Pieces from Guo Pei's "Couture Beyond" collection are seen displayed at the Vancouver Art Gallery in downtown Vancouver, Friday, Oct. 26, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS /Jonathan Hayward

VANCOUVER - Walking through Guo Pei's Couture Beyond exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery is like journeying through different parts of the world; China, the Silk Road, Switzerland and Europe, with the artist's vivid imagination as a guiding companion.

There are 43 pieces on display from some of the Chinese fashion designer's most iconic runway shows between 2006 and 2017.

Diana Freundl, associate curator of Asian art at the Vancouver Art Gallery, has worked closely with Guo Pei on the exhibit and says her fashion combines popular culture, visual arts, film and architecture into craftsmanship.

The exhibition is organized by the gallery in collaboration with Atlanta's SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion and Film.

Freundl says fashion display is a first for the gallery, which is committed to presenting artists from the Pacific Rim.

Guo Pei's love of clothing started where she was born: in her grandmother's home in Beijing. Her grandmother would tell stories of imperial gowns, of embroidering butterflies and peonies on her own dresses she wore in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, 1644 to 1912, says a book published under the same name as the show, "Guo Pei Couture Beyond."

The artist, who was born in 1967, came of age during the height of China's Cultural Revolution when clothes were pragmatic and mostly egalitarian.

Freundl says clothing was on Guo Pei's mind because she grew up with her grandmother's stories of distant princesses and foreign lands, while she had to wear plain attire.

She began working as a designer in 1987 at the age of 20, and debuted on the world stage in 2008 when nearly 300 of her designs were featured during the opening, closing and medal ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics.

Freundl says one of the first books Guo Pei read, a translated version of the Middle Eastern folk tale "One Thousand and One Nights," is also a prominent influence in the designs of her collection, 1002 Nights. The nod to both European and Chinese imperial history can be seen in her works, some of which are on display at the gallery.

One of the dresses in the collection is a blue and white silk gown decorated with hand-painted and embroidered ceramic patterns. The design replicates a Chinese handheld folding fan with stiff waves of silk cascading down to the right side of the body and around the back.

It was included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition, "China: Through the Looking Glass" in 2015.

"This collection, she pays tribute to the strength of women, the empresses, the princesses, all these stories in the "One Thousand and One Nights," and the kind of betrayal, the love, the legends," Freundl says.

The designer ties her collections together with the accessories she has created, Freundl says. The exhibition includes examples of elaborate footwear, jewelry and headpieces that go with each costume.

A key draw to the exhibition is the golden yellow gown, dubbed the omelette dress on social media and worn by singer Rihanna to the 2015 Met Gala, which catapulted Guo Pei to international stardom.

Guo Pei's work is one of luxury, both in terms of how long it takes to make each piece and the material used, from fur to silk thread, pearls and laborious embroidery.

The yellow cape that Rihanna wore took 50,000 hours and more than two years to complete.

The blue and white silk dress took about 10,000 hours to finish.

All of that labour has earned her a spot on Time Magazine's list of 100 Most Influential People as well as Business of Fashion's 500 list. She has her own label and workspace, Rose Studio, which was launched in 1997 and she now employs nearly 500 artisans.

The gallery display also features a few pieces from Guo Pei's 2017 collection, Legend.

She worked with a Swiss fabric manufacturer, Jakob Schlaepfer, to design custom textiles for the collection including a batch of golden fabric woven with metal fibre and silk thread that weighs nearly one kilogram per metre.

One of those pieces is a studded ivory coloured dome shaped dress, inspired by the Cathedral of St Gallen in Switzerland.

This mesmerizing gown has an ethereal quality, invoking images of ancient churches with tall ceilings.

If you go: The exhibit runs until Jan. 20, 2019.

Getting there: Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby Street, Vancouver

Cost: $24 for adults, $20 for those over 65; $18 for children from 6 to 12 years

Hours: Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., except Tuesdays and first Friday of the month until 9 p.m.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2018