Thousands of hours of embroidery go into the couturier’s hand-sewn creations, which have appeared everywhere from the Met Gala to the Olympics.
Couturier Guo Pei is considered one of China’s leading fashion designers, and her work garnered global attention when Rihanna walked the red carpet at the 2015 Met Gala in one of her pieces, a fur-lined canary yellow creation with a 5m train that garnered headlines around the world.
It’s an excellent example of the designer’s painstaking, fantastical work, and there’s so much more to know about her distinctive creative sensibility and artisan approach — all of which will be in the spotlight at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki’s upcoming exhibition Guo Pei: Fashion, Art, Fantasy 郭培：时装之幻梦, which opens December 9.
Ahead of the exhibition, here’s some handy trivia on the celebrated couturier.
1. Rihanna’s Met Gala dress weighed 25kg.
It took Guo Pei and her team two years to make it, with 50,000 hours on embroidery alone.
2. She’s one of only two Chinese-born and educated designers invited to the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture.
France’s Haute Couture Federation invited Guo Pei to join its range in 2015, following her inclusion in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s 2015 exhibition China: Through the Looking Glass — in which she had two works featured — and the opening of her own atelier in Paris, which qualified her for a slot on the Paris Couture Week calendar. Her first haute-couture show was in 2016, with the dramatic Da Jing gown as the finale look.
3. She employs 500 highly skilled artisans and her couture creations are entirely hand-sewn.
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Advertise with NZME.Guo Pei established her own design house, Rose Studio, in 1997, and trains her staff personally.
4. She had never heard of Rihanna before the Met Gala
Rihanna’s regal red-carpet look for the 2016 event eclipsed all others, and helped catapult Guo Pei’s name into the public sphere but, according to Vogue, when the singer called to ask about wearing one of her creations, the designer didn’t know who she was.
5. Guo Pei’s creations have made an Olympic appearance
The Beijing Olympics in 2008 was a major event for China, and Guo Pei dressed some of the country’s celebrities for the occasion — including famous folk singer Song Zuyin, who wore a dress that was hand-sewn with more than 200,000 Swarovski crystals.
6. She was able to thread a needle at 2 years old
An early starter, Guo Pei began sewing while still a toddler, and grew up in a family and time where making clothes was the norm.
7. China’s leading actresses love Guo Pei’s designs
Fan Bingbing, Li Bingbing and Zhang Ziyi have all worn her work.
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8. Beyond fashion, she’s also dipped her toes in the beauty world
Guo collaborated with M.A.C Cosmetics in 2015, releasing a 16-piece collection. Like her fashion designs, it took a long time — three years to develop, in fact — and was inspired by six couture dresses that were designed especially.
9. Her atelier operates on a subscription model
An innovative idea (and fitting for her dedicated clientele), patrons of the house can pay an annual fee, “from which their orders are deducted,” reported Judith Thurman in The New Yorker.
10. Guo Pei has been worn by some of the world’s biggest names
Rihanna isn’t the only global superstar to wear Guo Pei; Beyonce and Lady Gaga have both worn her work, according to husband Jack Tsao (who works in branding and business for the company), who revealed these famous fans to WWD in 2016.
Luxury, red carpets and the art of fashion.
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