Inside the Glamorous Opening Party for Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy

On April 13, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco celebrated the opening of Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy at the Legion of Honor with a black-tie dinner set in the venerable institution’s grand courtyard entrance.

For the first career-spanning exhibition of the couturier’s work, over 80 ensembles are presented en masse throughout the museum’s lower-level galleries, with several juxtaposed against the backdrop of its permanent collection of European paintings and decorative arts above. In its popular gilded French reception space, the Salon Doré, a gold silk gown from her 2012 Legend of the Dragon collection held court over the existing masterpieces, while others stood majestically among French and Italian Baroque and Rococo art—and British works—across the Decorative Arts galleries, as well as the icons and Madonna figures in the medieval gallery.

Pei, only the second native Chinese designer to be invited by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture as a guest member, first came into wide view of Western audiences in 2015 when Rihanna wore an ornate canary yellow fur-trimmed gown—originally designed in 2010—to that year’s Met Gala.

Though the iconic gown’s absence in the show was a topic of conversation among guests, it doesn’t detract from the overall impact of the incredibly powerful, painstakingly hand-embroidered, and architecturally stunning works of art that are included. Jill D’Alessandro, the museum’s costume and textile curator worked closely with Pei to curate the seminal exhibition (on view through Sept. 5) that includes highlights from her most significant presentations from the last 20 years.

While Pei was unable to attend—owed to heightened Covid travel restrictions in China—presenting sponsors, including John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn, were joined by museum director Thomas Campbell, president of the Asian Couture Federation Dr. Frank Cintamani, fashion designer Kevan Hall, London-based fashion journalist Suzy Menkes, rapper Jay Wayne “Jeezy” Jenkins and Jeannie Mai-Jenkins, jazz singer Paula West, Zoom co-founder Eric S. Yuan, Vizio founder William Wang and Sakurako Wang, BroadVision founder Pehong Chen and Adele Chen, philanthropist Phoebe Cowles, Sabrina Buell, Christine Suppes, Jessica Silverman, Sarah Thornton, Komal Shah, Lisa and James Zanze, Kathryn and Bo Lasater, Mary Beth Shimmon, Ella Qing Hou, and Sandy Miller.