11 Artists Who Reimagined the Lady Dior Bag
The ninth iteration of Dior’s Lady Art project features 11 artists, each of whom put their own spin on the house’s iconic Lady Dior bag—a cornerstone of the brand since 2016. With talent from China, Peru, France, and more, Dior brings the global art world together, highlighting the best and brightest from far and wide. Past collaborators on the project have included Mickalene Thomas and Michaela Yearwood.
The ninth class of artists was given the space to use the bag as their canvas, with each creative bringing their own signatures to the classic shape. Anna Weyant included her trademark wood grains, Sara Flores incorporated her Indigenous community’s artistic flair, and Woo Kukwon found inspiration from his family (and his furry friends.)
Some of the artists have a prior relationship with Dior. The brand featured sports-themed mosaics by Faith Ringgold in its fall/winter 2024 haute couture show; Ringgold was also tapped as one of the participants in the Dior Lady Art project. Her bags, pictured above, highlight her storied activism, paying homage to a lifetime of fighting for social justice. (Ringgold passed away in April 2024.) Jeffrey Gibson, whose bags this year use text to convey a message of love, participated in the eighth version of the project in 2023.
With 30 pieces in total, the collection will have a global rollout in select stores. Below, meet the 11 artists who participated in Dior’s Lady Art #9 project, and see their unique takes on the storied Lady Dior bag.
Anna Weyant
Anna Weyant’s version of the medium Lady Dior bag draws inspiration from her painting practice, which often questions femininity through portraits and still lifes. The Calgary-born, New York–based artist’s most notable work, “Summertime,” sold at Christie’s for $1.5 million in 2022 and features one of her signatures: wood grain. Weyant incorporated the motif into one of the two styles she designed. “I saw it as a blank canvas with so much potential for fun,” she says.
Faith Ringgold
Ringgold, whose art addresses racial identity and gender inequality, was born in Harlem. Here, she merged her quilting with activism, telling fine art-driven stories through a social justice lens. She created a total of six pieces before her death. Incorporating her 1971 political protest posters, central African Kuba designs, and more, Ringgold’s Lady Dior offers a glimpse into her successful career. One of her own quotations, “Anyone can fly, all you gotta do is try,” can be found inside the handles of the bag.
Duy Anh Nhan Duc
Paris-based Duy Anh Nhan Duc often uses plants to create his installations, including dandelion, salsifies, thistles, wheat, and clover, extending their life cycles. These flowers also adorn his Lady Dior, crafted from vegan leather and finished with gilded metal to highlight the veins of the leaves. The handle also features a golden vine wrapping around a dandelion frozen in resin, bringing the artist’s natural leanings to the popular style.
Danielle Mckinney
Montgomery, Alabama-born Mckinney often finds herself inspired by the moments that aren’t seen. Her work encourages viewers to look inside and find themselves, and specifically highlights Black women. For her Lady Dior bags, Mckinney chose to hand-embroider the silhouette of a woman, which can often be found in her works. Butterflies are used to convey the “flight of imagination,” as Mckinney hopes to bring her introspective eye to accessories.
Huang Yuxing
Known for his contemporary works, Beijing-born Yuxing finds inspiration from the Chinese Gongbi technique, selecting bright colors and intense contrasts. Fascinated with the creation of the universe, Yuxing uses celestial colors on his two bags to create a day and night feel. His Lady Dior includes golden finishes meant to embellish the bag with a hint of Chinese goldsmithing. Yuxing also created a leather bag, throwing it back to the ’60s in classic Dior fashion.
Jeffrey Gibson
A mixed-material artist, Gibson is known for using video, painting, engraving, and sculpture in his works, often invoking common sayings or slogans to uphold and uplift the marginalized. Drawing on inspiration from boxing, Gibson merges sport and fashion to promote love. The padlocks on the other side of the bag are 3D-printed and also pay tribute to famous Parisian bridges.
Liang Yuanwei
Yuanwei finds inspiration through “the passage of time” and is often cited for her fine attention to detail. Based in China, the artist’s “Golden Notes” series and Ru ware pottery from the Song Dynasty were depicted on the Lady Dior, incorporating her brushstrokes through a 3D printing process. The handles and shoulder strap of the bag intentionally reference jade, and—fun fact—it’s meant to resemble porcelain, with “the artist’s brushstrokes looking like the crackles in the glaze.”
Sara Flores
Flores’s two versions of the Lady Dior are about community and the environment. The artist chose to honor her tribe, the Shipibo-Conibo, who live along the Ucayali River in Peru. In her personal work, she uses plant pigments to paint, and the details on her bags pay homage to this practice. Through this process, Flores honors her community’s focus on spiritual healing, hoping her bags show the importance of preserving the Amazon’s delicate ecosystem.
Vaugh Spann
The New Jersey-based, Florida-bred Spann is known for his abstract and figurative works examining African-American history and culture. Two of his four bags are based upon his 2020 paintings “Firestorm” and “Untitled (Stormy).” He also has an interest in science fiction, with many of his works bringing mythology into the contemporary world. The letter “X,” also a signature for Spann, is included on a transparent pink briefcase-style Lady Dior.
Woo Kukwon
South Korean artist Woo Kukwon’s main mediums are oil painting, drawing, and art installations. Known to love fairy tales, he often brings whimsy and childlike flair to his canvases. This approach also translates to his five versions of the Lady Dior—Kukwon created characters representing people in his life for the bag, honoring his wife, daughter, and dog in a variety of designs. (For instance, on some of the clasps, his dog is featured as a charm.)
Hayal Pozanti
In her works, Pozanti focuses on the human connection to nature. Using abstract shapes and vivid colors, the artist invites viewers to almost jump into her paintings, beckoning them into a figurative land. For one of her versions of the Lady Dior, Pozanti riffs on her passion for hiking by including sheepskin inserts and feet meant to mimic walking poles. The interior of the other silhouette, a clutch, is adorned with mirrors, “offering a reading of oneself and the earth,” according to a release.
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