\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tJessica Cannon\u2019s designs for the Dior Lady Art project. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoe Perri\/Courtesy of Dior<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tBialobos noted that Dior has a long-standing relationship with the art world. \u201cIt\u2019s linked to the history of the house, because before being a couturier, Mr. Dior was a gallery owner,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \n\tFrom John Galliano\u2019s 60th anniversary show titled \u201cLe Bal des Artistes,\u201d in which each look was inspired by a painter, to Maria Grazia Chiuri\u2019s work with a cadre of feminist artists, each creative director of the house has brought their own spin to the tradition.<\/p>\n \n\tJonathan Anderson, who last month became Dior\u2019s eighth couturier, is no exception. His debut collection for the house, shown during Paris men\u2019s fashion week, included a tasseled Lady Dior bag designed by Sheila Hicks.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cJonathan loves the project,\u201d said Bialobos. \u201cHe\u2019s already given me a list of artists with whom he would like to collaborate for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWith artists from every region of the world, the Dior Lady Art project casts a wide net, with both established and emerging artists flocking to put their spin on the pillar handbag style.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cVery few have turned us down,\u201d Bialobos said. \u201cEven those who were skeptical to begin with got really caught up in the project.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tJudy Chicago, Faith Ringgold, Lee Bul and Joana Vasconcelos are among the art world luminaries who have taken part.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tPatrick Eug\u00e8ne with his designs for the Dior Lady Art project.<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHeather Sten\/Courtesy of Dior<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\t\u201cWe don\u2019t just pick superstars. Every year, we also try to provide a platform for emerging talents and we have a sort of mix,\u201d Bialobos said. \u201cYou might have a little-known young artist next to someone like John Giorno or Gilbert & George. That\u2019s what\u2019s nice about it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCannon was intrigued by the idea of translating her cosmic landscapes laced with iridescent pigments into objects. Each of her three designs features a pearlescent shell-like ornament at its center, evoking a sun, moon or planet.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis is actually the first time I\u2019ve seen my paintings translated into another medium and so it sparked all of these questions and ideas about how some of that could come back into the paintings, and maybe how the paintings can live in the world in ways that I hadn\u2019t considered,\u201d she told WWD.<\/p>\n \n\tDetails like tulle ruffles, pearls and rhinestones echo the ornate embellishments of a couture gown, but are full of hidden meaning.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOne way that I felt like I really connected with fashion in this project is understanding that it\u2019s a public expression that can come from a very intimate place, and I think paintings are also that way,\u201d Cannon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThere\u2019s a public dimension to them when they\u2019re finished, but the ideas behind them and the process of making them is much more about this interiority,\u201d she said. \u201cMy hope is that people who wear the bags or view them will connect with that interiority a bit as well.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tPatrick Eug\u00e8ne with his sketches for the Dior Lady Art project. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHeather Sten\/Courtesy of Dior<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tEug\u00e8ne also embraced embellishment, though in his case, the use of pearls was a way of paying tribute to his Haitian heritage.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI\u2019m inspired by the past, both personal and ancestral, the resilience of Haitians, and the ways culture is preserved and reinterpreted across generations,\u201d he said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tHe approached his three reinterpretations of the Lady Dior as if they were accessories that might be carried by the subjects of his portraits. His leather and textile patchworks incorporate elements like wooden beads, macram\u00e9, raffia embroidery and straw weaving.<\/p>\n \n\tOn one of the medium-sized bags, woven leather side panels are studded with small pearls \u2014 a nod to Haiti\u2019s historic nickname as the \u201cPearl of the Antilles.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cPearls have long symbolized purity and refinement in fashion, especially at Dior. I wanted to take that symbol and infuse it with a deeper meaning \u2014 one that speaks to strength, endurance, and legacy. The women in my paintings wear pearls as quiet emblems of grace and survival,\u201d explained Eug\u00e8ne.<\/p>\n \n\tHe views the bag as a powerful canvas for artists. \u201cIt\u2019s about expanding the definition of art. Art doesn\u2019t have to be confined to gallery walls; it can move, it can be worn, it can engage with everyday life. Dior Lady Art celebrates that idea,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \n\tCannon liked the idea of the bag outliving its wearer.