“Clothes are the architecture of the body,” says Guo Pei’s quote on a wall at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, where 80 of her dresses are on display through November. The exhibition “Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy” unfolds like a poem; just a quick description will grip viewers with her level of craftsmanship. To describe Pei simply as a designer fails to capture the majesty and technical prowess of her work. Borrowing freely from a variety of sources—be it China’s imperial past, the natural world, or European architecture—Pei creates exquisitely crafted garments that intersect with fashion, performance art, and sculpture. And some of her pieces – like the Da Jin dress seen in the exhibition – take tens of thousands of hours to execute.
“Clothing happens to be the architecture of the body.”
“I’m so lucky that I’m destined to make clothes,” she tells POPSUGAR. Pei’s journey to becoming the second Chinese designer to be invited as an invited member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture (the French fashion authority) has been extraordinary. Born in Beijing, she developed an early passion for embroidered clothing through her maternal grandmother, who told stories about her upbringing during China’s late imperial era. She spoke of the heavily embroidered Chinese court clothing, which contrasted with what Pei was seeing at the time, as embroidered clothing was banned during the Cultural Revolution. “At that time, there was no color in clothing, everything was simple,” says Pei. Her fascination with beautiful clothes deepened when she began sewing with her mother, whose glaucoma made it impossible for her to continue making clothes for the family.
Pei later enrolled in China’s first fashion program and spent a decade working at name brand companies. However, she wanted to create embroidered clothing, so she eventually tried to revive the art herself. Since it was no longer taught to girls by the 1930s, she traveled to different villages to pick up crafts, eventually starting her own practice, Rose Studio, in 1997. Today, she employs 450 artisans, 300 of whom are embroiderers.
Many know him as the creator of Rihanna’s gold-embroidered dress at the 2015 Met Gala, but Pei was a well-known designer long before that moment. The fashion designer has successfully represented her love of fantasy, architecture and spirituality in an illustrious career marked by her technical innovation and global perspective.
“Inspiration, I believe, is an accumulation of love for life.”
Pei’s well of inspiration has not yet run out. The legendary designer talks to POPSUGAR about her childhood, the evolution of fashion in China, and her hopes for the future of the industry. Read ahead for the full interview, lightly edited for clarity.
