MET Costume Institute Gala 2015: "China: Through the Looking Glass"

[Benn98]

Oh wow, Dundas for Kim sounds like an exclusive. And I dont know what to expect from Carolina H for Zhang Ziyi. Really hoping for the best here.

 

[anlabe32]

^ The tags on instagram say CavalliGirls implying there are more than one. Maybe Kendall as well?
Honestly though. Why does Kim have to ruin everything. I was excited for Peter and Cavalli and I had hoped he would bring some of his favourite models as his dates. Still hoping though.

 

[gossiping]

^ yeah this is awful. she cannot make anything look good...if he had all the models it would be so much more beautiful

 

[happycanadian]

Karolina wearing Tommy Hilfiger?! Ugh.

I was hoping for another breathtaking couture moment.

 

[dodencebt]

Jourdan Dunn is going dressed in Burberry tonight, according to Burberry's Twitter account.

Designed exclusively for @MissJourdanDunn - a custom lace @Burberry gown for tonight’s #MetGala in New York

twitter.com

 

[liralita]

Gemma confirmed on Instagram she'll be there dressed by Michael Kors.

 

[kokobombon]

Wow Gemma, cant wait! What time does it start?

 

[gossiping]

naomi in burberry too yay

 

[zacatecas570]

Natasha is going too, probably wearing Cavalli by Dundas. Is there a livestream for the show??

 

[Marc10]

Let's move all the attendees and red carpet talk to the Star Style thread please: http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f5...-2015-china-through-looking-glass-265807.html

 

[agee]

From vanityfair.com:

May 4, 2015 9:56 pm
The Story Behind Rihanna’s Red Carpet-Winning Met Gala Dress


From Getty Images, image hosted by postimage.org.

That train, though.
by Rachel Tashijan

The Met Gala red carpet was shaping up to be a respectful but restrained affair of tasteful red dresses and flame-like silhouettes on Monday night. Then Rihanna appeared on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in an imperial yellow, fur-trimmed cape that was embroidered with scrolls and scrolls and scrolls of flora (and a headdress!).

“I’m so in love with this dress, but the train is insane!” Rihanna told VF.com on the red carpet. “I can’t really walk in it without any help—but it’s so worth it. I love this dress so much! It’s Chinese couture and it’s made by Guo Pei. It’s handmade by one Chinese woman and it took her two years to make. I found it online.”

“I was researching Chinese couture on the Internet and I found it,” she said.


From Getty Images, image hosted by postimage.org.

That makes fashion’s most-watched woman (pop diva, category) one of the few attendees at this year's Met Gala (theme: “China: Through the Looking Glass”) to wear a Chinese designer. It also caps off a big moment for Pei, who is fresh off a collaboration with MAC Cosmetics and has two garments in the Met’s exhibition. She is a go-to designer for Chinese stars like Li Bingbing and Zhang Ziyi and has been profiled by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times Magazine, but her name remains relatively unknown in Western fashion (a curious phenomenon of the kind the Met’s exhibit is well-poised to address). Profiling her in 2010, Cathy Horyn compared Pei to Charles James, the American couturier who was the subject of last year’s Costume Institute exhibit.

The laborious production process for Pei’s garments is something of a signature. Her “Magnificent Gold” dress that appears in the Met show took 50,000 hours to make, Pei told the Cut, while her “Blue and Porcelain” dress, also on display, took 10,000 hours.

In a comment that seems prescient of Rihanna’s show-stopping look on Monday, Pei told the blog of her designs, “The focus and the attention paid to this dress will make it remembered by the world—[what] I want is to make them remember. . . . It is my responsibility to let the world know China’s tradition and past, and to give the splendor of China a new expression. I hope that people do know China in this way.”

—with additional reporting by Paul Chi

 

[agee]

From glamour.com:

5 Things to Know About Guo Pei, the Chinese Designer Behind Rihanna's Epic Met Ball Dress
By Nikki Ogunnaike
May 4, 2015

When Rihanna stepped onto the Met Gala red carpet in a jaw-dropping yellow gown, the fashion world pretty much came to a standstill. But who was the genius behind the epic creation? That honor belongs to Chinese couture designer Guo Pei.

• The Bejing-based designer, 45, has been designing for 26 years. According to the The Straits Times, Pei took up fashion studies at the Beijing Second Light Industry School, then specialized in ready-to-wear in a women's fashion company, Tian Ma. She started Rose Studio, a bespoke clothing business, in 1997.
  
• The newspaper reports Pei "worked on her first couture dress in 2005, after a trip to Paris, where, on a visit to the Musee de l'Armee or the French Army Museum, she was so inspired by Napoleon Bonaparte's regal military uniforms that she created a ball gown spun entirely from gold thread. It took a whole year to complete, with up to 100 workers embroidering the garment."
  
• The designer has been compared to everyone from Alexander McQueen to Coco Chanel
  
• Pei has two pieces in this year's Costume Institute exhibit: "Magnificent Gold was my design 12 years ago. It is displayed in one room in the Met, and it takes up the whole room, just one dress," the designer told New York magazine. "At the time of designing it, I really did not know the concept of haute couture." She continued, "My other dress is called Blue and Porcelain— as you know, china’s name comes from China, porcelain." Magnificent Gold apparently took 50,000 hours to make, while Blue & Porcelain took 10,000.
  
• Pei plans on launching a ready-to-wear collection this year. "Too many people around me say they love my dresses but cannot afford them. That makes me sad because I am not a designer for the minority," the designer told The Straits Times.

Check out one of Pei's fashion shows here:


youtube.com/FIDé Fashion Weeks