“Beauty attracts us men, but if it is pointed, besides, with gold or silver, it attracts with ten fold power” Jean Paul Gaultier
Gold, found worldwide for millennia, has always been treasured for its gleaming luster, soft malleability, its rarity and permanence – it does not corrode or tarnish. Fashioned into idols, jewelry, coins, utensils and all manner of decorative items, perhaps its most amazing iteration is thread for weaving into cloth and garments.
The spectacular exhibit, “Au Fil de l’Or” at the Musée du quai Branly, Jacques Chirac (until July 6, 2025), traces this use of gold throughout the world. The visitor is transported to cultures from the Maghreb and Arab worlds to Southeast Asia and Japan through the fabrics and fashions created using gold thread and gold leaf. It begins and ends with the featured work of renowned Chinese fashion designer, Guo Pei, whose work is simply jaw dropping.
Though born in Beijing in 1967 when all forms of fantasy and elegance were forbidden, Guo always dreamed of creating beauty. Her mother taught her needlework (as a practical skill) but her grandmother fed her imagination with stories of the Qing dynasty; tales of the court ladies who competed for the most opulent and luxurious dresses. By her twenties, Guo had discovered couture and began realizing the dreams she carried in her mind. In 1997, at age 30, she opened Rose Studio, the first haute couture house in China.
Her aesthetic brings together the finest materials from around the world — silks, pearls, crystals, feathers, sequins — and combines gold and silver with old world hand stitching techniques to create stunningly bold and seemingly impossible forms, possible.
Inspiration comes from around the world, as well. In the above example, Guo uses original Spanish embroidery techniques for Toreador boleros and combines them with Chinese origami to create tiers of gold and silver embroidered layers.
This incredible creation was inspired by a trip to a Swiss textile manufacturing facility. She described her desire to the artistic director to create a garment that celebrated the ancient connection of gold with the sun. A year and a half later, this brilliant fabric of metallic threads and silk allowed her to express her vision.
Closer to home, Guo took Inspiration from the Himalayan Mountains. The purity of the lotus flower in particular is expressed in this creation that celebrates the deep sense of spirituality that permeates these remote mountains. Transcending space and time, the magnificent cape uses golden rays that all religions have used to symbolize the connection felt deep in the soul of all humans when confronted by the majesty of nature and the divine.
Pearls and gemstones surround and adorn the beatific face of a “thangka” while silk and furpom-poms form a snow white border all around.
From the crowned head encircled by a radiant halo to the beautifully crafted footwear suggesting traditional Chinese sandals, Guo expresses reverence for nature and the divine.
Guo loves the fantasy worlds of myths and legends. The Arabian stories of a Thousand and One Nights produced one of the exhibits most fantastical garments. One can imagine the matted gold skirt studded with gems as a carpet while the celestial blue head piece and sleeves fashioned in pyramids and capped with gold embroidery (as the original pyramids were capped in gold), invite a soaring ride into her magical world of design.
Even the footwear is so highly elevated as to lift one into the skies!
The final piece is a traditional wedding dress five years in the making. The dress is rich with the symbols for a blessed marriage all in thickly embroidered gold — clouds for harmony and happiness, the calabash trees symbolize good luck, prosperity and many children, peonies express a wish for richness of life and contentment with one another. Indeed, it is a physical manifestation of the hopes and dreams of lovers all over the world.
In the 1946 Lurex was invented — a polyester film covered with a metallic layer. This made dressing using the sparkle and allure of gold and silver within reach of the average person. Increase the power of your Purely Personal style “ten fold” by using a dash of gold!
