郭培 把中式高定時裝帶到巴黎舞臺
9個月前，中國高級定製時裝設計師郭培在東方爲數千萬人所知，在西方卻幾乎無人知曉。去年5月，這一切都變了。流行歌星蕾哈娜(Rihanna)在網上看到郭培的作品後，身穿她設計的禮服參加紐約大都會藝術博物館(Metropolitan Museum of Art)服裝學院(Costume Institute)的晚宴。那天蕾哈娜穿的是鮮黃色皮毛鑲邊長袍和披風，重55磅（約合25公斤），花費5萬個小時、兩年多時間製作。她的造型登上了《Vogue》美國版封面，而郭培的高級定製時裝秀也計劃將在巴黎舉辦。
On Wednesday, the 48-year-old former children’s wear designer and daughter of an army platoon leader will formally present her collection for the first time at a major fashion week.
週三（1月27日），這位48歲的前童裝設計師、排長女兒將在著名時裝週上首次正式展示自己的服裝系列。
“The Met Ball marked a new start for my business, a brand new chapter that secretly I felt had been coming for years,” she said on Sunday, 5,000 miles from her Beijing headquarters in a tiny, all-white Paris showroom off the Rue St.-Honoré. “I knew there just needed to be a tipping moment to take me into a whole new world.”
週日（1月24日），在離她的北京總部5000英里外的巴黎聖奧諾雷街上一個全白小展廳裏接受採訪時，她說：“大都會晚宴標誌着我事業的一個新開端，一個新篇章，多年來我一直隱隱感覺這個時刻會到來。我知道，需要這樣一個爆發時刻把我帶入一個全新的世界。”
In the two decades since the 1997 opening of Rose Studio, her fashion company specializing in evening wear, Ms. Guo has found fame in China by dressing actresses, folk singers and members of the political elite in her showstopping beaded and embroidered creations.
1997年，郭培創立了專做晚裝的時裝公司玫瑰坊(Rose Studio)。20年來，她爲女演員、民歌手和政界精英設計令人難忘的以飾珠和刺繡爲特色的服裝，在中國贏得聲譽。
As China’s economy boomed and shopping became a national pastime, her studio swelled to a current staff of 300 embroiderers and 200 designers, patternmakers and sewers. Today, the house produces more than 4,000 pieces annually, with prices that start at $5,000 and quickly tip into more eye-watering territory.
隨着中國經濟蓬勃發展，購物成爲中國人的一項消遣，她的作坊也隨之壯大，目前有300名刺繡師以及200名設計師、圖案設計者和縫紉師。如今，這家公司每年生產4000多件服裝，起價5000美元，並很快進入更令人豔羨的領域。
But in her Paris showroom this night, just a handful of her Chinese team members were crouched at laptops amid cramped clothing racks, storage boxes and styling boards, while a French hairdresser fussed over models being fitted with creations from her latest collection.
但是今晚（1月24日），在她的巴黎展廳裏，只有她的幾位中國團隊成員蜷縮在手提電腦前，坐在狹窄的衣架、貯藏箱和造型板之間，一位法國發型師在忙着給身穿她最新系列服裝的模特們擺弄髮型。
“The funny thing is, when I began my own house I had no idea that this type of artistry had a rich and long tradition elsewhere,” she said, her Mandarin translated into English by her husband and business partner Cao Bao Jie. “This world as it existed in the West didn’t exist to me. I was just doing what I liked and thought was truly beautiful.”
郭培在採訪中說中文，她的丈夫兼商業夥伴曹寶傑幫她翻成英文。她說：“有趣的是，我開創自己的服裝公司時，完全不知道這種手工藝在其他地方有豐富和漫長的傳統。這個世界一直在西方存在，只是我不知道。我只是在做自己喜歡的、自己覺得非常美麗的東西。”
Fashion in China then was only just beginning in the way we understand it today, she added: “Very few clients could comprehend what I was trying to show. That craftsmanship and design could add enormous value to a garment, transforming it from a piece of tailoring to a true work of art, was very hard to grasp for them.”
當時的中國服裝業剛走上如今我們理解的道路。她補充說，“幾乎沒有哪個客戶能理解我努力展現的東西。那種工藝和設計能給服裝增加巨大價值，把服裝變成真正的藝術品，他們很難理解這一點。”
As she gradually convinced them, her prices ballooned, as did the ambitions of her lavish designs. The elaborate excess that has become Ms. Guo’s hallmark — be it vast skirt volumes, lashings of beaded semiprecious stones or rich explosions of embroidered color — marries European silks with traditional Chinese design heritage.
她慢慢說服客戶之後，她的價格飛漲起來，她奢華設計的雄心也跟着膨脹。精緻、複雜、誇張已經成爲郭培的特點——不管是寬大的裙襬、大量半寶石珠飾，還是刺繡色彩的大爆炸——她把歐洲絲綢與中國傳統設計結合了起來。
“I don’t consider my work to be within the limits of conventional fashion, nor do I follow trends creatively or commercially,” she said. “My work displays feelings and emotions that are precious enough to be handed down generation after generation, as well as the experience of developing gowns directly with my clients. They are reflections of myself, and of them, of the scale of my dreams and the pride I have for Chinese culture.”
她說：“我認爲自己的作品不受限於傳統服裝，我也不在創意或商業上跟隨潮流。我的作品展示非常珍貴的感受和情緒，它們應該代代傳承，還有我與客戶們直接改進禮服設計的經驗，也應該傳承下去。那些禮服反映出我自己、我的客戶們、我宏大的夢想以及我對中國文化的自豪感。”
Ms. Guo says that looking ahead, her efforts will focus on expanding her business internationally, with a second atelier headquarters in Paris, as well as on her bridal line as the wedding market in China continues to explode. She introduced a cosmetics line in collaboration with MAC last year, and she has branched out into demicouture from a store in Shanghai.
郭培說，未來她會把重點放在擴展國際業務上，將在巴黎開設第二個工坊，並開發新娘系列，因爲中國的婚禮市場仍在繼續發展。去年，她與MAC合作推出了一個化妝品系列，還把上海的一家店變成了半定製服裝分店。
The designer, who played down any concerns over China’s recent economic slowdown and its potential impact on the couture market, emphasized how grateful she felt for the opportunity to show her creations to a new audience in the days ahead. She was curious, she said, to hear how others interpreted her work, but was confident that her aesthetic would resonate.
郭培表示自己對最近中國經濟放緩及其對高級定製市場的潛在影響沒有任何顧慮，強調她很感激有機會在未來的日子裏向新觀衆展示自己的創意。她說，她很想知道別人會如何解讀她的作品，不過她對自己的審美會引起共鳴充滿信心。
“This year is my 30th year in the fashion industry,” she said. “For the first 10 years I learned; for the second, I practiced, and now, during the third, I believe I am going to reap the rewards.”
她說：“今年是我進入時裝業30年。頭十年，我學習；第二個十年，我實踐；如今在第三個十年，我相信自己能得到回報。”
