In the spirit of Art Basel Miami Beach, that annual orgy of the blue chip art and high-end fashion, set to descend on the city the first weekend of December for its 15th edition, Dior has collaborated with seven contemporary artists to redesign their Lady Dior bag.
Trading their paints for calfskin, velvet, sequins, mink, and suede, contemporary artists Jason Martin, Ian Davenport, Mat Collishaw, Marc Quinn, Matthew Porter, Chris Martin, and Daniel Gordon were invited to apply their personal aesthetic to the iconic accessory, which was first created in 1995 and has since served as a blank canvas for a variety of inspired designs.
The latest incarnations are a psychedelic array of artistic expression: Jason Martin, for example, incorporated hundreds of lustrous and matte sequins to explore the relationship between light and movement. Gordon inlaid individual pieces of black and white mink for an abstract iteration of the brand’s hallmark cannage motif. Collishaw rendered an image from his “Burning Butterfly” series in velvet. Davenport applied vibrant, metallic stripes that meld together to makeup new colors, and Quinn, while referencing his own photographic-like paintings of irises, applied the same image in contrasting colors on opposing sides of the bag.
The limited-edition collection also includes small leather goods, iPhone cases, scarves, and more (starting at $360), all designed by the artists. After their reveal during Art Basel’s debutante ball on November 29, the bags, which range from $4,900 to $11,500, will travel globally to boutiques in Los Angeles, London, China, Dubai, and Paris. They will be available for purchase online and at the brand’s Design District boutique in Miami (162 NE 39th St.; 305-576-4632) for about a week during Art Basel, as well as at a special Dior pop-up in L.A. (201 N. Rodeo Dr.) from December 1 until February. (Customers outside of these areas can call the boutiques to place an order.) And with just 100 bags on offer (that’s the rumor, but Dior won’t confirm the number), they’re nearly as exclusive as the artworks hanging on the Miami Beach Convention Center’s walls.
