“This is the one time design that I thought about the most, and also a one time release closest to the market. In the past, I viewed my work as a gift to myself, my designs are used to tell stories, to describe my understanding of femininity and beauty. This time is different, I focused on marketable designs. Each year, more than 1000 of my designs are sold. For this collection, I used my accumulated thirty year design career. Each detail, each craft required every effort for perfection. I used my most devoted passion to express my understanding of the spirit of haute couture. “ ---- GUO PEI
January 27, 2016, Guo Pei will be at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-arts to reveal her first release on the haute couture stage. This is the first French Federation of High Fashion (Fédération Française de la couture du prêt-à-porter des couturiers et des créaterus de mode) to officially invite the Chinese designer Guo Pei to show her work at the Paris Fashion Week. More than forty individual items will be displayed. Guo Pei and her team went through more than a year of meticulous preparations, close to 100 artisans and technicians assisted, consuming thousands of hours, for making this first show in Paris.
“Courtyard” is the theme of this Conference. Golden bamboo, Chinese eaves, elegant silhouettes strolling on the white glass bricks with golden edges in the Courtyard, listening to birds singing. Guo Pei has placed the scene of this Conference within a elegant Chinese royal Courtyard, where the image of a confident and graceful lady is revealed.
Within the new collection, the most unique design is the opening full dress. It is also the only artistic piece, conforming to the consistency of Guo Pei's artistic design style. It symbolizes a golden ray of morning sun shinning on the Courtyard through a veil of mist, which raises the curtain for the entire show. Grace and elegance are the key words of the new collection, which used macaroon light blue, pale pink, beige and ginger, adding a breath of fresh air and romanticism to the summer time. In these designs, the elements of traditional Chinese clothing such as tassels, cloud shoulders, and Pankou (Chinese traditional knot buttons) are skillfully used in the ornaments. Combined with Western dresses and jackets, they produced a unique and eternal charm. Within the new collection, white robes prevail, with exquisite workmanship, hand-embroidered and 3D ornaments complimenting each other to create perfection. In particular, the full wedding dress used in the closing required more than 7800 hours of embroidery and workmanship, all of which together produced a 3D embossment effect.
Guo Pei's design inspiration mostly comes from royal court culture, magnificent ornamentation and refined craft. In the new collection, the element running through it used by Guo Pei in her designs is the Phoenix, the most prominent pattern within Chinese traditional culture. According to ancient Chinese legend, the Phoenix is a mythical bird, which has always been the symbol of an empress and the most noble and revered women. In Guo Pei's designs the pattern of the Phoenix is used prominently. The Phoenix inspires unity with Western floral scrolls, Palace ornamentation, and numerous flower patterns, and so creates different models and postures of the bird, representing Guo Pei's perspective of the perfect feminine image.
Guo Pei consistently uses her designs to express the inner feelings of a woman, and her understanding of feminine beauty. In Guo Pei’s heart, women are noble and elegant, but possess tenacity and a strong will. Many of her works portray empresses and queens, women who unify talents and intelligence. Through her work, Guo Pei also interprets her understanding of “The One Who Wants to Wear a Crown Must Bear the Weight ” . Moreover, for this Conference, she has used more classic profiles in her designs. The “A” profile, the timeless classic, together with oriental emblazoned patterns create an even more tender and beautiful woman’s image.
For Guo Pei, it is a significant design experience and release, it is also a rare opportunity for study and exchange. At this Conference, she conveys her love for Design with her most genuine emotions, she expresses the charisma of Fashion through the most beautiful design language, and she expresses her homage for the spirit of haute couture with her most sincere feelings.
This exhibition has received a lot of support and help, thanks very much to friends for supporting Guo Pei. Special thanks to Chopard, de Gournay, S&O, M.A.C and to the make-up artist Debbie Finnegan, L’Oréal Professional and Essie plus Stephen Low at ELSL Management for Neville for their support and assistance.
