There are It bags, and then there are bags that are walking statements of art. Like Dior’s Lady Dior handbag. To the French maison, it isn’t just a carrier of things.
Rather it should be treated like wearable art, objets d’art even. Dior is so single-minded in its belief that the house has devoted two annual projects to pay artistic homage to this legendary bag that was the constant companion of the late Princess Diana. It’s been doing this for more than 10 years now, working with young talents and established artists, giving them carte blanche to use the Lady Dior as a blank canvas, to reimagine and showcase its beauty and character.
It started off in 2011, with the Lady Dior As Seen By, an annual exhibition of multi-disciplinary installations that has travelled from East Asia, Europe and Moscow. Then in 2016, when Maria Grazia Chiuri joined the maison as creative director, she piloted the Dior Lady Art collaborative, where international artists worked together with the maison’s craftsmen to bring to life their creative interpretations of the famous bag, turning out limited-release Lady Dior bags for purchase. Now Dior has introduced yet another itinerant concept – Lady Dior House – that continues its love affair with the iconic bag.
The travelling exhibition, which started off in Vietnam earlier this year, makes its second stop in Singapore, and is staged at the Jiak Kim Warehouse (former Zouk) from now till Aug 11. This capsule exhibition unfolds over five ro.
