Emerging South Korea born artist Jia Lee was among 11 artists that participated in the fourth edition of Dior Lady Art in which they were given carte blanche to reimagine a timeless icon, the Lady Dior bag.
Neve one to shy from bold and daring reinterpretations, Dior’s objective to render the Lady Dior as a unique piece of art.
Indeed, the Lady Dior pays homage to the house’s 70-year history while making a bold break from current trends. There’s no mistaking this bag with its signature cannage stitching, padded leather cushions, mirrored facets and charms are made with a layer of fine silver or gold.
Lee often draws inspiration from what she has seen and communicates it in her own language, through art. For her version of Lady Dior, Lee looked towards flowers, which is often used to signify women and given as a token of appreciation.
It comes to no surprise that Lee utilised her signature watercolour painting style to transplant the beauty of flowers onto the Lady Dior bag. Her idea was to capture and encapsulate the feeling of a woman receiving a bouquet of flowers and not just a bag.
In one interpretation, she chose to use soft and airy silk to express the elegant petals of a flower on the bag’s fabric.
Upon seeing the final product, Lee admired just how close her version of the Lady Dior looked exactly like the designs on her first sketch.
Apart from Lee, the internationally diverse group of artists included Joana Vasconcelos, Rina Banerjee, Wang Guangle, Marguerite Humeau, Maria Nepomuceno, Mickalene Thomas, Kohei Nawa, Eduardo Terrazas, Raqib Shaw and Athi-Patra Ruga.
According to Dior, the bags are soon to be available in an exclusive run and no doubt destined to be an iconic must-have item.
If you are interested to find out how these talented artists put their unique touch of creativity to the Lady Dior watch Jia Lee and the other 10 artists tell their story in the video below.
