Lady Dior As Seen By

I found something pretty interesting when I read Dior Mag a few days ago...Well, at least if you're into both fashion and art it might be interesting...An exhibition on different artist's view on the Lady Dior bag! The whole text reads:

"The story begins in 1995, when Bernadette Chirac, then First Lady of France, presented Diana, Princess of Wales, with the latest creation from the house of Dior: a handbag. And so the  Lady Dior was born. With a baptism like that, a great future could lie ahead. Also playing an undeniable part, the fact that its boasts numerous house codes, from the charms that nod to Christian Dior's superstitiousness to the cannage quilting inspired by the Napoleon III chairs on which the couturier seated his guests on the day of a show. Its success has never wavered. The skilled know-how of the Dior ateliers required to make it is unique, as is the quality of the leathers and precious skins and the intensity or delicacy of their colors. Having since become an icon in fashion terms, it lends itself with ease to artistic endeavors. Thus it was that in 2011 a debut exhibition organized in Shanghai gave carte blanche to international photographers and artists to provide their own take on the bag. The show contained some fifty pieces. Next, it was Beijing's turn. Today, Lady Dior As Seen By  is crossing the East China Sea to land in Tokyo, in time for the reopening of the Dior store in the city's Ginza district.


The exhibition will remain open to the public from April 22 to May 20, in a location a stone's throw away from the new, completely revamped spaces. The artists Nan Goldin, Arnaud Pyvka, Bruce Weber, Patrick Demarchelier, Peter Lindbergh, Koichiro Doi and many others, set it a story and photographed it. Others, such as Liu Jianhua, Olympia Scarry, Kohei Nawa, Daniel Arsham, have treated it as sculpture. And on the lower floor of the exhibition space, is the series of films in which the bag shares top billing with Oscar-winning French actress Marion Cotillard in front of the cameras of David Lynch, Olivier Dahan, John Cameron Mitchell and Annie Leibovitz. The new show boasts over one-third more pieces than the original. Another room is given over to the history of the bag and the house, with archival imagery projected on a screen whose round form alludes to the charms that hang from the handbag's handles: the O of diOr. After that show wraps, the  Lady Dior As Seen By exhibition will forge ahead on its global tour. To be continued…"

And here follows some of the artwork!

Pixcell Bag - Kohei Nawa, 2011

Untitled - Nan Goldin, 2011

Untitled - Paolo Pellegrin, 2010

You belong to me - Kourtney Roy, 2011

Untitled - Daniel Arsham, 2010

Walking Lady - Arnaud Pykva, 2011

A woman in a wig, with Lady Dior - Quentin Shih

It's a wonderful surprise what kind of things can rescue you in life - Bruce Weber, 2011

Tribute to aung San Suu Ki - Mounir Fatmi, 2012

Lady Dior - Youssef Nabil, 2012

Hedgebag - Recycle Group, 2011