Dutch fashion designer Frans Molenaar dies at age 74

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - Frans Molenaar, a versatile Dutch fashion designer whose clothes graced catwalk models, royalty and garbage men, has died at age 74.

Molenaar's design house says he died in an Amsterdam hospital on Friday following a fall at his home Dec. 22.

Fellow designer Mart Visser told national broadcaster NPO Radio 1 on Monday that Molenaar was a pioneer in the Dutch fashion world known for his "architectural style" of clothes.

As well as designing high fashion, including a wedding dress for the bride of Dutch King Willem Alexander's cousin Prince Bernhard, Molenaar also embraced commercial projects such as creating clothing for garbage men and street cleaners in The Hague in the late 1960s and recently designing a walking frame.

Molenaar's funeral is scheduled for Thursday in Amsterdam.