The ninth edition of Dior Lady Art features emotional, cultural and stylish interpretations of the iconic bag
The Lady Dior bag has become a symbol of quintessential Dior style. Named after Princess Diana, who was widely seen wearing the bag, Dior’s most recognisable accessory has become synonymous with luxury and individuality, allowing it to be reinvented over and over again. Fusing the house’s DNA with impeccable savoir-faire this bag, has inspired so many projects and stories over the years.
Since 2016, the Dior Lady Art project has invited international artists to reinvent the Lady Dior as an object of desire that combines the worlds of luxury and art. Each year the specially selected artists are given carte blanche to revisit the bag as they imagine it, putting their own aesthetic onto the bag.
For the ninth edition this year, the brand has partnered with eleven new artists for the annual project.
Sara Flores
Visionary artist Sara Flores is inspired by Kené, the age-old visual language at the heart of the artistic practice and cosmovision of the Shipibo-Conibo people, an indigenous group living along the Ucayali river in the Peruvian Amazon. For this new chapter of Dior Lady Art, she wished to highlight the unique skills and legacy of her community and has dreamed up two bags with details that echo her personal painted works that use plant pigments on canvas. Both display subtly embroidered serpentine motif. The aesthetic harmony of this design system – characteristic of her Indigenous people – promises spiritual healing: the gaze follows the intentional trajectories of the strokes.
Jeffrey Gibson
Between heritage and reinvention, Jeffrey Gibson elaborates ultra-colourful works that unite traditional native American craftsmanship with a bold, almost psychedelic aesthetic. Jeffrey Gibson transposes his unique universe onto a Lady Dior in a resolutely «pop» metamorphosis inspired by his iconic punching bags – for boxing – revisited as art installations.
Huang Yuxing
Considered one of the most innovative talents on the contemporary scene, Beijing-born Huang Yuxing stands out for his ability to conceive works that tell the story of their genesis. His new versions of the Lady Dior include two models echoing psychedelic elements of his canvases: Heaven and the Earth (2016-2020) and the Galaxy (2017-2021).
Liang Yuanwei
Chinese artist Liang Yuanwei found inspiration in her Impasto Golden Notes series and Ru Ware from the Song Dynasty, integrating two-dimensional painting into a three-dimensional iconic accessory. crafted in resin using a 3d printing process, calligraphic brushstrokes in Liang’s painting, which differ in power and do not overlay the other are reproduced as puzzle tabs and brought together as a whole on the bag. the colour refers to the celadon green in the Ru Ware from the Song Dynasty, the antique gold metal is a nod to the gilding technique on the rim of Ru Wares and the handles and shoulder strap evoke jade.
Danielle McKinney
American artist Danielle McKinney’s artistic style consists of intimate cinematic portraits, which is reinterpreted through her bag design in a unique way. A slightly crumpled backdrop features a silhouette of a woman – the artist’s signature protagonist – delicately embroidered thread by thread. At the heart of the scene is a butterfly, capturing the beauty and highlighting the colourful palette of her creation.
Duy Anh Nhan Duc
Duy Anh Nhan Duc’s reinterpretation of Lady Dior reflects his passion for the botanical realm, particularly wild plants. His bag is decorated with a profusion of flowers and seed motifs, embossed on the vegan leather bag and enhanced by a sublimated trellis and precious embroidery.
Hayal Pozanti
Hayal Pozanti has designed three pieces that exemplify her vision of nature as a sensorial and imperative subject. The first two bags are adorned with athletic details drawn from one of her passions, trekking: sheepskin inserts, reminiscent of the lining of hiking boots, snap hooks, along with feet recalling the star-shaped tips of walking poles. the last model, a hand-painted clutch reveals a nocturnal panorama magnified by a cloud of rhinestones meticulously placed in a shower of entrancing comets.
Faith Ringgold
Feminist, artist, activist and educator Faith Ringgold is a force to be reckoned with. The American artist has consistently confronted issues of race, gender and social justice through her work. For her collaboration with Dior, Ringgold created six designs before her sad passing in April 2024. Each is inspired by her 1971 political posters, which have been reimagined in a collage of materials.
Vaughn Spann
American artist Vaugn Spann uses a mix of abstract and figurative elements to explore American history, culture and identity. His approach is seen in his iterations of the Lady Dior bag, which plays on the codes of masculine and feminine. The first model, an oversized version, revisits the shape and functional spirit of 1980s briefcases, all in pink-tinged transparency, and features a central «x» – a recurring motif in Spann’s oeuvre. a second is adorned with geometric structures from several of his canvases, while the last two represent, respectively, his paintings from 2020, Firestorm and Untitled (stormy), with striking effects of material, relief and contrast, irresistibly “pop” and light-hearted.
Anna Weyant
Canadian artist Anna Weyant is inspired by surrealism and mystery. Her interpretation of the Lady Dior bag evokes a wood grain pattern that appears in many of her works. An entirely gilded bag also features an entirely gilded model, punctuated with roses and daisies as if jewelled sculptures. An ode to the excellence of the house’s ateliers, the graphic lines of the emblematic cannage are revisited in a variation delicately dotted with a garden marguerite motif.
Woo Kukwon
The art of Woo Kukwon, from South Korea, unfolds through oil paintings, drawings on paper and installations. For his Lady Dior designs, two medium-format pieces portray characters representing his wife, daughter and dog, populating two enchanting spaces. On the first, they gaze up at a starry sky, stretched out on a hill sublimated by colourful threads; within, the words “my universe” can be read, in homage to his little girl. a second bag depicts them strolling beneath cherry trees in blossom, the splendour of the vegetation blooming on the handles and eyelets.
