Dior Lady Art #9

Vaughn Spann is an American-born artist based in New Jersey, whose vibrant, expressive output is a mix of abstract and figurative elements. The themes he explores – African American history, culture and identity – appear through a rich palette, varied textures and almost science-fictional characters evolving on a chimeric horizon, in a contemporary tale. Shifting the traditional boundaries of art, sublimating the duality of beings and the world, his dynamic, deeply personal combinations are punctuated by strong iconographic signs, arousing emotion and reflection. This approach is perpetuated in his renditions of the iconic Lady Dior. Playing on the codes of masculine and feminine, a first model, an oversized version, revisits the shape and functional spirit of 1980s briefcases, all in pink-tinged transparency, and features a central "X" – a recurring motif in Spann's oeuvre. A second is adorned with geometric structures from several of his canvases, while the last two represent, respectively, his paintings from 2020, Firestorm and Untitled (stormy) with striking effects of material, relief and contrast, irresistibly "pop" and light-hearted.

Through her textured canvases, conveying a virtuoso meticulousness, Chinese artist Liang Yuanwei focuses on the perception of everyday life and the passage of time. Her delicate, experimental compositions define a new visual language with repetitive motifs and floral drawings, fusing ancestral heritage with inventiveness. For this ninth edition of Dior Lady Art, the painter found inspiration in her Golden Notes series transposing and revisiting it on the iconic bag. Crafted in resin using a 3D printing process, this exceptional piece is punctuated by a multitude of flowers, revealing, to the touch, a surprising interplay of materials and sensations. This effect celebrates pure beauty of crackled ceramics, reproducing the Song dynasty vases at the heart of the influences behind this work. Presented in a green palette expressing the luxuriance of the plant realm, this captivating object is enhanced by precious finishes in antique gold metal reminiscent of Ru ware, while the handles and shoulder strap evoke jade.

Born in Hô Chi Minh-Ville and now living in Paris, Vietnamese artist Duy Anh Nhan Duc makes nature the essential matrix of his opuses. The botanical artist creates infinitely poetic installations composed of plants – such as dandelions, salsifies, thistles, wheat and clover – that he invites us to rediscover. The fruit of tireless gleanings, his oeuvre weave a fascinating dialogue with the cycles of life, more than ever dependent on the fragile moment. For Dior Lady Art, Duy Anh Nhan Duc has dreamed up a reinterpretation reflecting his passion for horticulture and the emotion he feels for the splendors of the vegetal world. His Lady Dior is adorned with a profusion of lush details, including a floral motif embossed on its – entirely vegan – leather, enhanced by a sublimated trellis and precious embroidery. A marvelous arrangement, topped with flowers, branches and twigs in exquisitely finished gilded metal – revealing, almost sculpted, the veins that run through their leaves. As a final surprise, a golden vine curls around the handle of this exceptional object, which encloses a delicate dandelion, the virtuoso's signature, contained in a drop of resin, thus becoming a secret talisman.

Born in Calgary, Canada, Anna Weyant draws on a wide range of influences, from the golden age of Dutch masters to contemporary pop culture. Tinged with surrealism and mystery, her figurative, tragicomic paintings question social conventions and the codes of femininity, in portraits or still lifes, with a nostalgic, sometimes disquieting atmosphere, between light and shadow. A vision both adventurous and melancholy, always deeply sensitive, which she transcribes into her virtuoso reinventions of the Lady Dior. A medium version evokes wood grain, a pattern found in many of her works. In a second, entirely gilded model, the roses and daisies that punctuate her oeuvre come alive, transforming into jeweled sculptures on the bag's upper portion. An ode to the excellence of the House's ateliers, the graphic lines of the emblematic cannage are revisited in a variation delicately dotted with a garden marguerite motif.

Between heritage and reinvention, Jeffrey Gibson elaborates ultra-colorful works that unite traditional Native American craftsmanship with a bold, almost psychedelic aesthetic. A versatile artist, he combines painting, sculpture, engraving, textiles and video to devise a hybrid visual vocabulary. His creations acquire the power of speech, chanting contemporary slogans or song verses: narratives taking singular forms and celebrating the forgotten, the marginalized. These are invitations to (re)read everyday life and society through the prisms of art, passion and dreams. Jeffrey Gibson now transposes his unique universe onto a Lady Dior in a resolutely "pop" metamorphosis inspired by his iconic punching bags – for boxing – revisited as art installations. Diverted from their original function, these two symbolic accessories – of sport and fashion –stand for an ode to love. In a captivating retro-verso interplay, the Dior emblem is emblazoned on one side with the entirely beaded inscription "love, love, love", and on the other covered with numerous heart padlocks – produced with 3D printing – a moving tribute to those shimmering on Parisian bridges. A piece brimming with joy and tender declarations, for oneself and for all those you cherish. 

