One of Dior's most infamous initiatives is back for its ninth edition. The Lady Dior Art project centres itself around collaborating with international artists, allowing them to present their adaptations of the timeless handbag.
Since 2016, the Lady Dior Art project has given artists creative control to revisit one of the brand's most symbolic products. Apart from the classic Dior Saddle Bag, the Lady Dior has always been known as a piece that effortlessly embodies the quintessential Dior style. For this edition, Sara Flores, Jeffrey Gibson, Huang Yuxing, and Danielle Mckinney are among the artists enlisted with the tremendous task of translating their creative and cultural DNAs onto the canvas provided by Dior.
Peruvian artist Sara Flores is widely known for her intricate geometric works, which stem from an ancient medium central to the Shipibo-Conibo nation, a group of Indigenous people living along the Ucayali River in the Amazon rainforest of Peru. Revealing a technical geometric pattern upon the Lady Dior handbag in a neutral colour palette, alluding to her artistry using natural dyes, Flores delivered a true one-of-a-kind masterpiece that perfectly clads the Lady Dior and presents itself as one of 2024's must-have handbags.
For the second time, American artist Jeffrey Gibson was invited to participate and reveal another impeccable iteration of the handbag. Catering to the maximalists and effortlessly swaying the colour-averse, Gibson works with motifs that allude to the artist's childhood and American Mississippi Choctaw/Cherokee identity; Gibson's bright work refers back to 1960s, as seen on the handbag's beaded handle and classic adorned studded silhouette, while traditionally using Native American beadwork with materials sourced directly from West Africa.
American visual artist Danielle McKinney is a contemporary visionary artist who exclusively focuses on painting black women. With expert craftsmanship and captivating works that focus on intimate settings that evoke warmth and mystery, McKinney's transformation of the Lady Dior bag is a masterful example of the project's success, with a delicately painted portrait on the bag's body and an exquisite palette that seamlessly pops with a touch of canary yellow.
Using the Lady Dior bag as a storytelling platform, the project continues to have an avid fanbase that anxiously awaits the full range's release to honour the skilful artists selected to participate in this season's Lady Dior Art project.
The Lady Dior Art project's ninth edition will launch globally in January 2025 in selected stores worldwide.
