Almost two decades have gone by since Lady Dior first hit the runways in 1994, and the sophisticated luxury bag has been the French brand’s heart and soul ever since.
Having already inspired international artists to revive it in their own creative styles, the fashion icon is now back for the fifth edition of Dior Lady Art. Embellished with branded charms, the bag has been variously reimagined by prominent creatives from all over the world.
One of the leading figures in the feminist art movement, Judy Chicago crafted three sensual, captivating bags from highly technical material, drawing from the rounded lines she privileges and the hypnotic patterns of her own paintings. Finished with a dichroic treatment, her pieces play with light, creating pearlized effects and fascinating reflections.
A mosaic pattern of tiny windows, doors and mirrors decorates Song Dong’s edit, bringing the Chinese contemporary artist’s key motif to the bag.
French painter Claire Tabouret created two styles. The first references the artist’s paintings with details from a dance scene printed on faux fur, for a unique tactile feeling, while the second is Tabouret’s self-portrait as a vampire, with blood stains on her mouth and the Dior charms between her lips. Both bags flaunt fluorescent linings and seams.
Born and bred in the United Kingdom from Indian parents, Bharti Kher also crafted two pieces by reinterpreting traditional Indian symbols, like the bindi sign, the ‘third eye’ worn by Indian women on their foreheads. Kher’s transformed bindis blend with winding serpents on both her Lady Dior bags, for a hypnotic effect on the fiercer and subtler version alike.
Inspired by the digital world, the Russian creative duo Recycle Group revisited the iconic Cannage motif in a spiraling quilted vortex that engulfs and twists the charms and details, too.
Olga Titus drew from her Swiss and Malaysian background to turn her Lady Dior style into a microcosm where the virtual meets the emotional. Her first bag is covered in her signature sequins, creating a reversible pattern that unveils two different universes. The mini-bag is embellished with an assortment of decorative masks echoing her own distinctive aesthetics.
Questioning the complex, intimate relationship between the urban life and ecology, South-African artist Chris Soal opted for applying a multitude of bent bottle tops to his textured Lady Dior bags – an even more painstaking effort for one of them, where toothpicks were used to carve the Dior signature into every top, echoing the brand’s finest embroideries.
Mai-Thu Perret is famous for her installations where videos, paintings and sculptures mix. Her interest in imaginative languages has led her to create her own mysterious alphabet, made of abstract signs that decorate her Lady Dior bags. Their colorful geometric shapes stand out on the black and white textures, made from long-pile tapestry and glass beads.
Parisian Joël Andrianomearisoa’s ‘The Labyrinth of Lady Dior’ desperately longs for passion and desire. Both his edits – in black leather and black radzmir – have a white inside lining that symbolizes deep-running love, and a layered texture on the outside that represents the beating of the heart.
Last comes American artist Gisela Colón. Minimalism and futurism, art and science meet in her innovative Stardust and Amazonia, her own reinterpretations of the Lady Dior bag. Inspired by the natural world and the universe, her leather bags come in captivating colors with a holographic finish, and feature a unique monolith detail embodying equality, power, and beauty.
