Three gold couture dresses in Guo Pei installation at the Legion of Honor

Installation view of Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy, Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 2022. Photograph by Gary Sexton. Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Legion of Honor Exhibition

Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy

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Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy celebrates the extraordinary designs of Guo Pei — hailed as China’s first couturier — and includes more than 80 works from the past two decades highlighting her most important collections shown on Beijing and Paris runways. Through exquisite craftsmanship, lavish embroidery, and unconventional dressmaking techniques, Guo Pei creates a fantasy that fuses the influences of China’s imperial past, decorative arts, European architecture, and the botanical world. Through her stunning fashions, the exhibition reveals the trajectory of Guo Pei’s career as remarkable yet emblematic of China’s emergence as a leader in the fashion world in the early twenty-first century.

In the news

  • Guo’s work shines here, both literally and figuratively, considering the sheer amount of gold and silver thread.

    Iris Kwok, KQED,

  • The show dazzles from top to bottom, gravity-defying headpieces to fanciful footwear and everything exquisite in between.

    Gail Goldberg, 7x7,

Stories

Films

Immerse yourself in the intricate details of Guo Pei’s fantastical designs, which can take thousands of hours and multiple years to create.

detail of couture dress by Guo Pei

A Closer Look at Guo Pei’s Embroidery

Music: "Alone (2)." Taken from the album POETICA – all beauty sleeps. Performed by SOPOR AETERNUS & The Ensemble Of Shadows. Music by Anna-Varney Cantodea. Used with kind permission of Apocalyptic Vision Records GmbH.

Gallery

Three mannequins behind a sheer curtain

Sponsors

This exhibition is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, with significant support from the Asian Couture Federation.

Presenting Sponsors

Diane B. Wilsey
John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn

Lead Sponsor

East West Bank logo

Significant Support

Dr. Junning Lee and Xiaojun Lee
LOUIS XIII Cognac
The MAE Private Foundation
Michelle and William Tai

Generous Support

E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation
Sakurako and William Fisher
The Diana Dollar Knowles Foundation
Patricia Lee-Hoffmann
Jennifer and Steve Walske
David A. Wollenberg
Zenni Eyewear

Additional support is provided by Sandra and Paul Bessières, Carol and Shelby Bonnie, Fred Levin, The Shenson Foundation, Cathy and Howard Moreland, W.L.S. Spencer Foundation, and the Textile Arts Council of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

In-kind support is generously provided by Fairmont San Francisco and Molekule.

Currently on view