Chinese fashion designer's exhibition opens on US West Coast

Chinese couturier Guo Pei's exhibition, Couture Beyond, opened to the public this month at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana in Southern California, featuring 40 extraordinary creations from her most dramatic runway shows.

Organized by the Bowers Museum in collaboration with Guo's Rose Studios, SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion and Film, and the SCAD University for Creative Careers, the event represented the premiere of the exhibition on the United States' West Coast.

Running until July 14, the exhibition traces the evolution of Guo's design sensibility over the past 20 years and underlines the Chinese designer's impact on the fashion world and beyond.

As one of China's most renowned couturiers, Guo has been dressing celebrities, members of royalty and the political elite who turn to her for show-stopping, magnificent creations. She is the first Chinese designer invited to join France's Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture.

Guo's designs were worn by performers at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the annual CCTV's Spring Festival Gala.

She was launched into the international spotlight as the designer of pop singer Rihanna's omelet dress for the Met Gala in 2015.

"While incorporating contemporary innovation, I try my best to showcase the finest of traditional craftsmanship and Chinese culture via my creations," says Guo, adding that Chinese designers' impact on the world's fashion industry grows with the deepening of China's reform and opening-up and the expansion of its influence over the past few decades.

"I love my homeland, I love Chinese culture; that's the inspiration for my design," she says.