CONTENTS
 

Impressum

Vol.21  Issue DEZEMBER 2021

01.12.2021 Tags : #paris #pfw #hautecouture #fashion #fashionweek #catwalk #style #trend #model #apparel #designer #guopei #sanfrancisco #thefineartsmuseumsofsanfrancisco
Text : FINE ART MUSEUMS OF SAN FRANCISCO/Guo Pei Photos: Fashionfreak!

Guo Pei : Couture Fantasy to transform the Legion of Honor

Exclusive presentation of collections from Paris and Beijing runways

Guo Pei

Through exquisite craftsmanship, lavish embroidery, and unconventional dressmaking techniques, designer Guo Pei creates a couture fantasy that fuses the influences of China’s imperial past with export art, the grandeur of European court life, architecture, and the botanical world. The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (the “Museums”) are pleased to celebrate Guo Pei’s extraordinary designs with Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy, the first comprehensive exhibition of her groundbreaking work. The exhibition will include more than 80 ensembles from the past two decades, highlighting the designer’s most important fashion collections, shown on Beijing and Paris runways, including many designs that have never before been shown to the public. Couture Fantasy will be exclusively presented at the Legion of Honor.

“Drawing inspiration from European and Chinese artistic traditions, Guo Pei’s creations blur the boundaries between art and fashion. Displayed in a neoclassical architectural context at the Legion Honor, amidst our collection of European art, Pei’s designs will encourage our visitors to consider the rich historical ties between China and the West.” states Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco: “San Francisco, with our position on the Pacific Rim and our significant Chinese heritage, is a natural location to premiere the first major museum exhibition on Guo Pei’s work and we are delighted to present her exquisite designs to US audiences.”

“Drawing inspiration from European and Chinese artistic traditions, Guo Pei’s creations blur the boundaries between art and fashion. Displayed in a neoclassical architectural context at the Legion Honor, amidst our collection of European art, Pei’s designs will encourage our visitors to consider the rich historical ties between China and the West.” states Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco: “San Francisco, with our position on the Pacific Rim and our significant Chinese heritage, is a natural location to premiere the first major museum exhibition on Guo Pei’s work and we are delighted to present her exquisite designs to US audiences.”

Artist and designer Guo Pei says: “As a creator and artist, there is no greater honor or privilege than to share my creativity with a wider audience. I am therefore honored and humbled that the prestigious Legion of Honor Museum will be presenting a retrospective of my work. In doing so, I hope that it will bring greater awareness and understanding of my life’s passion, and convey Chinese culture, traditions and show the new face of contemporary China.”

IN DETAIL
Couture Fantasy will invite visitors on a journey into Guo Pei’s creative universe with designs displayed throughout the permanent collection and special exhibition galleries at the Legion of Honor, transforming the museum into a palace of couture.

Permanent Collection Galleries
The museum’s collections of European painting and decorative arts are presented in a suite of galleries designed in the neoclassical style on the Legion of Honor’s main floor. As a metaphor for the intercontinental world in which we live, opulent and intricate designs by Guo Pei will be displayed in these galleries. The dialogues created will highlight the sculptural nature, and the historical and iconographical references made by the designer in her creations.

Examples include the “Phoenix” gown from the designer’s Legend of the Dragon collection (2012), presented as the guest of honor in the museum’s popular grand gilded historical French reception room, the “Salon Doré. The majestic gold-embroidered “Dajing” (“Magnificent Gold”) ensemble from the Samsara (Lifecycle) collection (2006) will take center stage among works of French and Italian Baroque and Rococo art. Gowns from the Legends collection, inspired by the Abbey of St Gall in Switzerland, will be situated among the saint icons and Madonna figures that populate the medieval gallery. Several pieces from the Encounter and Courtyard collections (both 2016) will be interspersed in the French and British painting and Decorative Arts galleries, highlighting the transcultural resonance of Guo Pei’s designs. A gallery will be dedicated to a special presentation that juxtaposes objects from the Museums’ collections of Chinese export art and European chinoiserie—including a tapestry, vases, and a tea set—with Guo Pei’s “Porcelain” dress from the One Thousand and Two Nights (2010) collection.

