Since making its debut on Lady Diana’s arm, the Lady Dior has become a true legend. In November 1995, the Princess of Wales stepped off her plane in Buenos Aires with the French creation, an image that immediately went around the world. The accessory soon became part of Lady Diana’s iconic wardrobe, from here the name of the bag itself. Its architectural lines of the Cannage motif and the golden details are yet another testament to the Maison’s savoir-faire excellence, making it extremely elegant and timeless. Since its first appearance continues to reinvent itself thank to a multitude of colors, formats and exceptional materials. Season after season it keeps on to rewrite its own history of modernity and excellence, becoming today more than ever an object of art and desire. With the Dior Lady Art project, painters, sculptors and designers from every corner of the planet have the opportunity to transform the legendary bag by reinventing every details according to their own artistic vision, using the French Maison’s exceptional craftsmanship techniques. Each year, the Lady Dior is a blank canvas transformed into an extraordinary work of art mixing brand heritage and a modern and contemporary vision.
The project is now in its seventh edition this year, continuing the dialogue between art and fashion whose starting point is the iconic Lady Dior. Her infinite elegance encapsulates the very essence of the brand’s style, continuing to shine season after season between modernity and excellence. Dior through the art project meets all cultures of the world, from Egypt to the United States, from Qatar to China, for this chapter the challenge of reinterpreting and transforming the legendary bag has been taken up by ten artists such as Ghada Amer, Brian Calvin, Sara Cwynar, Alex Gardner, Shara Hughes, Dorothy Iannone, Minjung Kim, Zhenya Machneva, Bouthayna Al Muftah, Françoise Pétrovitch and Wang Yuyang. Each detail is a tribute to uniqueness and artistry while at the same time the new interpretation open the doors of imagination.
A meeting between Dior and the cultures of the world, this new inspiring carte blanche showcases virtuoso techniques craftsmanship, driven by a spirit of innovation and limitless inventiveness.
Sara Cwynar questions the mediatization of everyday life where images circulate ever faster. The New York-based artist uses various forms of expression including photography, collage, and performance to show through Lady Dior an idealized world of images. The Cannage motif is thus transformed into a precious backdrop on which photos collected from the web are displayed, embroidered for the first version and enclosed by a transparent pcv coating for the second. Ghada Amer, an Egyptian artist, wants to question the position of women in art through the project, she uses patchwork embroidery and key words including “strong,” “loving,” and “determined,” and she prefers colors in vibrant hues such as fuchsia and orange. Alex Gander transforms the Lady Dior into a fascinating painting enriched by different colors and materials effects: the illustration depicts the contact between a hand and an infinitely soft fabric that seems to merge with the bag’s skin, trying to capture a moment of exchange and tension between individuals. Chinese artist Wang Yuyang, on the other hand, dwells on the contrast between tradition and technology, creating five works of art through authentic traditional embroidery methods combined with new creative techniques. Shara Hughes through her creative ideas reaffirms her experimental approach testing hypnotic optical games and perceptual materials. The two Lady Dior bags are made of red velvet the one and embroidered with a thousand flowers the other hinting at an enchanted garden echoing the brand’s classic romanticism. Brian Calvin uses the overlapping of materials to create figurative portraits of ambiguous and almost melancholy women with a desire to add a new tactile and sensory dimension to his creative process. Threads, beads and sequins revisit the artist’s paintings and create an hypnotic interplay of textures. Minjung Kim‘s work is an invitation to explore oneself through a minimal aesthetic given by overlapping collages that create abstract compositions. The Korean artist reinterprets the bag by presenting four dreamlike journeys that she creates as many different modes, demonstrating exceptional savoir-faire. For the first, one of her paintings is embellished with organza, in the second mink becomes the protagonist, for the third creation she uses elements taken from sportswear world, and for the fourth journey she is inspired by the ancestral art of hanji paper. Artist Zhenya Machneva reflects on the role of women in society by making three variants of the Lady Dior that look like sculptures with geometric lines but reflect the idea of additional weight, like an object without functionality. Bouthayna Al Muftah is a Qatari artist and through the project she showcases her country’s cultural heritage by reviving moments from the past in a contemporary context: hand-embroidered fabric pieces evoke the figure of a manuscript with a flavor of nostalgia and intimacy. Françoise Pétrovitch includes in her three works the figure of the bird in three different variations that seen together seem to create a real narration. The protagonist of the three bags brings to light the uncertain freedom of adolescence, swinging from interiority to exteriority, from anxiety to lightness. American artist Dorothy Iannone portrays woman as a goddess of multiple powers by referencing Eastern religions and taking inspiration from the different cultures she has known while traveling. For Dior she proposes her personal vision of the Statue of Liberty, presented as a trio of small representations, to evoke the diversity of American identities. With the Lady Dior Art project, the French brand demonstrates a genuine interest in the art world and contemporary artists, knowing how to find the perfect bond between classic craftsmanship and a modern, thoughtful point of view.
For further information dior.com.
