Ivanka Trump didn’t phone in a last-minute favor, as some celebrities are known to do, in choosing the fashion designer Guo Pei for what was a recent global photo-op.
Her designer of choice for the arrival ceremony for China’s President Xi Jinping at the White House last week said they have collaborated in the past and that Trump’s outfit had many influences.
The First Daughter’s powder blue dress and jacket were created with Eastern influences and required more than 1,000 hours of hand embroidery. The Beijing-born designer is known to keep a low profile, despite having rocketed to fame after creating the extravagant canary yellow gown with a 16-foot train that Rihanna wore to the 2015 Met Gala. (Even Apple’s Tim Cook paid a visit to her atelier that summer.)
Having worked with the First Daughter before, Guo Pei said that last week’s public event was the first time that Trump had been photographed wearing one of her commissioned designs. That global photo-op was days before the designer’s first major solo exhibition in China, “Guo Pei: Garden of Ethereal Realms,” debuted at the China National Silk Museum in Hangzhou on Sept. 27.
Guo Pei also is familiar with President Donald Trump, having met him at Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of the Year gala in New York City in 2016. (The unlikely pair — and Melania Trump — were seated at the same table.) The designer’s meme-inducing creation for Rihanna helped to make her among the list of honorees, which included the then presidential candidate Trump.
Guo Pei said via email Tuesday, “Rihanna’s appearance brought Chinese fashion to the attention of more people around the world. This time, as people look at Ivanka’s outfit, they also sense a kind of beauty in the clothing.”
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Rihanna attends the Met Gala celebrating “China: Through the Looking Glass” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2015.
Ivanka Trump said the designer has “played an important role in bringing Chinese couture to an international audience, while remaining deeply connected to the heritage and artisanal traditions of her country.”
The price of what Guo Pei described as a “commissioned” outfit was not known. Her decision to work with a designer from a visiting dignitary’s home country is a practice that some first ladies have adopted in the past for state visits.
During President Xi’s state visit last week, Melania Trump wore styles from Dolce & Gabbana, Givenchy, Gap, Ralph Lauren, Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Christian Louboutin and Manolo Blahnik. Color choices can also signal solidarity, as Pat Nixon’s choice of a red wool coat did, when joining President Richard Nixon on his historic trip to China in 1972.
In addition to couture, the designer has created a sizable bridal business through her gowns. As of 2022, her custom bridal gowns cost upward of 2 million renminbi — roughly $314,000 — due to the intricacy of the gold-spun embroidery. The “Magnificent Gold — Ja Din” dress that she created in 2005 was far more involved, requiring 50,000 hours of work, two years to complete, and costing $1 million.
Small-scale reproductions of Guo Pei’s “Magnificent Gold” dress, as seen in the “Golden Thread” exhibition in Paris.
Trade issues, tariffs and artificial intelligence were key issues during last week’s state visit. The U.S. and China agreed to reduce tariffs for $60 billion of goods, covering approximately $30 billion worth of U.S. exports and $30 billion worth of China exports.
Ivanka Trump’s couture jacket’s Eastern-inspired flared sleeves were reminiscent of how in ancient times, people often kept things in their sleeves, Guo Pei said. (Inner sleeve pockets became popular by the Han dynasty 202 BC to 220 AD.) And the jacket’s relatively wide cuffs were meant to hint at how wide sleeves have “long suggested openness and inclusiveness,” Guo Pei said.
Using a traditional Chinese silver-thread technique and “exceptionally fine” silver thread, a few embroiderers worked extensively on Trump’s garment. Its scrolling floral motif took shape through the cultural exchanges of the Silk Road and appears in both Eastern and Western traditions, according to the designer. “The relationship between Eastern and Western cultures is not about division, but harmony,” Guo Pei said.
While AI advancements are racing forward, the designer said of the handwork, “No matter how far human society advances, AI can never replace the human spirit.”
Trump said of Guo Pei, “Her work celebrates exquisite hand embroidery, intricate craftsmanship and techniques rooted in Chinese culture, interpreted through a modern lens. I chose to work with her for President Xi’s state visit as a meaningful way to honor Chinese creativity and heritage, and the spirit of cultural exchange surrounding his visit.”
Designed with official meetings and formal talks in mind, Guo Pei said that she and Trump chose the pure and calming color together. Trump previously had a namesake fashion and accessories collection that was manufactured overseas including in China.
Guo Pei said that every element of her arrival ceremony outfit having been “carefully considered,” the designer said the silhouette was designed to be fitted without being tight. And the dress’ midi length — slightly below the knee — emphasized decorum and courtesy, she said.
Guo Pei said she added four pockets, since she associates pockets with “responsibility and the ability to carry things.” Wanting “to portray an independent and accomplished woman,” the designer said, “Work clothes often have many pockets, because they are made for getting things done.”
The designer suggested that Ivanka’s choice reflects “her hope that the two countries can coexist peacefully.” Guo Pei said that “art can awaken emotions that we all share deep within ourselves.”
Trump’s 15-year-old daughter Arabella Kushner is familiar with Chinese culture, having reportedly studied Mandarin since she was 18 months old. The teenager greeted China’s President Xi and Madame Peng Liyuan in Mandarin at last week’s arrival ceremony, and she had sung a Chinese folk song for the Chinese leader, during a dinner at Mar-a-Lago in the April 2017 visit according to media reports.
Arabella Kushner at St. John’s Church ahead of President Donald Trump‘s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C.
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