Special Exhibition Galleries
Downstairs, the presentation will continue in the special exhibition galleries, each dedicated to one or more of Guo Pei’s key runway collections.

The opening gallery, Rosekrans Court, will provide a dramatic backdrop for an exploration of the interplay between theater and costume design in Chinese fashion. Shown on the runway as a play, An Amazing Journey in a Childhood Dream (2008) was created when Guo was pregnant with her second child. For this collection, she envisioned her daughter’s dolls coming to life. These playful designs reveal an overlay of influences that define Guo’s artistic vision. The tightly pleated dresses, made from origami-like folds, reference Guo’s own childhood and the toys she made and played with during the Cultural Revolution. The pastel color palette derives from eighteenth-century French drawings; and the separates embroidered with raised metallic thread were inspired by matador costumes worn by Spanish bullfighters.

“For Guo Pei, each collection starts with a philosophical idea—a spark of inspiration—drawn from a wide range of sources from her personal life and travels, as well as art and architecture, literature, and nature. Layers of meaning and imagery form a bricolage of opulent surfaces imposed upon sculptural silhouettes,” explains Jill D’Alessandro, Curator in Charge of Costume and Textile Arts.

Floral motifs, associated with traditional notions of femininity, have a long history in Chinese decorative arts and textiles and appear frequently in Guo Pei’s designs. The next gallery will focus on the botanical world through two collections: Garden of Soul (2015) and Elysium (2018). Guo Pei cites the Chinese saying “There is a kingdom in a flower; wisdom in a leaf” as the inspiration for Garden of Soul. She further explains, “I always find the power of nature fascinating, especially when the flowers are blossoming,” and she draws comparisons between the human soul and gardens and their mutual need to be nurtured. In Elysium, Guo Pei continued to explore botanical life, looking not to the flower petals but the root structures. “Roots are the source of life and vitality; without roots, there’s no life,” she explains. The designer employed skilled bamboo-basket weavers to create the voluminous silhouettes with intricate embroidered detailing that form part of this collection.

The following gallery will be dedicated to the skilled artisans who work in Guo Pei’s atelier. Visitors will get unique insight into the designer’s adaptation of traditional techniques and the time-consuming craft of creating couture in a display of “long pau,” or “dragon robes,” juxtaposed with three ensembles from Guo Pei’s Legend of the Dragon collection (2012), current works in progress, and a video of Guo Pei’s atelier.

Exhibiting in Paris and traveling in Europe has had a profound impact on Guo Pei’s work. The next gallery will present Guo Pei’s exploration of architectural elements in two collections called Legend and L’Architecture. Guo Pei’s second couture collection presented in Paris, Legend (Spring 2017), was inspired by a visit to the Abbey of St Gall in Switzerland. For this collection, she commissioned a fabric woven of gold metal fiber and silk thread, printed with images from the cathedral’s arched domes. Guo Pei staged her runway presentation for L’Architecture (Fall/Winter 2018–2019 Paris Haute Couture Week), at the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine. The museum’s extensive collections of Romanesque, Gothic, and Neoclassical molds served as the inspiration for the collection. In Guo Pei’s hands, flying buttresses were translated into wide panniers of translucent silk with a stated intention to evoke architecture’s “beauty of strength” and foster “a dialogue between the human body and spatial dimension.”

China’s imperial past and the country’s vast cultural history was the focus for the collection East Palace (2019). For this runway show, presented at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Guo Pei created a rendition of the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City. Inspired by Qing Dynasty court dress, Guo presented an overview of traditional Chinese dress and Chinese design elements, with elaborate three dimensional pale gold embroidery of imperial dragons, birds, and flowers.

The penultimate gallery will present Guo Pei’s most recent collection, Himalaya (Spring/Summer 2020 Haute Couture). In its creation, Guo Pei was drawn to the Himalaya mountain range—as a holy place, the residence of the gods, and a sacred temple of the soul and other Asian cultures. She used her personal collection of rare obi belts from Japan, which she and her team transformed by turning them inside out and reassembling them to show the time and labor of the skilled weavers who created these exquisite textiles. Guo Pei states, “Haute couture is not made for commercial gain, but more for a kind of inner quest, a satisfaction of our spiritual being.”

