For the past five years, Dior has been inviting artists from all over the globe to reimagine its iconic Lady Dior bag and using it as a blank canvas for paintings, assemblages and anything under the sun.
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For the 2021 edition of the Dior Lady Art project, artists from China to Madagascar have unleashed their creative visions on the bag, creating some of the most imaginative and couture-worthy renditions from the initiative.
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Ahead, we give you a closer look at the works of 11 artists for this latest instalment of Dior Lady Art which is now available exclusively at the brand’s Takashimaya Shopping Centre boutique.
Who: The LA-based French painter is best known for her expressive artworks that examine the vulnerability of human relationships against the varied backdrops of everything from natural surroundings to fantastical portraitures. She is also known to adopt a unique and recognisable colour palette that mixes natural hues with artificial, synthetic, almost acidic shades.
Her take: Her reimagination of the Lady Dior involves a vampiric self-portrait devouring the bag’s charms and another which depicts a round of liberated female dancers gracefully embracing each other.
From left: Lady Dior calfskin-blend bag with organza embellishments and metal jewellery and Lady Dior faux fur-blend bag with metal jewellery
Who: A Swiss multidisciplinary artist who often taps into the arena of transculturism and is inspired by her grandparents’ Indian and Malaysian origins. She’s best known for her experimental mixed-media masterpieces that incorporate embroidery design, a technique she studied before pursuing fine arts.
Her take: Titus incorporates her one-of-kind embroidery for small and mini versions of the Lady Dior bag which are adorned with delicate coloured glass beads to represent what she calls “A Little Cosmos.” Another mini-sized Lady Dior bag features her signature embroidery technique and several few hand-painted enamelled metal masks influenced by cultures spanning from Asia to Africa.
Left to right: Mini Lady Dior lambskin bag with glass beads, crystals and metal jewellery; Lady Dior lambskin bag with paillettes, glass beads and metal jewellery; and mini Lady Dior wool yarn bag with enamelled metal masks and metal jewellery
Who: This Malagasy artist creates elusive abstract works that tend to be inspired by sounds, fragrances, textures, beings and architecture. Each of his artworks attempts to materialise the undescribable infinite diversity of emotions in a melancholic way.
His take: Andrianomearisoa dubs his two Lady Dior creations The Labyrinth of Lady Dior as a continuation of his sensorial masterpiece I Have Forgotten the Night which was exhibited at last year’s Venice Biennale. For his two-part act, he superimposes materials to create delicate millefeuilles to evoke rippling heartbeats and an immaculate lining that symbolises the complexes of love’s whirlwinds. As a finishing touch, each of his creations come with a small book that captures the journey of his project and acts as a diary for their future lives.
Left to right: Mini The Labyrinth of Lady Dior bag radzimir silk bag with metal jewellery and The Labyrinth of Lady Dior calfskin bag with metal jewellery
Who: The Candian-American artist is heavily inspired by life forces, universal energies, and the planetary system. Her designs tend to feature monoliths and biomorphic cells that propel her futuristic and minimalist aesthetic.
Her take: Entitled Stardust and Amazonia, the two Lady Dior bags by Colon attempt to symbolise interstellar magic and the world’s enchanting mystery. Colon employs holographic reflections and charms punctuated with a monolith, to emblematically represent equality, power, and beauty. These futuristic bags also pay tribute to Monsieur Christian Dior’s passion for the divinatory arts and constellations.
Left to right: Stardust Lady Dior lambskin bag with metal jewellery and mirror and large Amazonia Lady Dior calfskin bag with metal jewellery and mirror
Who: Known as a founder of feminist art, Judy Chicago attempts to largely question gender-normative patriarchal ideas. Unlike many contemporaries, Chicago favours a gentler yet sensual aesthetic that involves the use of generous strokes, colours, spirals, shells and suggestive curves.
Her take: Capturing the dazzling essence of femininity, the yonic curvature of shells and spirals take centre-stage on each of Chicago’s Lady Dior designs. She further emphasises the beauty of each bag by adding a pearly, metallic, or iridescent effect to the handbags through a dichroic treatment.
Left to right: Large Lady Dior technical fabric bag with metal jewellery; mini Lady Dior technical fabric bag with metal jewellery; Lady Dior technical fabric bag with metal jewellery
Who: The Chinese contemporary artist who develops avant-garde work that investigates the complex and fascinating nature of human behaviour, whether that’s through painting and performance art or conceptual and sculptural mediums.
His take: Looking at the Lady Dior as an object of desire, Song Dong’s reinterpretation toys with the idea of windows by attaching a series of colourfully-framed mirrors onto the bags. The artist hopes that this can perpetuate the feeling of dazzle and wonder as the mirrors reflect “light, shadows, places and faces” that also calls for the re-discovery of self.
Left to right: Mini Lady Dior resin clutch with mirrors and metal jewellery and Lady Dior resin-blend bag with metal jewellery
Who: Based in South Africa, Soal’s body of work tends to pose questions around the close and complex relationships between urban life, intimate environments, and ecology. The 27-year old award-winning artist expresses his language of abstract minimalism by reworking salvaged materials across sculptures to reflect his innate sensitivity to textures, forms, and light.
His take: He makes two versions of the Lady Dior (one in M, one in mini) covered in folded bottle caps meant to look like cowrie shells – a centuries-old form of currency for numerous African cultures. To cap it off, Soal also remakes the “O” charm signature of the tote with elegant bottle openers, a cheeky juxtaposition the artist calls a “contrast between high fashion and banal functionality”.
Left to right: Lady Dior calfskin bag with resin, paillettes and metal jewellery; mini Lady Dior calfskin bag with metal embroidery and jewellery; and Lady Dior calfskin bag with metal embroidery and jewellery
Who: Established in 2018, Recycle Group comprises the artistic duo Andrey Blohkin and Georgy Kuznetsov, whose works question the paradoxical nature of the future and examines the symbiosis between man and machine. Their artworks mainly incorporate mixed media including augmented reality to portray a uniquely daring dimension.
Their take: Their take on the Lady Dior bags attempts to represents a shifting vision of our world due to technology. The duo brings this idea to the fore with wave and vortex effects that simultaneously deconstruct and re-sculpt the Maison’s legendary cannage motif.
Left to right: Lady Dior calfskin bag with metal jewellery and Lady Dior calfskin bag with metal jewellery
Who: The Viet-French artist hails from Geneva and is best known for her artworks that are inspired by a wealth of interests in Bauhaus, dance, tantric yoga, and literary modernism. A key element of her artworks is the intertwining of raw, handcrafted materials like ceramics and rattan.
Her take: Fascinated by the idea of imaginary languages, Perret develops a tapestry design for the Lady Dior that feature her own make-believe alphabets composed of abstract signs inspired by an educational method applied in 19th-century German kindergartens. This unique motif is her way of questioning the conventions of the fashion lexicon and its traditional use of logos.
Left to right: Mini Lady Dior lambskin bag with glass beads and metal jewellery; Lady Dior embroidered lambskin bag with metal jewellery; and mini Lady Dior lambskin bag with glass beads and metal jewellery
Who: Growing up as an Indian woman in Britain, Bharti Kher explores the issues of identity and culture through her art. Emblematic of her paintings, collages, sculptures and photographic works are the fascination with the “third eye”.
Her take: The designer celebrates feminity and the long-running Indian tradition of donning the bindi by creating an expressionist design for two versions of the Lady Dior. She adopts techniques that involve the use of embossing and printing with satin- and glossy-finish pigments to add a dynamic quality to the bags.
Left to right: Lady Dior calfskin bag with metal jewellery and mini Lady Dior calfskin bag with metal jewellery