Artistic LICENCE

Every year, the Dior Lady Art Project hands its exquisite luxury bags to a group of artists and encourages them to go wild

- Gemma Perry

The iconic Lady Dior is no stranger to reinvention. It remains as modern today as it did in 1995, swinging off the arm of its namesake, Princess Diana. In part, that’s thanks to its constant state of metamorphosis, with new iterations of the timeless classic ensuring its continuing evolution. “The Lady Dior embodies quintessential Dior style, at the convergence of timeless elegance and perpetually renewed daring,” Dior says.

While the bag’s DNA remains unchanged, the House of Dior certainly isn’t afraid to shake things up – just take a look at its provocative and exhilarating Dior Lady Art Project.

Now in its ninth year, the Dior Lady Art Project brings together some of the world’s most talented artists and artisans to redefine the Lady Dior. Launched by Dior creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri in 2016, the project is designed to stretch the bounds of imagination, with past collaborators ranging from classical oil painters to street artists, conceptual sculptors, fashion designers and everyone in between. It’s “an alchemical combination of Dior’s heritage and creative freedom, resonating like an ode to passion and the world’s cultures”, says Dior.

This year, the project brings together 11 artists to create beautiful and challenging works with the Lady Dior as their canvas.

The artists are from Canada, Vietnam, Türkiye, China, Peru, Korea and the US, and “each take their turn in appropriating the Lady Dior as a fascinating emblem of poetic metamorphosis,” says Dior.

That can mean reworking the exquisite bags with every technique imaginable: painting, stitching, embroidering, collaging, riveting, gluing, 3D printing. And everything is on the table, with the artists transforming the bag’s materials, buckles, stitching, handles and even its size.