The fantastical collection Alternate Universe (2019–2020) will serve as the exhibition finale. Inspired by the ideas of an afterlife and reincarnation, Guo Pei expresses that, “Since death is inevitable, I prefer to imagine it as a dream, an alternate universe parallel to this world, where everything returns to its original state of true pureness and beauty. It is the start of a mysterious journey.” The ensembles presented symbolize light and darkness coexisting, angels and demons next to one another, and magical creatures creeping out of the shadows. Her signature three-dimensional embroidery techniques conjure up animal and insect motifs, from the monkeys of Aesop’s Fables to the snake that lured Eve to steal the forbidden fruit.

Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy is curated by Jill D’Alessandro, Curator in Charge of Costume and Textile Arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, in close collaboration with Guo Pei. BuYun Chen, Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies at Swarthmore College, and currently fellow at Stanford Humanities Center, and Rachel Silberstein, Lecturer in the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington serve as advising scholars to the exhibition.
Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco with significant support from the Asian Couture Federation.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Guo Pei is China’s most renowned couturier. For over 20 years, she has been dressing celebrities, royalty, and political elite. Born in 1967, she started sewing at a very young age and quickly developed a passion for dressmaking. In 1986, she graduated at the top of her class from the Beijing Second Light Industry School, and she spent the next ten years designing for major manufacturers.
In 1997 she launched her own label and atelier, Rose Studio. Today she employs nearly five hundred skilled artisans dedicated to producing her stunning creations, some of which can take thousands of hours and up to two years to complete.
In 2015, Guo Pei became the second native Chinese member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, the chief governing body of the high-fashion industry, allowing her to show on the Paris Haute Couture Week calendar. She made her Paris haute-couture debut in January 2016, unveiling her Courtyard collection to wide critical acclaim. In the same year, she was also named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People and one of the Business of Fashion’s BoF 500, a list of the most influential people shaping the global fashion industry.

EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
A lavish catalogue will be published to accompany Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy. The publication showcases the garments’ consummate craftsmanship, lavish embroidery, and unconventional dressmaking techniques, all of which are hallmarks of Guo Pei’s work. In addition to its visual splendor, the book features a Q&A with the designer; essays by Jill D’Alessandro, Curator in Charge of Costume and Textile Arts; I-Fen Huang, Assistant Curator, National Palace Museum Taipei; and Anna Katharina Grasskamp, Assistant Professor, Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University.

EXHIBITION ORGANIZATION
Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco with significant support from the Asian Couture Federation.
VISITING \ LEGION OF HONOR
Lincoln Park, 100 34th Avenue, San Francisco.

ABOUT THE FINE ART MUSEUMS OF SAN FRANCISCO
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco oversee the de Young, located in Golden Gate Park, and the Legion of Honor, in Lincoln Park. It is the largest public arts institution in San Francisco and one of the most visited arts institutions in the United States.

The Legion of Honor was modeled after the neoclassical Palais de la Légion d’Honneur in Paris. The museum, designed by George Applegarth, opened in 1924 on a bluff in Lincoln Park overlooking the Golden Gate. It offers unique insight into the art historical, political, and social movements of the previous 4,000 years of human history, with holdings including ancient art from the Mediterranean basin; European painting, sculpture, and decorative arts; and the largest collection of works on paper in the American West.

Date : April 16-September 5, 2022 \ Legion of Honor, San Francisco

See some more photos on this site :
Impressions Haute Couture F/W 2019/20 Part 6
Impressions Haute Couture F/W 2018/19 Part 6
Impressions Haute Couture S/S 2018 Part 6
Impressions Haute Couture F/W 2017/18 Part 2
Impressions Haute Couture F/W 2016 Part 5

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12.12.2021 Tags : #frankfurt #ffw #couture #fashion #fashionweek #catwalk #style #trend #model #apparel #designer
Text/Photos : FFW

