Chinese designer Guo Pei goes for gold at Paris Haute Couture Week

For her fourth outing at Paris Haute Couture Week, Chinese couturier Guo Pei turned to the golden era of haute couture for inspiration.

“For a long time, I have been using my designs and my work to express my feelings, my dreams and speak from my heart,” Guo says. “This season, I decided to just focus on the clothing itself.”

The result of the experiment was rather marvellous. Guo looked at the essence of haute couture with a unique point of view – her Chinese upbringing, cultural influences and her army of skilled artisans who are behind her every creative vision.

Among the 43 looks, there was plenty of ball gowns that could easily rival the statement “omelette” dress Rihanna wore at Met Gala 2015, accentuated with Guo’s signature embroidery and beading.

Yet, for this collection especially, Guo presented a series of body-hugging, simple silhouettes. The series focuses on high-shine, metallic gowns that had rarely been seen before in her collections. This was probably an attempt to tap a younger clientele perhaps, some of whom we spotted on the front row, including Zhang Zetian, wife of Chinese ecommerce giant JD.com boss Liu Qiangdong.