Hiroko Matsumoto, who is credited with being the first Japanese model in the prestigious Paris collection, died Friday at a hospital in Paris, her Paris-based family members said Saturday. She was 67.
They did not disclose the cause of her death.
According to her family, Matsumoto was hospitalized several years ago for an alimentary disease, and had been receiving treatment.
Matsumoto once shone as a top model in the Paris fashion world after she was invited to France in 1960 by Pierre Cardin, then an up-and-coming designer, to model for the Paris collection.
A Tokyo native, she retired from the limelight in 1967 to have a child, and has since worked in editing a fashion magazine, among other things.
