• M+ presents the first major exhibition in East Asia of China’s pre-eminent couture artist Guo Pei, supported by Lead Sponsor HSBC
• The exhibition features more than forty showstopping haute couture pieces, including Guo’s career-defining The Yellow Queen gown, worn by Rihanna to the Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2015
• Organised into five main themes that showcase Guo’s imagination and creativity, the exhibition places her garments in dialogue with more than forty art and design works from the M+ Collections, highlighting the resonances of Guo’s work across media, eras, and cultures
• Guo Pei will speak at a public talk during the opening on Saturday, 21 September 2024
• Screenings of the documentary Yellow Is Forbidden (2018), which traces Guo’s haute couture journey, will be held at M+ Cinema

M+, Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong, is pleased to present Guo Pei: Fashioning Imagination, the first major exhibition in East Asia of celebrated Chinese couture artist Guo Pei (b. 1967), organised in close collaboration with the artist and her studio. Generously supported by Lead Sponsor HSBC, the Special Exhibition will be held in the museum’s Main Hall Gallery with an extra presentation in the public space of the Main Hall on the museum’s ground floor. It will open to the public on Saturday, 21 September 2024.

Guo Pei is among China’s first generation of contemporary fashion designers. Spanning nearly four decades, her practice resonates with Asian and global cultural trends over the past century. Guo’s highly imaginative work blends historic Chinese craftsmanship with contemporary aesthetics, global inspirations, and Chinese and Western tailoring, demonstrating her ability to deliver exquisite haute couture collections in Paris. Haute couture is an artisanal dressmaking practice that originated in the nineteenth century. At the forefront of rejuvenating traditional Chinese embroidery, Guo, with her team, has adapted many embroidery techniques and couture craftsmanship in the pursuit of creative expression, reviving this intangible cultural heritage to continue its legacy and injecting it with cross-cultural influences.

Guo Pei: Fashioning Imagination features more than forty haute couture show pieces loaned from Guo’s atelier Rose Studio. They are placed in dialogue with works of art and design from the M+ Collections, creating a network of visual and thematic ideas across artistic practices and cultures. Guo’s stunning work reflects her creative philosophy and journey in haute couture as she innovates on tradition and craftsmanship, revealing the transcendent power of fashion and art.

The Special Exhibition is curated by Ikko Yokoyama, Lead Curator, Design and Architecture, M+, supported by Wen Bi, Assistant Curator, and Mankit Lai, Curatorial Assistant, in partnership with Guo and her atelier Rose Studio. It showcases Guo’s creative universe through five main themes that highlight her international career and her unique design journey:

• The Joy of Life surveys Guo’s exhilarating collections Garden of Soul (2015) and An Amazing Journey in a Childhood Dream (2007), in which she combines a fascination with nature with her personal memories. In these works, fairy-like figures evoke floral paradises and fantastical dreamscapes that capture the vibrancy of nature and the innocence of childhood. These themes are echoed in paintings and objects from the M+ Collections that are also inspired by fables, fantasies, and the natural world.

• New Tales from the East showcases collections that take inspiration from Eastern folktales, exploring ancient cultural forms and symbols with a contemporary twist. 1002 Nights (2009) references One Thousand and One Nights, while East Palace (2019) incorporates ancient Chinese mythological imagery and imperial motifs to consider the connections between the present and the past. Guo’s 2009 dress The Yellow Queen, a gown weighing twenty-five kilograms with a four-metre-long train, is a spectacular expression of female confidence and strength. It was worn by Rihanna to the Met Gala in New York in 2015. This iconic gown made Guo an international household name and will be shown in this section of the exhibition.

• Transcending Space reflects on architecture as a rich source of inspiration for Guo. In Legends (2017) and L’Architecture (2018), she reimagines fashion as moving architecture that envelops the human body by incorporating inspirations from Baroque and Gothic churches. Alongside these works are photographs and paintings from the M+ Collections that reveal how other artists find visual inspiration in architecture.

• Ethereal Mythologies highlights Guo’s collections that reimagine Eastern and Western mythologies, exploring their histories, beliefs, and ancestral stories. In Legend of the Dragon (2012), Guo conveys the mythical creature’s majestic beauty and its symbolic significance in Chinese culture. In Elysium (2018), Guo presents an eternal paradise brimming with natural scenes, including creeping roots, blooming flowers, and twisting branches.

• On Dreams and Reality reveals Guo’s reflections on time, space, and reunion. Samsara (2006) explores nature’s rhythms, from the interplay of night and day to the course of life. This collection includes the monumental gown The Magnificent Gold (2006), Guo’s first haute couture piece. The collection Encounter (2016) shows Guo’s use of unconventional fabrics and dramatic colours. This suite of garments embodies her thoughts on causality as well as her belief in dreams as the root of art. This section is complemented by works from the M+ Collections that explore notions of time and the human life cycle.

