Yellow Is Forbidden

"I'm a designer," Guo Pei responds to an inquiry in the documentary, "I do not represent a nation." Pietra Brettkelly gets remarkably close to her subject, who allows us to have a look at her home and some of what makes her tick. Guo Pei is full of contradictions and Yellow Is Forbidden doesn't try to hide that, quite the opposite.

A child of the Cultural Revolution, she didn't even know what fashion was and never heard of make-up. A visit to her parents who live in a modest flat in a high-rise leads to a conversation about grandma, of whom only a few photos remain. The rest the family destroyed, for fear of being denounced for royal connections. The grandmother's feet were bound, she sparked little Guo Pei's imagination with her stories and her response to the eight-year-old girl's desire for a particular dress explains the yellow in the title.

Guo Pei, during the filming, applies to the Haute Couture commission in Paris for a very exclusive membership and we see her prepare for an all-important collection based on religion. She is worried that she is considered a mere "celebrity designer", visits a Jeanne Lanvin exhibit, and inquires about angels while purchasing special fabric.

The church collection is shown in an extraordinary location, the Conciergerie, where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned for 76 days awaiting her death. Only Alexander McQueen used the medieval guillotine antechamber for a fashion show 17 years before her. The magnificent Carmen Dell’Orefice, after a long career in modeling, made it her final runway show.

Rihanna, in 2015, wore a yellow cape gown designed by Guo Pei to Anna Wintour's Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art for the exhibition China: Through the Looking Glass, curated by Andrew Bolton with film clips selected by Artistic Director Wong Kar Wai. Guo Pei had two of her works on display.

Fantasy is ever present and became reality in her 1002 Nights collection which featured the dress Rihanna saved from oblivion. The shoes are impossibly high, the garments heavier than rocks, she has 300 embroiderers working on the clothes, models shake in fear before walking her runway - and the result is utterly staggering.