SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Drawing over 130,000 visitors in just 18 weeks, Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy is one of the Fine Arts Museums’ most sought-after fashion exhibitions of the past decade. Over 80 exquisite ensembles by China’s leading couturier and accompanying programming have enticed new and returning visitors to the Legion of Honor throughout the run of the exhibition. About ⅓ of the creations are displayed in the museum’s permanent collection galleries, highlighting the historical and iconographical references displayed in the ensembles, enabling another 45,000 visitors to experience Guo Pei’s vision. This dual nature extends the exhibition’s reach to 175,000.

With enthusiasm and excitement around Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy growing exponentially into its final days, the Museums today announce the exhibition’s 12-week extension through November 27.

“Our visitors’ response to Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy has been absolutely extraordinary, and we are delighted that the exhibition’s extension through Thanksgiving will enable more people to experience Guo Pei’s artistry,” remarked Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “Installed in our special exhibition galleries, and amid our holdings of European Art, Guo Pei’s designs encompass rich details both infused with references to a range of cultural traditions and executed over thousands of hours. This presentation represents a singular opportunity to experience exquisite designs that invoke and encourage transcultural dialogue.”

Throughout the exhibition's run, we have welcomed numerous school groups with free admission, seniors from throughout the Bay Area Community, and many first-time families and children, who filled the Legion of Honor’s Gunn Theater for a June 23 screening of Over the Moon, the Netflix animated film whose protagonist dons Guo Pei’s designs. Our thanks go to local Asian American–owned bakery Sunday Bakeshop for providing complimentary cookies and popcorn for the occasion.

By all accounts, Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy has been a runaway success—in person and online. Produced in partnership with Nowness, the exhibition film Guo Pei: Embroidered Dreams is one of the most popular to date in our award-winning FAMSF Presents series, garnering more than 185,000 direct views online and reaching audiences around the world, while the exhibition web offerings are the most visited by far for both the de Young and the Legion of Honor in recent years. At the Museum Stores, audiences have brought Guo Pei’s lavish work home with more than 4,000 catalogues and 2,500 coloring books flying off the shelves. With the exhibition extension leading up to the holiday season, there is ample time to revisit the collection Guo Pei designed exclusively with the Museum Stores.

On Saturday, September 3, the host of exhibition programming engaging local artists continues with Auntie Sewing Squad: Radical Care in the Time of COVID-19. Free to the public, this program brings together the editors of The Auntie Sewing Squad Guide to Mask Making, Radical Care, and Racial Justice and SF-based documentary filmmaker Valerie Soe in a discussion of the collective’s important work producing and donating more than 350,000 cloth face masks for vulnerable communities throughout the pandemic. Soe will screen clips from her documentary in progress