Suhanya Raffel, Museum Director, M+, says, ‘Guo Pei is a trailblazing designer and artist who interprets both Western and Chinese motifs with inventive boldness. We are thrilled to celebrate the work of China’s first couture artist while placing her masterpieces in conversation with the M+ Collections, unveiling an imaginative story that brings to light the richness of contemporary Asian art and design.’

Ikko Yokoyama, Lead Curator, Design and Architecture, M+, says, ‘Guo Pei: Fashioning Imagination is the first large-scale exhibition in East Asia dedicated to the legendary couture artist Guo Pei. The exhibition journeys through Guo’s rich universe, charting her profound cultural references, dreamlike designs, supreme craftsmanship, and transcendent creations that have made a deep impact in the worlds of fashion and popular culture. By exhibiting her fantastic collections and career-defining garments alongside works from the M+ Collections, we invite visitors to consider the artistry of fashion design and its associations with contemporary visual culture.’

Guo Pei says, ‘It is a great pleasure to have my work spotlighted by M+, an acclaimed museum of contemporary visual culture in Asia. The exhibition marks an important milestone in my career, bringing decades of my creations to life through artistic conversations in a global museum. I am excited to share my work and ideas with audiences across cultures, who may look at these pieces from different points of view and appreciate them in new ways.’

Coinciding with the opening of the exhibition, M+ will publish Guo Pei: Fashioning Imagination, a book featuring stunning photographic reproductions of the artist’s iconic dresses featured in the show alongside preparatory drawings and a new interview with Guo about her life and creative practice.

Public and screening programmes

M+ will present a series of public programmes related to the exhibition, including a public talk with Guo on Saturday, 21 September 2024. There will also be guided tours, workshops, and community and access programmes to engage the public. In response to Guo Pei: Fashioning Imagination, the October 2024 edition of M+ at Night will showcase a special line-up of music and live performances, creative workshops, in-gallery activities, and conversations.

M+ will host two screenings of Yellow Is Forbidden (2018), directed by Pietra Brettkelly, at M+ Cinema on Saturday, 21 September and Sunday, 22 September 2024. Yellow Is Forbidden chronicles Guo’s remarkable journey as she navigates the exclusive and predominantly Western world of haute couture. The documentary follows Guo as she prepares for her highly anticipated spring 2017 haute couture show at the historic Conciergerie during Paris Haute Couture Week. Viewers are given an intimate look at the meticulous work of Guo and her team and her personal challenges as she brings her spectacular vision to life. There will be two additional screenings of this film in M+ Cinema’s Autumn Edition in 2024 and Winter Edition in 2025.

Guo Pei: Fashioning Imagination is generously supported by Lead Sponsor HSBC and Travel Partner Cathay.

About Guo Pei

Guo Pei (b.1967, Beijing) is a visionary creator whose haute couture designs changed the landscape and status of Chinese fashion. She is among the country’s first generation of fashion designers in the reform and opening era. Her career began when she graduated from the Beijing Industry and Trade Technician College in 1986. In 1997, she founded Rose Studio in Beijing, China’s first couture studio and bespoke fashion house. Her Paris office opened in 2015, and starting in 2016, Guo was invited to deliver ten couture shows for Paris Haute Couture Week in five consecutive years.

In 2015, two of Guo’s designs were showcased in the exhibition China: Through the Looking Glass at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. At the Met Gala in 2015, the singer Rihanna wore The Yellow Queen from the 1002 Nights collection, which earned widespread acclaim. In the same year, Guo was invited to join the prestigious Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode.

Apart from her haute couture work, Guo’s illustrious career also includes designing outfits for the awards ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and costumes for hosts and performers at the annual CCTV New Year’s Gala for many years. She has made bespoke garments and wedding dresses for numerous high-profile clients, often interpreting traditional elements as she pioneers the aesthetics of contemporary Asian dress.

About M+

M+ is a museum dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting visual art, design and architecture, moving image, and Hong Kong visual culture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, it is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary visual culture in the world, with a bold ambition to establish ourselves as one of the world’s leading cultural institutions. M+ is a new kind of museum that reflects our unique time and place, a museum that builds on Hong Kong’s historic balance of the local and the international to define a distinctive and innovative voice for Asia’s twenty-first century.

About the West Kowloon Cultural District

The West Kowloon Cultural District is one of the largest and most ambitious cultural projects in the world. Its vision is to create a vibrant new cultural quarter for Hong Kong on forty hectares of reclaimed land located alongside Victoria Harbour. With a varied mix of theatres, performance spaces, and museums, the West Kowloon Cultural District will produce and host world-class exhibitions, performances, and cultural events, providing twenty-three hectares of public open space, including a two-kilometre waterfront promenade.