Gianfranco Ferré, Dior’s creative director from 1989 to 1997, designed a perfectly structured square bag with rounded handles that he affectionately called "chouchou", meaning "favourite". Its quilted "cannage" stitching echoed the Napoleon III chairs used at Dior’s couture shows, while gold charms spelling "Dior" added symbolic luck.
In 1995, Bernadette Chirac asked Gianfranco to help select a gift for Diana, Princess of Wales, during her visit to Paris for an exhibition of works by Paul Cézanne. The bag was chosen, and Diana wore it immediately.
Back in London, Diana ordered several versions, carrying them to appearances – from a Liverpool hospital opening to the 1996 Met Gala.
© Getty ImagesSoon after, the design was renamed the Lady Dior. Its allure has endured, reimagined by various creative directors through the decades. And, in 2015, Dior invited creatives to put their own stamp on this fashion tour de force. This year marks the tenth Dior Lady Art initiative, and ten creatives are producing one or more bags to celebrate. Here, we speak to three of the artists chosen to reinterpret the icon.
Inès Longevial
Inès grew up in the southwest of France and now lives and works in Paris. She describes her work as "free, instinctive and overflowing". The artist created three bags for this project, and her main mission was for them to be joyful and exuberant.
© MARION BERRIN"As a child, I watched my grandmother assemble fabrics with infinite patience," Inès says. "Patchwork has always been part of my imagination. So I worked on an assemblage of faces and details, such as flowers, suns and snakes. The softness and bounce of the quilted satin make it almost friendly.
"For the charms, I started with my exquisite corpses created on napkins in Spanish cafes. All in all, this bag could well be the evening companion of David Bowie or Niki de Saint Phalle."
© FEDERICA LIVIAMarc Quinn
Marc is a multidisciplinary British artist whose surreal explorations of the human body use unconventional materials, including frozen blood for his self-portraits. His notable works include Alison Lapper Pregnant, a monumental marble sculpture that was displayed on Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth between 2005 and 2007.
“I think my artistic work is a kind of concrete poetry, a way of working out a question that we all face: 'What is it to be a person living in the world?'" he says.
© JAMES ROBJANTMarc, who became one of the first artists to reinterpret a Lady Dior bag in 2016, says of his new collection: "What’s exciting about the new bags is they’re very unlike the first collection. They have objects on them, they’re more three-dimensional, more sculptural, and they’re of this moment in a wonderful way for me.
"They reflect how my practice has changed over the decades, working with new materials, methods and technologies. Two of the bags include artworks created using AI, something that would have never been possible ten years ago. In this way, these objects become about the passage of time and humanity: about how humans are constantly evolving, creating and innovating.
© JAMES ROBJANT"It's important to me that my work embodies these changes and our constant desire to challenge and change the world around us."
Sophia Loeb
"My artistic universe is defined by a vibrant interplay of colour, tone and saturation – a visual symphony that harmonises structure, texture and chromatic expression," Sophia says of her bold abstract paintings. She was born in São Paulo, Brazil, and has made London her home since graduating from the Royal College of Art.
© JAMES ROBJANTSofia is a champion of the harmonious coexistence of humans and nature, and has infused this ethos into four distinctive bags: one made from pearls, threads and wire; one in gleaming gold embossed leather; a "floral odyssey" and a monochrome red evoking molten metal – with an abstract painting printed on the lining.
"We approached the reinterpretation by engaging deeply with the visual and structural language of my paintings," she says. "Specific details – fragments of texture, colour and form – were carefully selected for their ability to translate into the architecture of the Lady Dior bag.
© MATEUSZ STEFANOWSKI"I am particularly struck by the bag handles and the meticulous exploration of diverse textures – how Dior was able to translate my painterly universe into something tactile and wearable."
THE DIOR LADY ART #10 BAGS ARE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT SELECT DIOR BOUTIQUES
Pick up the latest issue of HELLO! on sale in the UK on Wednesday 10 December to read the full interview. You can subscribe to HELLO! to get the magazine delivered free to your door every week or purchase the digital edition online via our Apple or Google apps.
