Chinese Couturier Guo Pei Talks About Her Superstar Muses
GUO PEI, China’s couturier to the stars (The Bingbings, RiRi!), was in town recently for Singapore Fashion Week. We speak to her before her show to ask her about her most famous creations.
“I have turned down many stars before who want to wear my clothes,” says Guo Pei, when we meet her at the National Gallery Singapore. “But my requirements aren’t set in stone. If I like someone, I’ll not be so strict. But if I don’t know her well, I’ll stick to my principals. She has to have what it takes to carry my clothes and she has to wear it to the right occasion.”
Rihanna
“Oh, there’s a special place for her in my heart. She’s just invincible. I never thought she could carry this dress off and I thought she would turn it down. But she’s so brave… Like a queen. She showed me that for a person to be successful, one has to be strong. She had to come face-to-face with so many cameras and be prepared to get judged, so she’s mentally very strong. She’s also funny. She told me, “This dress is so beautiful, I don’t have to wear anything [underneath].”
Fan Bingbing
“She wore this dress for a promotional video about China and she really liked it because the Chinese porcelain design easily expresses our culture. But it wasn’t tailor-made for her. You can see a line down the side of the dress —we had to take the dress out to fit her. Bingbing is a very strong girl. She is full of confidence. She is someone who can own everything she touches. That’s why every designer wants to work with her ’cos she can express their designs well.”
Li Bingbing
“This was made for her. China just experienced a bad earthquake and we both wanted to do something meaningful. Bingbing is someone who is full of love, and this dress, with a hundred of the Chinese character for ‘good fortune’ embroidered on it, was a prayer for the country. I asked for the dress back from her ’cos I told her that I would want it to be on display when I have my own museum.”
Zhang Ziyi
“She was performing for the Chinese New Year Eve show and she said that if she didn’t get to wear this dress, she wouldn’t perform. So I knew how important it was. And more than a billion people saw her wear it on TV and they all loved it. I really like Ziyi. She looks like a little girl but she’s really steely in the inside. She has become softer since becoming a mum, or rather, she’s showing more of her softer side. Actually, Ziyi and the Bingbings are all very cute.”
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