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI love the fact that this is an invitation to touch the art and to perhaps have it be touched, maybe not just by one generation, but by multiple generations of people who might carry the bag, hold on to it, share it with others \u2014 because that\u2019s definitely my relationship with things from my mom or my grandmother,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tJessica Cannon with one of her Lady Dior bag designs. <\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoe Perri\/Courtesy of Dior<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tShe traveled to Paris twice, once to visit La Galerie Dior, the exhibition space at the brand\u2019s historic flagship, for her initial research, and again in March to see the final prototypes at the Dior workshop.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI feel very inspired by just the breadth and depth of technical research that they did, and how carefully and thoughtfully the imagery was translated into those materials,\u201d Cannon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis experience has been just an absolute dream, and for it to be the first experience, it just initiated me into all of these possibilities that I would be very open to exploring if other opportunities were to come up,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tBialobos said that once artists have had a taste of working with Dior\u2019s artisans, they often come back for more.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tChicago, for example, started by designing a set for one of Chiuri\u2019s shows, then took part in the Dior Lady Art project. Her latest creation for the house is a special trunk for its Miss Dior perfume.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cArtists arrive either with ideas, drawings \u2014 sometimes very precise, depending on the artist \u2014 or even prototypes, and it challenges the studio and the workshops to push creativity to its peak,\u201d said Bialobos.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cFor instance, Korean artist Lee Bul wanted her bag to be made of stone. That might seem a little crazy or even impossible, because a bag made of stone would weigh a ton, but the workshop found a way to laser cut the stone so that it was finer than leather,\u201d he recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tEach bag is produced in a limited edition of 100. \u201cWe don\u2019t always produce all 100 pieces, either for technical reasons, or because we want to keep some for later. But there are some which are sold out and which are unfortunately no longer made,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \n\tSome collectors have been known to snap up six or seven bags at a time.\u00a0\u201cAt our annual cocktail at Frieze in Seoul, we see a lot of women arriving with bags from previous editions,\u201d Bialobos said. \u201cTo me, that\u2019s the best reward.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PARIS \u2014 The Dior Lady Art project is turning 10. The French fashion house is celebrating the anniversary with a book, due to be published by Rizzoli in October, showcasing 99 artists\u2019 interpretations of its signature Lady Dior bag.\u00a0 For the 10th edition, Dior has invited 10 artists to take part, including Marc Quinn, who kicked off the series in 2016 with a capsule collection commemorating the opening of Dior\u2019s store on London\u2019s New Bond Street. \u201cIt was such a success that we decided to do it every year-end with around 10 artists for each edition,\u201d said Olivier Bialobos, Dior\u2019s deputy managing director in charge of global communication and image. Joining Quinn this time around are fellow U.K. artist Lakwena; U.S. artists Jessica Cannon and Patrick Eug\u00e8ne; Eva Jospin and In\u00e8s Longevial from France; China\u2019s Ju Ting; South Korean artist Lee Ufan; Alymamah Rashed from Kuwait, and Sophia Loeb from Brazil. Ufan\u2019s designs were unveiled in April as part of the \u201cChristian Dior: Designer of Dreams\u201d exhibition in Seoul. The others will be rolled out from late October exclusively at the Dior flagships on Avenue Montaigne in Paris and at Shanghai luxury shopping mall Plaza 66. Other locations will receive a selection of designs from mid-November to mid-December, and participating artists will be featured on the Dior Talks podcast. Jessica Cannon\u2019s designs for the Dior Lady Art project. Joe Perri\/Courtesy of Dior Bialobos noted that Dior has a long-standing relationship with the art world. \u201cIt\u2019s linked to the history of the house, because before being a couturier, Mr. Dior was a gallery owner,\u201d he said. From John Galliano\u2019s 60th anniversary show titled \u201cLe Bal des Artistes,\u201d in which each look was inspired by a painter, to Maria Grazia Chiuri\u2019s work with a cadre of feminist artists, each creative director of the house has brought their own spin to the tradition. Jonathan Anderson, who last month became Dior\u2019s eighth couturier, is no exception. His debut collection for the house, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Jessica](\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/JESSICA-CANNON-ARTISTE-ATELIER-JOE-PERRI-4.jpg?w=240\")
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\n<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\tHidden Meanings\t<\/h2>\n
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\n<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\tNew horizons\t<\/h2>\n
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