Since creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri launched the Dior Lady Art project, some of the world’s most notable artists have come together to reform the fabled Lady Dior bag. With inventive and transformative takes on the classic handbag, these creatives take the perennial Dior staple to new artistic heights we never could have previously imagined.
The sixth installment of Dior Lady Art has been broken up into two different segments, grouped into six artists each. With the first band of creators having included Zhang Huan, Genieve Figgis, Gisela Colon, Lina Iris Viktor, Johan Creten, and Manal Al Dowayan, Dior has just announced the participants of its second chapter. Including Daisuke Ohba, Li Song Song, Antonin Hako, Gigisue, Leonhard Hurzlmeier, Yukimasa Ida, these six revolutionaries will be taking the creative reins.
Here, GRAZIA places a spotlight on the artists creatively revamping the iconic Lady Dior bag.
Daisuke Ohba
Known for his large-scale conceptual paintings, Japanese artist Daisuke Ohba’s work manipulates the color and natural light surrounding him. Composing textured landscapes of mountains and forests, his abstract work is equally riveting. Utilizing iridescent acrylics, his pieces transform with a pearl-like sheen, creating an ever-changing, holographic shimmer effect akin to aurora borealis.
Referencing his works, the bags are inspired by 2007’s “Spectrum, 2016’s ongoing “M”, and 2017’s “May.” His largest Lady Dior comes fully equipped with a digitized charm, allowing one to view images of his paintings from different angles. With the other two productions include the charm of a little Dior snow globe, concealing a sailing ship, paying tribute to Christian Dior’s childhood home of Normandy.
Li Songsong
This is not Li Songsong’s fist rodeo with the Parisian fashion house. The Beijing-based painter first collaborated with Dior back in 2008 and is back again to reinterpret the Lady Dior bag. Notorious for his heavily layered oil paintings, Songsong has garnered a reputation for depicting interpretations of choppy memories and scattered imagery, all interwoven through the lens of Chinese culture and history.
When united, the artist’s trio of Lady Dior handbags come together to form the image of his piece “Swordsmanship (III)” His signature thickly creations juxtapose color and recognition, calling to mind differing points of view through his three Dior creations.
Antonin Hako
French multidisciplinary artist Antonin Hako finds inspiration in a great many things. Using everything from traditional canvas to flags and hot-air balloons as his base, Hako is deeply influenced by the freedom of movement. As a painter, performance artist, and sculptor, he translates his poetic desire for motion through billowing flags and floating balloons.
In his collaboration with Dior, he dubs his work, “bag in flight.” 3D printed, the Lady Dior bag received a dramatic remolding. Formed to appear as draped or undulating fabric, the pigmented layers reveal both transparent and pigmented elements, resulting in a psychedelic and evolved rendition of the classic Lady Dior.
Gigisue
A perfect match for the Parisian maison, Gigisue’s ethereal and whimsical vision has created three floral convections worthy of Monsieur Dior himself. “My painting style is in harmony with Dior. Because in all my paintings, there are roses and still lives.” said the Korean artist. “I actually grow roses in my studio. The roses I grow, inspired those I put onto the bag.” With Dior being famously quoted as having proclaimed, “After women, flowers are the most divine creations”, Gigisue seems to be the ultimate fit.
Much like her Dior Lady Art predecessor Judy Chicago, Gigisue calls to question the patriarchy throughout her various works. Dubbing her creations “embroidered paintings”, the bold splashes of color paired with the sculptural flowers and celestial crystal make her otherworldly handbags true masterpieces.
Leonhard Hurzlmeier
Accomplished German artist Leonhard Hurzlmeier’s graphic hand-painted creations display a joyful and eccentric world of geometric creations. With his Lady Dior creations mirroring his classic oil paintings, one bag displays the face of a woman, with her brain composed subversively inside.
The next of his inventive designs sees a landscape with blunt and bold raindrops against a bright blue sky. The last illustrates a sequin-embroidered mermaid’s tale splashing into the vast sea, about to embark on a fantastical journey.
Utilizing fact and fiction, history and mythology merge to influence Hurzlmeier’s whimsical and graphic universe.
Yukimasa Ida
Japanese artist Yukimasa Ida is known for his thickly layered paintings. Layered in more ways than one, many of his works are seemingly abstract at first or partial glance, but with further examination often reveal the image of a person or a landscape.
Utilizing the Japanese concept of ‘ichi-go ichi-e’, he describes the theory as living in the present moment. “Ichi-go Ichi-e is an old Japanese idiom that comes from the tea ceremony. I’m using this word/concept as the main theme for my works in recent years.” With heavily layering both materials and perceptions, his dramatic brush strokes and symbolic use of colors result in moving creations worthy of Lady Dior’s prestige.
