The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is hosting an extensive art and fashion exhibition called "China: Through The Looking Glass." I had the pleasure of seeing this exhibition during the Memorial Day weekend and will be sharing a series of blogs about this show with you.
The exhibition is an in-depth study of China, its culture and politics, through the eyes of Western fashion designers. For this blog, I want to focus on a single dress highlighted in the exhibition. A whole room is devoted to a ballgown spun entirely from gold thread by Chinese couture designer Guo Pei. She is a famous Beijing-based designer and has been dubbed the Coco Chanel of China. Her gold dress, which took one year to make, is breath-taking!
The exhibition is an in-depth study of China, its culture and politics, through the eyes of Western fashion designers. For this blog, I want to focus on a single dress highlighted in the exhibition. A whole room is devoted to a ballgown spun entirely from gold thread by Chinese couture designer Guo Pei. She is a famous Beijing-based designer and has been dubbed the Coco Chanel of China. Her gold dress, which took one year to make, is breath-taking!
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While the exhibition mostly studies how Western designers interpret artifacts and ideas of China, in this dress we can see how a Chinese designer draws on her own heritage but incorporates Western elements. Guo Pei uses Buddhist iconography as the main source of inspiration; the dress is surrounded by statues of Buddhas. The lotus flower inspired the shape of the bodice. At the same time, however, Guo Pei makes a departure from the traditional Chinese dress silhouette and incorporates an inflated crinoline, which was prevalent in the traditional Western 1850s apparel.
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Guo Pei is sought out by customers from around the world. It is not surprising that her work is on display at such an important art and fashion exhibition. Currently, Guo Pei runs a 450-man atelier, which produces between 2,000 and 3,000 couture designs per year. The traditional workmanship and expertise of the designer is clearly shown in this gown.
"China: Through The Looking Glass" is on show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City until August 16, 2015. Location: 1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street), New York, NY 10028.