For nearly three decades the Lady Dior bag has remained a hallmark for the French fashion house, embodying audacious elegance season after season. It has seen many iterations since it was slung on the arm of Princess Diana, in recent years has becoming the centre of a creative collaboration and the blank canvas for a cast of artists.
This month the Dior Lady Art project has returned for a seventh edition with 11 creatives tasked with reinterpreting and transforming the iconic bag. Ghada Amer, Brian Calvin, Sara Cwynar, Alex Gardner, Shara Hughes, Dorothy Iannone, Minjung Kim, Zhenya Machneva, Bouthayna Al Muftah, Françoise Pétrovitch And Wang Yuyang have been plucked from all over the world – from Egypt to Qatar to the United States – to showcase virtuoso techniques and craftsmanship.
Among the 11 iterations, American artist Calvin used intricate embellishments on the mini and medium Lady Dior to illustrate abstract faces. Gardner transposed one of his iconic artworks – exploring the “beauty of reality” – onto the silhouette while Chinese multi-disciplinary artist Yuyang draws on his affinity with earth and space for futuristic styles.
A video series has been released to coincide with the Dior Lady Art Project and features short videos highlighting the intricate savoir-faire behind each stunning creation. A podcast series with each artist can also be found, here alongside episodes from earlier editions. For more details on each 2022 artist and their work, visit the Dior website here.
See the designs below.
