Guo Pei Is Giving You Fairytale Eleganza and Visions of Gold

Guo Pei, the designer responsible for Rihanna’s 2015 Met Ball vision in jaune, today showed a collection of dizzying couture confections in blue and gold. These garments are all handcrafted! It’s Haute Couture Week! This woman did not phone it in!

The collection, Vogue surmises, might be inspired by “l’heure bleue, when twilight casts a mystical blue aura on the world,” shot through with intricate blue embroidery and such; per Pei, her vision was more about “roots and life.” Blue was more of an accent. Gold, in all its glory, was the star.

“I think gold embodies what is at the top in terms of knowledge and wealth,” she told Vogue. “I think it is the color of our souls.” A nice thought about the inherent good in people, I suppose, or just something to tell yourself when you’re feeling down. Moving on, if gold isn’t your color and you’d rather envision your Spring 2018 look as, say, Tinkerbell cosplaying Final Fantasy 2, maybe the blues are for you.

Every day does not call for a shoulder embellishment or a flock of golden flowers flying out of your dome, so Guo is giving you some options.

All of this glamour is hand sewn—high fantasy, a riotous explosion of florals—so intricate and well-constructed that at first glance, it appears to be machine-made. Shades of Iris Van Herpen, whose dexterity with a 3-D printer makes for some beautifully organic fakery.

Listen—many people handmade this golden flower nonsense you see above. Respect! The! Art!