries. The elder Mori retains responsibility for the couture line. ![]() Still vigorous at 73 despite a seemingly exhausting travel schedule that took her to Turkey last week and brings her to Los Angeles on Saturday (for a benefit fashion show at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel for the Japanese American National Museum), Madame Mori remains intimately involved in the business, with no plans to retire. ![]()
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