Guo Pei: Inside the world of China’s couture queen

Her star rose after she dressed Rihanna in the 2015 Met Gala, but there is so much more to China’s first lady of fashion. On 4 May 2015, Rihanna wore the label’s now-famous Yellow Empress gown to the Met Gala – a breath-taking yellow cape that took two years to create and 50,000 hours’ worth of embroidery. Pei – who had by then been designing couture for 30 years – immediately became a fashion star, raising a greater awareness of Chinese fashion generally.