FASHION AS ART: Guo Pei Couture Dresses at the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA

 

Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy at the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA

The Guo Pei fashion/art show at the Legion of Honor art museum in San Francisco is amazing--more like sculpture and costumes than real clothes. And it is not just the clothes--it is the shoes, hats, hair, jewelry--all designed to go together. Part of the show is downstairs in the special exhibition gallery. Upstairs the models are placed next to pieces in the permanent collection. 

Painting by Peter Paul Rubens. Portrait of Rogier Clarisse, ca. 1621

The figures are very cleverly positioned --like a model wearing a dress with a ruffled skirt next to a 17th century portrait of a man with a ruffed collar, or a patterned dress placed in front of a tapestry. One of my favorites is a figure with a large helmet shaped headpiece standing under a large domed ceiling—like a pair of nesting eggs.

Ensemble (dress and hood) from the Legends collection, Spring/Summer 2017. Silk embroidered with synthetic fiber, embellished with synthetic opals and Swarovski crystals and rhinestones.

The Guo Pei exhibit opened in April and has been extended to November 27, 2022, due to popular demand. For more information and to reserve tickets, go to the Legion of Honor website.

Each room in the exhibition gallery is devoted to a particular collection, each with a theme. The exhibit in the opening room, called “Inheritance” displays two traditional embroidered Chinese robes and explains how opulent embroidery, inspired by this ancient art, is a signature of Guo Pei’s work.
(Throughout the exhibit information panels, in both English and Chinese, provide information about the dresses and about where they fit in Guo Pei’s career.)

As a young girl growing up during the Cultural Revolution, Guo Pei found solace and inspiration in her maternal grandmother whose stories of elaborately embroidered robes enthralled the future couturier. As a young designer working for brand-name companies, Guo Pei longed to design embroidered clothing. However, richly embellished clothing, forbidden during the Cultural Revolution, had not yet regained popularity as fashionable dress.

Today, Guo Pei’s studio employs 450 craftspeople, of which 300 are embroiderers. Guo Pei and her team have developed their own interpretation of traditional needlework, creating a style that combines techniques from Chinese embroidery with Indian, Russian, and European stitches.(Notes from an exhibition panel.)

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.

The dresses in the exhibit range from elegant to whimsical to bizarre to almost impossible to wear. (You can go online to view fashion shows of Guo Pei’s designs, with models actually walking down the runway.)

This gown is a puppet theater, complete with puppet dolls dangling on strings! A monkey puppeteer on the bodice controls the dolls with a string.

Each Guo Pei dress is unique.   

The skirt on this dress, made of metal strips, weighs 20 pounds and is attached to a belt that sits on the model's hips.

It was impossible to resist taking photos. Here are just a few of my favorites.

Playful birds perch on this model's pigtails. Collection: Alternate Universe, Fall/Winter 2019-2020.

This model appears ready to take flight.

Like a giant wearable playing card, this elaborate dress features a long train. Collection: Himalaya, Spring/Summer 2020.

In her Fall/Winter 2019-2020 collection, Alternate Universe, Guo Pei envisioned an afterlife in which animals preside over humanity.

It is hard to believe that one could walk in these shoes.

The dress, made of pleated silk and embroidered with 24-karat gold metallic threads, is from the Collection of the Dragon, 2012.

These dresses are inspired by the typical blue and white designs on traditional Chinese ceramics.

“The culture of China is just like the blood that runs through my veins, it’s my life…China has more than 5,000 years of history, even longer culturally speaking. That history has greatly enriched my designs and is essentially a foundation of my work.” Guo Pei

THE GARDEN OF FLOWERING FRAGRANCE: Chinese Garden at the Huntington, San Marino, CA by Caroline Arnold at The Intrepid Tourist

 52 Places to Go: Week 15

Zigzag Bridge in the Chinese Garden, The Huntington, San Marino, CA

In the Chinese Garden at The Huntington, in San Marino, California, the exotic plants, beautiful small lake, complex of pavilions, tea house and tea shop, stone bridges, and waterfalls, make one feel transported to another time and place. Built in the style of traditional scholar gardens in Suzhou, China, it is the perfect harmony of nature and architecture.

Tea House

On a recent warm afternoon, Art and I went there with a friend, beginning our visit with a delicious lunch from the garden restaurant of pot stickers, wontons, and a rice bowl, which we ate outdoors on the patio at the edge of the lake. (There were also tables inside the tea house.) We watched a pair of geese swim while colorful koi glided through the shallow water below. A heron flew overhead.(The Huntington gardens are are great place for bird watching.)

Flowering tree

Around us, trees were beginning to blossom, and along the paths plants were covered with bright flowers. The Chinese name of the garden, Liu Fang Yuan, means Garden of Flowing Fragrance and the look and smell of spring was everywhere.

Stone bridge is framed by a wooden window

After our lunch we circled the lake, stopping to admire the view from the various bridges and pavilions. In typical Chinese style, windows of the structures were designed to frame the view and were works of art in themselves.

Pavilion of The Three Friends is seen through the waterfall

At each turn there were views to admire. On one side of the garden a waterfall tumbled over a ledge and had a walkway underneath. On the other side of the lake, water cascaded down the hill creating a small stream.

This natural stone sculpture is titled Patching Up the Sky

Throughout the garden groups of rocks have been artfully arranged to create miniature landscapes. And everything is named--from the buildings, to the sculptures, to the groves of trees. (The Pavilion of The Three Friends seemed like the perfect spot for a picture of the three of us.) Throughout the garden benches were strategically place for resting and enjoying the view. And although there were quite a few other people strolling the paths, the garden felt tranquil and evoked a sense of peace.