FRANKFURT FASHION WEEK

PHYSISCHE PREMIERE IM JANUAR

See you in January! Nach der ersten digitalen Ausgabe im Juli 2021 wird die Frankfurt Fashion Week vom 17. bis 21. Januar 2022 erstmals physisch stattfinden. Zugleich hat die anhaltende Corona-Pandemie weiterhin massive Einschränkungen auf Messen und Veranstaltungen zur Folge. Unter Einhaltung strikter Hygienekonzepte und im Einklang mit den geltenden Vorschriften bietet die Frankfurt Fashion Week der Branche und allen Mode-Enthusiasten, business-fokussierte Möglichkeiten um in Frankfurt zusammenzukommen, sich zu vernetzen, auszutauschen und begeistern zu lassen.

„Wir blicken pandemiebedingt bedacht, aber mit großer Vorfreude der ersten physischen Ausgabe der Frankfurt Fashion Week entgegen – auf unserem Messegelände und auch an diversen Orten über das Stadtgebiet verteilt. Alle Modebegeisterten laden wir zu einer spannenden Veranstaltungsreihe ein, die unter Einhaltung der nötigen Hygienebedingungen nach Einschätzung der aktuellen Pandemielage stattfinden kann. Ein toller Blickfang im öffentlichen Raum wird die B-Ebene der Hauptwache werden, darüber hinaus freuen wir uns auf eine Ausstellung mit Aufnahmen des Frankfurter Fotografen Helmut Fricke. Die Frankfurt Fashion Week kann bereits jetzt beachtliche internationale Aufmerksamkeit aufweisen. Zur volldigitalen Juli-Ausgabe waren es bereits 25.000 Teilnehmende aus 60 Ländern, begleitet von insgesamt 690 Millionen Medienkontakten weltweit. Bereits heute richten wir den Blick auf Sommer 2022, wenn die nächsten Schritte erfolgen und die Intensität in Richtung Öffentlichkeit und Veranstaltungen gesteigert werden“, sagt Peter Feldmann, Oberbürgermeister der Stadt Frankfurt am Main.

„Mit der Frankfurt Fashion Week wollen wir Bilder und Emotionen des Mode-, Kreativ- und Wirtschaftsstandortes Frankfurt um die Welt senden. Die Einbindung lokaler Akteure ist ebenso wichtig wie die globale Aufmerksamkeit für den Standort Frankfurt. Unserer Messe gelingt ein sehr gutes Zusammenspiel - gemeinsam mit den globalen Playern der Modeszene und den beteiligten Lokalakteuren. Angesichts der hohen Bedeutung der Frankfurt Fashion Week für den Mode- und Messestandort Frankfurt ist der Spagat zwischen Liveerlebnis und hybriden Elementen entscheidend“, sagt Stephanie Wüst, Stadtrat für Wirtschaft, Recht und Reformen. Gleichzeitig schätzt sie wert, dass die Messe Frankfurt das pandemiebedingte Geschehen sehr agil und in enger Abstimmung mit den Behörden berücksichtige.

„Back to Business! Wir setzen alles daran, dass die zweite Frankfurt Fashion Week als physische Veranstaltung stattfindet. Auch wenn wir pandemiebedingt längst nicht die avisierte Größe und Internationalität der Gesamtveranstaltung umsetzen und auch das Potenzial der geplanten Aktivitäten in diesem Winter nicht ausschöpfen können – wir arbeiten mit Hochdruck an der Umsetzung unserer Formate: Tradeshows, Konferenzen, Showcases und Events“, bekräftigt Detlef Braun, Geschäftsführer der Messe Frankfurt.

Umfassendes Hygiene- und Sicherheitskonzept
In Abstimmung mit den Behörden und Sicherheitsspezialisten beobachten die Verantwortlichen der Messe Frankfurt und der Premium Group permanent die pandemischen Entwicklungen. Sie setzen auf ein umfassendes Hygiene- und Sicherheitskonzept, das an die gegenwärtige Pandemiesituation und die entsprechenden Vorgaben angepasst ist. Für alle Veranstaltungen gelten die Bestimmungen der aktuellen Coronavirus-Schutzverordnung des Landes Hessen sowie Vorgaben der Gesundheitsbehörde der Stadt Frankfurt am Main. Alle Teilnehmer der Frankfurt Fashion Week müssen gemäß der 2G+ Zutrittsregelung dieser Verordnung vollständig geimpft oder genesen sein und ein tagesaktuelles zertifiziertes Testergebnis vorweisen (keine Selbstschnelltests).