In her unsettling cinematic portraits, Danielle Mckinney – born 1981 in Montgomery, Alabama – captures all the subtleties of the private sphere. Recounting hidden narratives, she conjures up female characters in spaces that are often domestic and have become "rooms of one's own": snapshots of mental landscapes, reflecting introspection and various moments in a woman's life. Her style, with its vivid tones and fabulous contrasts of light, encourages the viewer to read the invisible, to divine the unutterable. A captivating poetry of the everyday, unfolding in a couture lexicon on a dazzling Lady Dior. Meticulously revealing the movements of the paint, the tan textile, a slightly crumpled backdrop, reproduces, like a slight echo, the emblematic texture of her canvases. In the center, the silhouette of a girl – the artist's signature protagonist – is delicately hand-embroidered, thread by thread, with infinite virtuosity, recalling the absolute mastery and magical colors of her pictural renditions. Embodying the flight of the imagination, a butterfly lands at the heart of this scene, while another flutters on the handle of the bag. In a sophisticated palette, with touches of bright red, precious ornaments shine. A stunning reinvention.

Hayal Pozanti seeks, on her canvases, to materialize and understand the physicality of all things. Through lush, organic forms in vivid, varied colors, she creates fantastical abstract landscapes and portraits, in which, in essence, our relationship with life takes shape. Her works, as conceptual as they are emotional, constitute a metaphor for human intelligence, plunging the gaze into a fictional elsewhere that is irresistibly real. For Dior Lady Art, she has designed three pieces on which are sketched her phantasmagorical vision of nature, like an invitation to exploration and movement. Dreamlike journeys into the heart of the mountains, the first two Lady Dior bags are adorned with athletic details drawn from one of her passions, trekking: sheepskin inserts, reminiscent of the lining of hiking boots, snap hooks, along with feet recalling the star-shaped tips of walking poles. The iconic "D, I, O, R" charms are reinvented in a hieroglyphic alphabet conceived by the artist. The last reinterpretation, a hand-painted clutch reveals a nocturnal panorama magnified by a cloud of rhinestones meticulously placed in a shower of entrancing comets. The interior, meanwhile, is covered with mirrors, offering a reading of oneself and the world.

A veritable synergetic alliance of excellence past, present and future, the oeuvre of Peruvian artist Sara Flores is inspired by Kené, an age-old practice at the heart of the traditions of the Shipibo-Conibo people living along the Ucayali River. Powerfully rooted in her cultural heritage, her creations reveal hypnotic labyrinths that illustrate the interconnectedness of the Amazon ecosystem. For this new chapter of Dior Lady Art, she wished to highlight the unique skills and legacy of this community and has dreamed up two bags with details that echo her personal works that use plant pigments. Both display a subtly embroidered serpentine motif. The aesthetic harmony of this design – characteristic of the native population – promises spiritual healing: the gaze follows the intentional trajectories of the strokes. With a snake entwined around its handle, the first model, available in a medium size, scintillates with a constellation of black beads, while the second, in a mini format, is studded with numerous silver gems. Objects of desire offering a sensory experience that shines a light brighter than ever on the multiple beauty of these ancestral customs.

The art of Woo Kukwon, from South Korea, essentially unfolds through oil paintings, drawings on paper and installations. Reappropriating fairy tales with stereotypical, deliberately childish, mischievous expressions, his joyfully toned compositions reflect the equivocal coexistence of fiction and reality, combining figurative elements and pop art. This perspective pervades his five metamorphoses of the eternal Lady Dior. Two medium-format pieces portray characters representing his wife, daughter and dog, populating two enchanting spaces. On the first, they gaze up at a starry sky, stretched out on a hill sublimated by colorful threads; within, the words "My universe" can be read, in homage to his little girl. A second bag depicts them strolling beneath cherry trees in blossom, the splendor of the vegetation blooming on the handles and eyelets. Illustrating the gap between truth and fantasy, a third, powerfully ironic variation is punctuated by a meticulously embroidered polar bear and the statement "Killing me softly ". A mini version is embellished with vines of pearls – orange, blue, red and white – that imitate sumptuous fur, while another micro one is studded with a multitude of black beads and sparkles contrasting with the "Christian Dior" signature. A final, wonderfully playful surprise, his loyal pet is featured on certain clasps, in the form of a refined charm.