Guo Pei

Guo Pei’s works were also exhibited at the annual exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, titled “China: Through the Looking Glass”. In 2016, Guo Pei became a guest member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture.

Her Spring 2017 Haute couture collection, presented at La Conciergerie and titled “Legend,” was inspired by the murals of the Saint Gallen Cathedral in Switzerland.

Her first collection to be showcased as a part of Paris Fashion Week was her Spring Summer 2016 collection. Inspired by Spring flowers for femininity and the phoenix for peace and purity, the collection had traditional Chinese influences like gold tassels, intricate threadwork embroidery over silk, bibs and long trains.

Her “One Thousand and Two Nights” collection debuted in November 2009, during China Fashion Week. American model, Carmen Dell’Orefice appeared in the show wearing an elaborate white embroidered fur-lined gown, with an escort of four to help carry its train. Dell’Orefice later went on to compare Guo to Charles James. Guo was credited as a costume designer on the set of the 2014 film The Monkey King. The film’s makeup and costume departments were nominated for a Hong Kong Film Award the following year but lost out to Man Lim Chung, in The Golden Era.

In 2008, Guo conceived a canary yellow floor-length dress with a large circular train, edged with yellow coloured fur and embroidered with silver floral patterns. It took approximately 50,000 hours over two years for her design team to create and weighed about 25 kg (55 lb) on completion. Bajan singer Rihanna came across the piece on the internet while researching a design for the China-themed New York Met Gala in 2015. According to Guo, when first asked she agreed to the proposal but was wary about whether the singer would be able to withstand the weight. Rihanna appeared on the red carpet in the gown, followed by a three-person entourage to hold the large train. Early reactions to the dress design spawned viral memes on social media, with the eye catching yellow material and sizable train drawing comparisons to omelettes and pizzas. A photo of the design worn by the singer was featured on the front page of Vogue’s Met Gala edition. This media exposure made Guo more recognizable among Western audiences.

Guo Pei says that she strived for something more as the fashion demand grew in China as well. In the early 2000s Guo Pei’s reputation began to grow, she received commissions to create styles for the 2008 Summer Olympics as well as the annual Spring Festival Galas put on by China Central Television (CCTV). She is responsible for Song Zuying’s dress that she wore during her performance with Plácido Domingo at the 2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony. The dress took two weeks overall to make and was covered with 200,000 Swarovski Crystals.

Despite the otherwise oppressive fashion enforced, she still went to study and graduate from Beijing Second Light Industry School with a degree in fashion design in 1986. Guo Pei’s graduation was also at a good time since post-Mao reforms were being implemented by Deng Xiaoping. Guo Pei found a job at one of China’s first privately owned clothing brand manufacturers, Tianma. She states that there was a sudden demand for fashion that grew in China, with one of her most popular factory designs being a brightly colored winter coat with a hood. She left the company in 1997 to form her own fashion brand.

Guo Pei (Chinese: 郭培 , Mandarin pronunciation: [ku̯ó pʰěɪ̯] , born 1967) is a Chinese fashion designer. She is best known for designing dresses for Chinese celebrities, and in America for Rihanna’s trailing yellow gown at the 2015 Met Ball. Guo is the second born-and-raised Asian designer to be invited to become a guest member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture after Lebanese designer Elie Saab. In 2016, Time Magazine listed her as one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People.

Guo was born in Beijing in 1967. Guo was born to two members of China’s Communist Party, her father being a former battalion leader of the People’s Army and her mother being a kindergarten teacher. In an interview with Forbes Magazine, she recalls her father having thrown away her sketches and paintings as a child. In the same interview Guo says she got her start in sewing at the age of 2 years old, helping her mother make clothes for the winter and developed her love for dressmaking. During her childhood, Mao suits were considered the only correct form of clothing and Guo Pei defied this with loose-fitting dresses.