Hanae Mori, a designer for Japan's films, working women and an empress, dies

Japanese fashion designer Hanae Mori, center, is applauded by models after the presentation of her 1997-98 fall-winter haute couture collection presented in Paris, July 9, 1997. (Michel Lipchitz/AP)

TOKYO — Designer Hanae Mori, known for her elegant signature butterfly motifs, numerous cinema fashions and the wedding gown of Japan's empress, has died, local media reported Thursday. She was 96.

Mori symbolized the rise of Japan as a modern, fashionable nation and the rise of the working woman. The reports said she died Aug. 11, but other details were not immediately available.