Guo Pei : Couture Fantasy

Guo Pei (b. 1967), China's premier couturier and one of the world's most innovative G fashion designers, has astonished runway audiences from Beijing to Paris for more than twenty-five years. She is recognized for her consummate craftsman- ship, lavish embroidery, and imaginative dressmaking techniques as well as for her elaborate and theatrical runway presentations. Her complex and visually dazzling work is inspired by sources as varied as China's imperial past, export art, European court life and architecture, and the botanical world. Published on the occasion of the 2022 exhibition Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, this stunning volume fea- tures more than two hundred fifty color illustrations highlighting eighty-two of the artist's most sumptuous creations, a gallery of backstage photographs, and a facsimile sketchbook that allows unique insight into her design process. Essays by leading fashion scholars, an intimate Q&A with the designer, and a detailed chronology further explore the trajectory of Guo Pei's extraordinary career and provide a deeper understanding of her singular aesthetic philosophy, which has been shaped by her cultural heritage as well as China's modern history.