Damit halten die Messe Frankfurt und die Premium Group an einem physischen ersten Aufschlag der Tradeshows in Frankfurt fest. Die drei Messen, die den europäischen Modemarkt in den vergangenen Jahren maßgeblich geprägt haben, werden wie geplant innerhalb der Frankfurt Fashion Week (17. bis 21. Januar) vom 18. bis 20. Januar 2022 ausgerichtet:
- Premium, die internationale Business-Plattform für Advanced Contemporary Fashion
- Seek, hier trifft sich die progressive Fashion-Community, um Zukunft zu gestalten
- Neonyt, die führende Business-Plattform für Mode, Nachhaltigkeit, Innovation und Advanced Fabrics

Das von der Premium Group veranstaltete Fashion-Festival für eine purpose-orientierte Generation – The Ground – zeigt eine Preview und liefert damit einen Ausblick auf die Premiere im Sommer. Die neue Homebase für Quality- und Lifestyle-Fashion im Mainstream-Bereich – Val:ue – veranstaltet von der Messe Frankfurt, verschiebt ihre Premiere auf Juli 2022.

Showrooms, Vernissagen, Installationen und Ausstellungen sowie Konferenzen, Talks und Panels können auf dieser Basis – neben den etablierten Messen – ebenfalls durchgeführt werden, insbesondere die Konferenzformate Fashionsustain und Fashiontech oder der Neonyt Showcase. Auch die Frankfurt Stage des Fashion Councils Germany (FCG) findet statt. Bei dem Wettbewerb für Designer vergibt der FCG gemeinsam mit der Messe Frankfurt die komplette Produktion des besten Fashion Show Konzepts. Daneben sind weitere Brand-Showcases geplant. Darüber hinaus lädt der FCG weitere Fashion Councils aus der EU zu einem Summit nach Frankfurt ein – mit dem Ziel ein Manifest zu formulieren, das die Branche nachhaltig verändert.

Auch die zahlreichen Cityaktivitäten des begleitenden AAAREA Events sowie die Veranstalter der Official Side Events der FFW werden für erste emotionale und physische Frankfurt Fashion Week Momente sorgen:
Im Rahmen des AAAREA(*1) Events werden beispielsweise unter dem Titel RUNWAY B(eautiful)- Ebene an der Hauptwache Modefotografien ausgestellt und für alle zugänglich gemacht. In diversen Locations zeigt Helmut Fricke FASHION Werke des Frankfurter Fotografen. Sein Portfolio umfasst Aufnahmen von allen großen Laufstegen dieser Welt – Claudia Schiffer und Naomi Campell ebenso wie Lady Gaga und Campino. Ein weiteres Highlight ist die Hilton Closing Reception mit Musikproduzent Shantel, wofür ein Großteil der Tickets verlost wird.

Abgerundet wird das Programm durch Angebote des digitalen FFW STUDIOs. Weitere Informationen zum detaillierten Programm der Runways, Showcases, Konferenzen und Side Events sowie den digitalen Angeboten des FFW STUDIOs folgen in den nächsten Wochen.

(*1)AAAREA GmbH
Die AAAREA GmbH ist ein Zusammenschluss von elf Kreativ-Agenturen aus Frankfurt am Main. Ihr Ziel ist es, zu bestimmten Themen und Anlässen Frankfurt und die Region zu aktivieren und für die Menschen ein facettenreiches Angebot zu schaffen. Orte in der Stadt werden mit verschiedensten Erlebnissen bespielt – als Präsenzangebote, rein digital oder beides. Das dreifache A steht für Access All Areas: Ein frei verkäuflicher AAA-Pass ermöglicht seinen Inhaber Zugang zu allen betreffenden Orten oder Plattformen.

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