Guo Pei Haute Couture Spring Summer 2020 Paris Fashion Week. RUNWAY MAGAZINE ® Collections. RUNWAY NOW / RUNWAY NEW. Special reportage by RUNWAY MAGAZINE / Editor-in-Chief Eleonora de Gray.
The most spectacular collection of this fashion week. Guo Pei show her collections in Paris during Haute Couture fashion week, as a special guest, since 2016. This is the most amazing collection she ever showed.
Designers during this Haute Couture Spring Summer 2020 fashion week presented some creative work. Schiaparelli and Zuhair Murad changes looks, showed new savoir-fare in embroideries and details. Givenchy showed new colorful silhouettes which are much closer to the spirit of the house and Audrey Hepburn – muse of this house for all times. Finally John Galliano’s genius happily popped up in new collection of Maison Margiela. Jean Paul Gaultier said farewell after 50 years in fashion in his last show. But….. this collection of Guo Pei is more than anyone can imagine.
Guests from different countries, with different cultural backgrounds couldn’t take breath. The only words you can hear at backstage after the show on all languages “Oh, my God!!! So amazing and beautiful!” It is rare to have such an impact on public, it is even more rare to hear this in fashion.
Designer Guo Pei inspired by Himalaya, the place where pure spirits and snow and the place for gods. “I like the whiteness of the Himalayas. A holy white that fuses its pinnacles to the sky: the white snowflakes, floating lightly, the white mountain peaks standing steep and lonely. A brilliant white, a white that is so pure, a white that is the purity of soul and spirit,”- said designer.
The snow lotus is a key design element. Guo Pei choose luxury couture fabrics: precious gold brocade from China and antique Japanese Obi fabric. Some of them she used on reversed side to show intertwined yarns and create artistic looks. Hundreds of antique Japanese kimono belts were cut into 10 x 20 cm pieces and reassembled in artistic way to create unique blend of colors and textures.
EMBROIDERIES! God indeed is in the details of this collection. The most intricate savoir fare of Asian artists was presented in this collection. Buddhas of the Three Realms and the miseries of circles of life, Shiva, Ganesha, blue story teller art patterns from traditional Thangkas are embroidered on all pieces. Each and every piece of the collection is a piece of art. Trough three-dimensional embroidery techniques, traditional Thangka craftsmanship fused with traditions and innovations, Guo Pei told the story of a woman.
Final dress with 2 meter long train with magnificent three-dimensional Thangka patters presented Buddha’s Infinite Light and the wisdom of Dharma. When you have it in your hands you are completely stoned by it’s incredible beauty.
Guo Pei made this Haute Couture Spring Summer 2020 story very personal. This is not only story of purity or gods, or civilizations, this is the story of a woman and her life, trough this universal pure energy circles, being vase and vessel of it all.
Every woman in the salle saw and felt herself in this story of life, death and reborn. Apart from lotus and Buddhas every look and specially in this context reminded a bird. The story is in 22 looks. If we follow this idea first looks show the happy woman in her daily life.
5th look – green dress shows changes in her life. In Indian culture green represents bravery, in Chinese – betrayal (unfaithful husband or death). This is not a blue-green which represents the growth. And transformation of a woman begins. Looks between 5th and 11th show the loneliness of a woman, her solitude and even emptiness where she couldn’t find her place anymore.
11th look – is a very strong look, symbolizing a black crow. This is not just a symbol of death, which we could imagine if we tell story of a woman. It could be death of her husband, or divorce which is more likely. The black crow look is also symbolizing great mysteries of life in Asian cultures. Black crows are also messengers, in this story, messengers of god.
13th look it is a look of another messenger of gods, showing of directions to a woman.
And life of a woman begins again. She is looking for her new beginning and new ways to find herself in life. She is not reborn yet, but she is on her way. Looks from 14th to 20th shows variety of different ways and changes, Gathering and reassembling herself as a puzzle which was scattered and broken before.
Look 20 is a Lotus, big and powerful symbol of purity, enlightenment, self-regeneration and rebirth.
Look 21 can be considered as a wedding dress, and at the same time it symbolizes in our story a woman, who’s like phoenix reborn and have her spirit pure and strong.
And the final 22 dress with 2 meter train is an amazing piece of art symbolizing an Impress. In our story of a woman she became a very powerful Impress of her own life, she re-married, or she finally found her territory and her great reign begins.
There could be many story told. And it is without any choice the most beautiful, powerful and amazing collection of art pieces presented during this Haute Couture Spring Summer 2020 fashion week in Paris.
Art pieces and story at glance:
Atmosphere…
Embroideries…
Look by look – THE Story…