Guo Pei: China's timeless haute couturier

For many people, the fashion world is a place where fame meets fortune. Tall, slim supermodels strut elegantly in clothes decorated in gold and silver; luxury goods are produced from this array of fancy attire and subsequently brought into the market, leading the trends of each season. Paris, the world’s fashion capital, has become the place to be for many aspiring designers.

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On the star-lit runways of Paris, a woman from Asia has caught the attention of many in this ever-changing industry. 

“I don’t want to design up-to-date fashion," said Guo Pei, one of China’s first-generation fashion designers and haute couturiers. "I refrain from defining the lifespan of anything with time.”

Haute couture is an artistic, personalized method of design that Guo believes outlives the lifespan of “trendy clothes.” She hopes to merge clothes, people and culture into one, to create the sort of fashion that can truly become part of people’s lives.

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Guo loves designing wedding gowns, believing that “a single wedding gown can be passed down for three generations.” Traditionally in China, a mother sews her daughter’s wedding gown. Each needle and thread carries the affection and prayers of a mother to her child.

In modern China, only a few wear traditional wedding gowns on their big day. However, today, more celebrities are appearing in public wearing Chinese-style wedding gowns designed by Guo, slowly making her and her traditional handicraft the new mainstream.

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Guo's studio is most famous for traditional embroidery. All her designs are handmade, stitch after stitch, by the studio’s embroiderers. Some pieces could take thousands of hours to complete. Authentic gold and silver threads and luxurious fabrics are used, and some of her designs weigh up to a few dozen pounds. Guo emphasizes the importance of the history and heritage of traditional clothes and craftsmanship, so she rarely uses modern technology in her fashion.

Pure handicraft like this is deemed to be valuable enough to pass down to the next few generations.

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Guo's designs focus on the aspect of culture. She finds inspiration not only in traditional Chinese culture, but also the cultural exchanges that have been going on for the past few centuries, culminating in the flowers and birds shown in her designs. That’s why, aside from traditional dragon, phoenix, flower and bird patterns, she also incorporates flowers and fruits from western regions into her designs.

In the “Courtyard” series, Guo incorporated patterns showing the flowers and plants that grow inside Chinese courtyards into Western-style gowns, creating a graceful combination of the classic and the modern. This series was the grand finale at the 2016 Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week. 

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Guo's pursuit of beauty and her design aesthetic have garnered the attention of the fashion industry. One of her most recognizable designs was featured on the red carpet at the 2015 Met Gala. Singer Rihanna attended the annual event draped in a yellow dress and dramatic, fur-lined cape designed by Guo. 

At her 2017 Paris fashion show “Legend,” 86-year-old supermodel Carmen Dell'Orefice, known as the world's oldest working supermodel, closed Guo's show in a blood-red gown. 

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The two also collaborated back in 2010 during her “One Thousand and Two Nights” show. Upon seeing her design, Carmen said: “Pure beauty like this has left me in awe.”

“Through handicraft, I want to convey a state of mind, a true aspiration,” said Guo, who sometimes embroiders her own designs. She believes that haute couture can help people rise above themselves to create better things, leaving memories for future generations.

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Perhaps, for her customers and audience, the beauty of her designs is indeed a path to eternity.

(Sina Fashion Photo)

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CGTN Photo

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A $8 billion defense package approved by the U.S. House of Representatives over the weekend will “strengthen the deterrence against authoritarianism in the West Pacific ally chain,” Taiwan’s President-elect Lai Ching-te said Tuesday, in a reference to key rival China.

The funding will also “help ensure peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and also boost confidence in the region” Lai, currently Taiwan’s vice president, told visiting Michigan Representatives Lisa McClain, a Republican, and Democrat Dan Kildee at a meeting at the Presidential Office Building in the capital Taipei.

In the face of “authoritarian expansionism,” Taiwan is “determined to safeguard democracy and also safeguard our homeland," Lai said.

Also known as William Lai, U.S.-educated former medical researcher is despised by Beijing for his opposition to political unification with the mainland. In recent elections, the pro-unification Nationalists won a narrow majority in the legislature, but their influence on foreign policy and other national issues remains limited.

The Senate will vote Tuesday on $95 billion in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

The package covers a wide range of parts and services aimed at maintaining and and upgrading Taiwan's military hardware. Separately, Taiwan has signed billions in contracts with the U.S. for latest-generation F-16V fighter jets, M1 Abrams main battle tanks and the HIMARS rocket system, which the U.S. has also supplied to Ukraine.

Taiwan has also been expanding its own defense industry, building submarines and trainer jets. Next month it plans to commission its third and fourth domestically designed and built stealth corvettes to counter the Chinese navy. as part of a strategy of asymmetrical warfare in which a smaller force counters its larger opponent by using cutting edge or nonconventional tactics and weaponry.

Lai, of the pro-independence ruling Democratic Progressive Party, won the January election handily and takes over next month from President Tsai Ing-wen, whom Beijing has sought to isolate for the past eight years.

China is determined to annex the island, which it considers its own territory, by force if necessary and has been advertising that threat with daily incursions into waters and air space around Taiwan by navy ships and warplanes. It has also sought to pick away Taiwan's few remaining formal diplomatic partners.

While Washington and Taipei have no formal diplomatic ties in deference to Beijing, McClain emphasized the need for the entire world to observe the strength of the relationship.

“Peace is our goal. But to do that, we have to have relationships and we value your relationship. Not only militarily, but economically,” she said.

Kildee said the timing of the visit was especially significant given the recent passage of the funding bill to “provide very important support to insure security in this region.”

"It’s important for the people of Taiwan, it’s important for the people in the United States, it’s important for the entire world,” Kildee said.

In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office, from left Mark Alford, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, U.S. Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee, Lisa McClain, secretary-general of the Republican Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives meets with Taiwan President-elect and Vice President Lai Ching-te in Taipei, Taiwan on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. McClain and Kildee jointly led a cross-party group of lawmakers to visit Taiwan from April 23 to 25 . Members also include Mark Alford, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)

In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office, Mark Alford, center left, a member of the House Armed Services Committee shakes hands with Taiwan President-elect and Vice President Lai Ching-te in Taipei, Taiwan on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. Lisa McClain, secretary-general of the Republican Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives and Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee jointly led a cross-party group of lawmakers to visit Taiwan from April 23 to 25 . Members also include Mark Alford, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)

In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office, U.S. Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee, left, meets with Taiwan President-elect and Vice President Lai Ching-te in Taipei, Taiwan on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. Kildee and Lisa McClain, secretary-general of the Republican Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives jointly led a cross-party group of lawmakers to visit Taiwan from April 23 to 25 . Members also include Mark Alford, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)

In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office, Lisa McClain, left, secretary-general of the Republican Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives meets with Taiwan President-elect and Vice President Lai Ching-te in Taipei, Taiwan on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. McClain and Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee jointly led a cross-party group of lawmakers to visit Taiwan from April 23 to 25 . Members also include Mark Alford, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)

In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office, Lisa McClain, left, secretary-general of the Republican Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives meets with Taiwan President-elect and Vice President Lai Ching-te in Taipei, Taiwan on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. McClain and Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee jointly led a cross-party group of lawmakers to visit Taiwan from April 23 to 25 . Members also include Mark Alford, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)