Chinese couture designer, Guo Pei was a participant in HKFW Fall/Winter 2010. She has exhibited her fine designs at many venues, including her Legends collection, which showed as part of the inaugural National Gallery Victoria Triennial in Melbourne. The event ran for four months until April 15, 2018.

Ms Pei’s opulent garments at the NGV installation were inspired by the magnificent roccoco murals of the Cathedral of Saint Gall in Switzerland, built around AD719 and painted by Josef Wannenmacher.

Known for its baroque splendour and central cuppola, the Benedictiine cathedral is equipped with one of the oldest bells in Europe, which St Gall sourced in Ireland in the seventh century. During a trip to the Swiss town, Ms Pei visited the cathedral and was awed by its resplendent interior and dramatic murals. The experience led the designer to create a series of opulent garments that showcased in the NGV Triennial exhibition.

Over the next 18 months, the Beijing born artisan worked with haute couture fabric manufacturer Jakob Schlaepfe to design a bespoke fabric inspired by the cathedral murals. Her dramatic garments frequently feature special and ancient embroideries, applied by many of the hundreds of personnel who work for her at her Rose Studios in Beijing.

A graduate of the Beijing School of Industrial Fashion Design in 1986, Ms Pei believes she has a responsibility as a designer to draw on the history and culture of China in her garments, giving them a new expression.