Guo Pei: Fashioning Imagination
M+ Museum, Hong Kong
September 21, 2024 – April 06, 2025

The first major exhibition in East Asia of celebrated Chinese couture artist Guo Pei, organised in close collaboration with the artist and her studio. Welcome to the creative universe of Guo Pei (Chinese, born 1967), one of the most celebrated Chinese couture artists today. Guo is among China’s first generation of contemporary fashion designers. Her highly imaginative work blends historic Chinese craftsmanship with global inspirations, Western tailoring, and haute couture, the high-end dressmaking practice that originated in nineteenth-century Europe. She is at the forefront of rejuvenating China’s lost craft traditions on her own terms, adapting this heritage and continuing its legacy of cross-cultural influence. 

Spanning nearly four decades, Guo’s design practice resonates with regional and global cultural trends over the past century. Guo Pei: Fashioning Imagination places her garments in dialogue with the M+ Collections, creating a network of visual and thematic ideas across different media, eras, and cultures. 

The first section invites visitors into Guo Pei’s enchanting haute couture collections Garden of Soul and Amazing Journey in a Childhood Dream, in which the designer combines a fascination with nature with her personal memories. In these works, fairy-like figures evoke blossoming lower gardens and fantastical dreamscapes. Guo often embellishes her garments with metallic embroidery, crystals, rhinestones, pleated sheer silks, and copper floral crowns. These bursts of colour capture the vibrancy of nature and the innocence of childhood—a celebration of pure joy and pleasure. 

Several of Guo Pei’s haute couture collections centre on Eastern folktales and historical legends. 1002 Nights draws inspiration from the renowned compilation of Middle Eastern stories 1002 Nights, while East Palace incorporates ancient Chinese mythological imagery and imperial motifs. Through these narratives and visual elements, Guo questions our relationship with the past and how it influences cultural identity today. From Ming and Qing dynasty ceramics to imperial court styles, her designs reinterpret diverse cultural forms with contemporary aesthetics and expressions. 

Mythologies bring a culture’s history, beliefs, and ancestral stories to life. This section features two of Guo Pei’s haute couture collections that explore this symbolic terrain, spanning Eastern and Western mythical worlds. In China, the dragon represented imperial power and its connections to the cosmic and the divine. Guo’s collection Legend of the Dragon celebrates this rich cultural symbol through exquisitely embroidered patterns. In the Elysium collection, Guo explores the idea of a paradise brimming with natural scenes, such as creeping roots, blooming flowers, and spiky branches. To echo these ideas, this section also includes works of photography, ink art, and design form the M+ Collections that use mythical or natural elements to expand upon cultural traditions. 

This final section features vibrant couture that reflects Guo Pei’s views on time and regeneration. The Samsara collection explores natural rhythms and cycles, from the interplay of night and day to the course of life. The Encounter collection brings unconventional fabrics and dramatic colours to Guo’s design vocabulary. Guo’s garments are complemented by works from the M+ Collections that explore notions of time and the human life cycle. 

more. www.mplus.org.hk