Fashion star Guo Pei on her upcoming M+ show – and an unexpected request from Rihanna
The fashion designer tells Kate Whitehead about helping Rihanna shine like a diamond at the Met Gala, and why she is now focused on putting China in the spotlight
My father began his career as a soldier. By the time I was born in Beijing in 1967, he was an officer at a state-owned corporation. My mother was a kindergarten teacher. My dad had only one day off every two weeks and my mother also worked long hours, so until I went to school I stayed with my grandmother. I saw my parents when they had a weekend off. My grandmother lived in a big siheyuan (courtyard house). She had good relations with the neighbours and all of us kids played together in the courtyard. We’d draw squares on the ground and play hopscotch. I have happy memories of those days. It was a simple life.
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How a surprise message from Rihanna changed designer Guo Pei's career
Sewing seeds
One of my earliest memories is of my grandmother telling me a bedtime story when I was about two. She told me when she was young, she embroidered flowers and butterflies on her clothes. I wondered how she did that because flowers are three-dimensional. It inspired my imagination and made me curious about embroidery. When my mother was young, she got an eye disease that left her almost blind. In those days, children wore cotton-padded clothes that had to be taken apart to be washed and then stitched back together. This job fell to my mother. Although she couldn’t see, she was determined to do everything herself. When I was two, she made a game of asking me to help her thread a needle. I sat next to her and watched as she sewed because she wanted me to make sure she was sewing in a straight line.
One-track mind
My parents were the first among their friends to get a treadle (foot-operated) sewing machine. I wasn’t tall enough to sit at the machine, but I would step on the foot pedal. It became a toy for me, a kind of game. By the time I was seven and starting junior school, I could use a sewing machine. A year later and I could make simple clothes. In those days, people didn’t have many clothes. Children wore hand-me-downs that were often too big. Because of my sewing skills, I could tailor my clothes to fit me. I knew from the age of about three that I liked making clothes. I’ve never thought about wanting to do anything else, and I think this has helped make my life very smooth.
