Magnificent Gold

Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy, exhibition at the Legion of Honor, San Francisco.

“I use the weight of the clothes, the height of the shoes, and the unwieldiness of the dress to represent the inner strength and confidence of a woman.”  —Guo Pei

From the Museum website: Da Jin (Magnificent Gold), 2005. 
"This piece is fully embroidered in gold with lotus flowers that combine Chinese embroidery techniques, Indian spring wire, and copper sheet material. The techniques include gold thread couching stitch (ding jin xiu), gold thread couching stitch (panjin xiu), running stitch (dian zhen xiu), chain stitch (la suo xiu), contour embroidery (lun kuo xiu), and beadwork (ding zhu xiu). The embroidery varies between richness and calmness, density and movement."

I’m so glad we made it to the city before this exhibit closed! Every piece was magnificent, every time you turned a corner there was something to make you smile in wonder, sometimes laugh out loud at the sheer joy of it all: just look at this! look at what she imagined, what she made happen!  

Gold, crystal, mother of pearl, silk, cabuchon, silver, beads, linen, bamboo, copper, rhinestones, lace, feathers, raffia, pearls—oh the list is long. I will never post this if I say everything I have to say about seeing these gorgeous pieces. There are so many videos that show Guo Pei’s work, there is so much written about the exquisite workmanship, the outrageousness of her vision. I was amazed, astonished and in awe.