Credit: Dior
Embroidery, metal appliqués, fabric inserts, hand-painted leather: the ninth edition of the Lady Art project celebrates art in its various facets and reminds us how craftsmanship is one of its most complete expressions.
Yes, because the eleven artists chosen by the fashion house to create unique variants, inspired by their own work, of its iconic Lady Dior bag, worked side by side with the artisans to make their visions into wonderful works of art to touch and wear.
Created in 1995 as a tribute to Princess Diana, the Lady Dior is the French brand's most famous bag, and since 2016 it has also been the exceptional palette on which artists from all over the world transport their creativity to create collector's pieces thanks to the savoir faire of the artisans who know how to turn their ideas into reality every year.
Like the world of Song Dynasty pottery from which the Liang Yuanwei version is inspired, made of resin using a 3D printing process to recreate, to the eye and to the touch, the beauty of cracked pottery. Or like the feminist and civil rights struggles of Harlem, found in artist Faith Ringgold's Lady Dior, hand-embroidered to reproduce her famous work Mama Can Sing with a complicated interplay of colored beads. Or Hayal Pozanti's finger paintings, which wrap around the bag like a shell and have been embellished with embroidery and sheepskin inlays to give them dimension and texture.
