Oct 12, 2026 -Guo Pei's Garden of Ethereal Realms fills the China National Silk Museum in Hangzhou with about 200 haute couture pieces from four decades, led by the gown Rihanna wore to the 2015 Met Gala.
The centrepiece: Rihanna's gown
The piece most visitors will come for is the golden gown Rihanna wore up the steps of the 2015 Met Gala, themed "China: Through the Looking Glass". The exhibition presents it as a golden embroidered dragon robe; 2015 coverage described a golden-yellow cape and gown trimmed in fox fur, with a huge circular train.
The numbers explain the fuss. Guo Pei's team reportedly worked on it for close to two years, and it weighs about 25 kg (55 lb). Reported labour hours vary by source, from roughly 8,000 to 50,000, so treat any single figure with care.
The colour is part of the story: golden yellow was once reserved for the emperor. The gown was conceived in 2008, years before Rihanna found it online while researching Chinese couture, and it needed a three-person entourage to manage the train on the red carpet.
The collections on show
The nine series include One Thousand and Two Nights, Legend, Samsara, Paradise Island and Children's Dream. Gold and yellow run through all of them; every Guo Pei collection since 2006 has included striking yellow and gold pieces.
◆ One Thousand and Two Nights: debuted at China Fashion Week in November 2009.
◆ Legend: the exhibition lists it by title only. Guo Pei's best-known dragon line is Legend of the Dragon (2012), with golden dragon embroidery and crystal embellishment; one dress in it carries 465,756 hand-beaded pearls.
◆ Children's Dream: likely related to her 2007 collection An Amazing Journey in a Childhood Dream, which pairs nature with personal memory.
◆ Samsara and Paradise Island: also on show; the exhibition materials give no further detail.
Red carpet and national stages
Beyond Rihanna, the show gathers gowns made for Chinese stars, including Liu Shishi and Dilraba, so visitors can see couture built to be photographed. It also includes costumes created for national stages: the Beijing Olympics and the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.
Together they show her couture working on the red carpet and on national stages, not only in the gallery.
Four sections and a folded-paper installation
The galleries move through four sections:
◆ Time, Fable, Rebirth
◆ Building Dreams, Legend
◆ Dream Isle Garden
◆ Eastern Palace Echoes
A folded-paper installation sits among the garments. It reinterprets the contours, layers and power of haute couture through structure alone.
Why a silk museum
The China National Silk Museum is dedicated to silk, textiles and costume culture, so it reads Guo Pei's couture against the history of silk and dress. The framing asks visitors to look again at traditional materials and craftsmanship, and at the time, skill and creativity inside each piece.
The museum is also a serious collector: as of 2021, it held almost 70,000 clothing and fashion objects, which it describes as China's largest textile and clothing museum collection.
