M+ presents the first major exhibition in East Asia of China’s pre-eminent couture artist Guo Pei, supported by Lead Sponsor HSBC.

The exhibition features more than forty showstopping haute couture pieces, including Guo’s career-defining The Yellow Queen gown, worn by Rihanna to the Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2015.

Organised into five main themes that showcase Guo’s imagination and creativity, the exhibition places her garments in dialogue with more than forty art and design works from the M+ Collections, highlighting the resonances of Guo’s work across media, eras, and cultures.

Guo Pei will speak at a public talk during the opening on Saturday, 21 September 2024.

Screenings of the documentary Yellow Is Forbidden (2018), which traces Guo’s haute couture journey, will be held at M+ Cinema.

Guo Pei (b. 1967), China’s first couture artist, combines Chinese cultural heritage with international elements and artistic expression. Guo's astonishing runway collections have impressed fashion and art audiences alike for almost 30 years. Presenting the first major exhibition of Guo’s work produced in China, M+ will showcase Guo’s key collections and early designs, highlighting her unique career connecting China and the rest of the world and the cultural symbols created through her sophisticated and visually dazzling practice. Working with the couturier and her studio, the exhibition presents a selection of garments shown to audiences in the region for the first time, creating a layered dialogue with the M+ Collections around visual imagination and workmanship. The exhibition foregrounds Guo Pei's unique artistic style that resonates with imperial Chinese dress etiquette, European royal fashion, architecture, and the botanical world.