When Rihanna appeared at the Met gala in 2015, stopping the red-carpet show in a fur-trimmed cape of Chinese Imperial yellow, she seemed to embody the exhibition she was celebrating: “China: Through the Looking Glass.” The cape was created by the Chinese couturier Guo Pei. In the same yellow, in a room in the museum all to itself, was a ball gown by Guo, even more stunning than the cape. Glittering diamanté, its skirt curved like the northern hemisphere and its hem scalloped in huge petals, the gown suggested a designer who answered to her own vision, one that embraced both East and West. There’s no question that Guo, born in Beijing in 1967, thinks big. She also thinks historically, taking inspiration from China’s rich Imperial past. More than 80 of her amazing concoctions are included in “Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy”—splendor to rival Versailles. —Laura Jacobs