Water lilies grow on the 1.5 acre lake

The Huntington, originally the estate of railroad magnate Henry Huntington, is famous for its library of rare manuscripts and its art collection, as well as its many gardens. I have been to the Huntington numerous times, but it is so big  there is never enough time to see everything in one visit. The Chinese garden is a relatively recent addition.  (It opened to the public in 2008.)  I had not had a chance to visit it before so this was an ideal opportunity.

Lattice window looks out of the garden

Afterward, we visited the Japanese garden, with its raked stone zen garden and amazing collection of bonsai, strolled through the rose garden, just bursting into flower, stopped to take a look at the exhibits in the Dibner Hall of the History of Science (with its display of 250 copies of Darwin’s Origin of Species in its many editions and translations), and ended our day with a walk through the Desert Garden, where the cacti and succulents were in glorious bloom. I’m glad I finally had a chance to visit the Chinese garden. It was the perfect beginning to a spring afternoon at the Huntington.

For information about visiting the Huntington, click HERE.

Walkways in the Chinese Garden are created with a mosaic of dark and light stones

 

 

 

This article was originally published in 2019.

All text and photos copyright Caroline Arnold.

TAIPEI, TAIWAN: Skyscrapers, Art, Street Markets and More

At the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan

We arrived in Taipei early on October 10th, not realizing that it was a national holiday. Flags were everywhere as we made our way to our hotel near the center of the city.

We had come to Taiwan because my husband, Art, had been invited to give lectures at several Taiwanese Universities. I came along as a tourist. Although Art would be working part of the time, we tried to squeeze in as much sightseeing as we could during his free time.

Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, Taipei. The roof is made of copper.

After resting for a while to recover from our 14 hour plane ride from Los Angeles, we took a short walk to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, located a few blocks from our hotel in the middle of a large park with fountains, a lake and a sculpture garden. A giant statue of Sun Yat Sen towers over the main lobby and we watched families wearing red, white and blue shirts pose for pictures with the figure revered as the founding father of modern China.  

Flag of the Republic of China (ROC)

Outside, throngs of people had gathered on the plaza in front of the building listening to speeches and shouting their support. Colorful umbrellas added to the festive feeling. The steady rain didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s enthusiasm.

Taipei 101, with its 101 stories, is the tallest building in Taipei. The elevator to the top travels at a maximum speed of 1010 meters a minute.

Our next stop was a visit to Taipei 101, the skyscraper and office tower that dominates Taipei’s skyline day and night. After buying our tickets, we zoomed to the top in the world’s fastest elevator for a 360 degree view of the city. Even with the rain, the view was spectacular.

View to the north from the top of Taipei 101. The copper roof of Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall can be seen in the upper left.

Interactive boards with English labels helped us identify the buildings below and multiple exhibits explained the history of the tower and of the city. When it was built in 2004, Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world. (The Burj Kalifa in Dubai has the current record.)

A large weight in the center of the tower acts as a stabilizer for Taipei 101

A giant ball suspended in the center of the tower acts as a steadying weight to compensate for effects of wind or earthquakes. On the same level where we went to view the ball there is also a huge display of coral, jade, amethysts and other gems native to Taiwan. The lower three floors of Taipei 101 are an elegant shopping mall with a bustling food court at the bottom. Later in our trip we went back to the food court for a dim sum meal at the very popular Din Tai Fung restaurant.

National Palace Museum, Taipei

On our second day our host arranged a visit to the National Palace Museum, a treasure house filled with metalwork, ceramics, carvings, paintings and calligraphy originally collected by the imperial family in Beijing but moved to Taiwan after the end of World War II.

Vase, National Palace Museum

We took the English tour and got an excellent overview of the collection, including the famous Jadeite cabbage, a piece of jade so beautifully carved that the leaves look real, as do the two tiny grasshoppers nestled inside them. After our museum visit we walked across the plaza to the Silk Restaurant for a delicious dinner.

Painted pottery figure of a standing lady, Tang Dynasty, National Palace Museum

Our other sightseeing in Taipei included shopping at the Eslite department store, a visit to the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park and a trip on the Metro (MRT) to the Shilin Night Market. The Eslite department store is more a collection of upscale boutiques than an American style department store and features everything from clothing and furniture to food items and books.

Entrance to children's book store, Eslite Department Store

I was most interested in visiting the children’s book department. Although most of the books were in Chinese, a surprising number were in English. Taiwanese children begin studying English in first grade in school.

Entrance to the Design Museum, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park

The Songshan Cultural and Creative Park is a repurposed tobacco factory, originally built in 1937 as a state of the art industrial village with restrooms, dormitories, a hospital, dining hall, entertainment lounge and nursery room for use by its 2000 employees. The buildings are now used as offices and display spaces for galleries, craft shops and cafes. An enthusiastic volunteer in the information center gave us a tour.

Shilin Night Market, Taipei

Our guidebook proclaimed the Shilin Night Market as one of the most popular places in Taipei for both tourists and locals, who come to enjoy “the carnival of street-side snacking, shopping, games and people watching.” So, on Saturday afternoon we boarded the Metro to go there an see it for ourselves. Along with other shoppers, we wandered through the rabbit-warren of shop-lined streets. Although we didn’t sample any of the street food, we passed long lines of people waiting to purchase everything from grilled meat, tea, filled buns, fruit and more from the many food vendors.
Taipei is a large, bustling city of 7 million people. During our few days there we only had time to see a few of its many sights. If we have the chance to visit again, we will definitely stay longer!