Bags of Art

As Dior collaborates with seven world-famous artists for a special pop-up that just opens in Dubai today - it talks of fashion's long-standing love affair with art

If Hermes has its Birkin, Chanel its 2.55, Fendi the Peekaboo, then for Dior, the focus is all on the Lady Dior. As the name suggests, the bag was first created for another icon who is also sometimes referred to as Lady D: Princess Diana. It was created in 1995, when the Princess came to Paris to visit the Cezanne exhibition - it was a gift to her from the then French First Lady Bernadette Chirac. A bag steeped in elegance with architectural design and metallic charm details, the bag is feminine yet spirited, just like the women it is named after. And Princess Diana obviously fell in love with the bag as she ordered it in a host of colours and flashed it as her regular arm candy. With actor Marion Cotillard being the current face of the Lady Dior, it really is the bag of choice for women of style and substance. Now you can look forward to the Lady Dior 2.0 - a new chapter for the design, but these are for the true collectors, as they are produced in a very limited edition.
This summer, Dior opened its new store in London on Bond Street; the four-storey boutique could be mistaken for a fashion museum thanks to its neo Louis XVI furniture, stunning art collection, beautiful grey stone interiors, grand marble staircase and private salons. To mark this moment in their history, they invited London-based contemporary artist Marc Quinn to collaborate with Dior and come up with his version of the Lady Dior. And as an extension of this project, six more American and British artists were invited to be a part of the project called #DiorLadyArt. These limited edition works will be introduced in special pop-ups at selected stores. The Dubai pop-up opened on December 10 at the Dior Boutique in the Mall of Emirates. The bags are true objects of desire and each bag tells a different story. There is Britain's Mat Collishaw whose work often is inspired by nature; a velvet, Black Lady Dior with a striking yellow butterfly - it is bound to dress up any outfit. Jason Martin's take on this iconic bag comes in solid black and metallics; with the use of monochrome patterns it has a more organic feel but with a bit of edge. And Ian Davenport's use of multicoloured stripes is reinterpreted from his Colourfall Painting series and makes for a bag that literally jumps at you with vibrancy. Other artists who are part of this project are Chris Martin, Daniel Gordon and Matthew Porter. And the collaboration between the seven artists goes beyond the Lady Dior bag into small leather goods, clutches and even scarves.
Of course, fashion working with artists is not a new story - one of the first designers to work with artists was Italian Designer Elsa Schiaparelli, the lady who set the fashion agenda in the 1930s. When she invited Salvador Dali to work with her, the result was the iconic Lobster Dress. And Yves Saint Laurent's Mondrian dress of the mod 1960s is a design that fashion refers to for inspiration till today, and made fashion truly be seen as an art form. In the past few years, Louis Vuitton and Alexander McQueen are among the design houses who have worked with art. It seems that fashion's love affair with fashion is one that is eternal. And the house of Christian Dior is very much a part of this affair.
Christian Dior himself was an art gallery owner before he became a fashion designer. Though he set up his fashion house in 1946, it was a year later when he showed his first collection that is really seen as the start of this French couture house. This collection was called the 'New Look,' thanks to longer, circular full skirts, with cinched-in waists. There was an architectural feel to this collection. Dior was also among the first European designers to embrace the American market and to look at licensing. He understood the business of fashion, as much as he did the craft of it. Being a fashion house with vision that is all about creative elegance is Dior's trademark, and this collaboration that takes their bags and literally turns them into works of art is just a continuance of the legacy of Dior. (#DiorLadyArt, Dior Boutique at the Mall of the Emirates, starting December 10.)

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