Three Singapore Artists Have Reinterpreted The Lady Dior Bag

This week marks the opening of a major Dior show in Singapore. Lady Dior House - the maison’s travelling exhibition on the Lady Dior - touches down in Singapore from July 18 - August 11 at 5 Jiak Kim Street, and a key highlight of this show is the Lady Dior As Seen By (LDASB) initiative.

For the uninitiated, LDASB is a project which Dior launched in 2011, inviting artists globally to create non-commercial, one-of-a-kind artworks inspired by the iconic Lady Dior bag. It's a nice complement to the maison's existing Dior Lady Art (DLA) range, which also sees artists transforming the Lady Dior into artist-designed bags that are available for sale, though in very limited quantities.

Art has long been in the DNA of Dior - after all, founder Christian Dior was an astute art dealer back in 1928 - he even had his own art gallery that represented the avant-garde artists of the period - long before he became a couturier.

For the first time, three Singapore artists were invited to participate in LDASB - the multidisciplinary Samuel Xun, sculptor Grace Tan and painter Genevieve Chua. Here they share more on the works they’ve created for Dior and what the opportunity represents for them:

SAMUEL XUN

Formerly trained in fashion design, the 30-year-old has made a name for himself in recent years for his vivid, glittery sculptures and installations that are his way of exploring notions of alternative identities and personal histories. His signature vibrant colour palette and ornamentation of surfaces reflect Xun’s current interest in how textiles and materials can take on contexts of queerness through their history and how they’re used in different situations.

Hello Samuel, you studied fashion design in school and moved on to become an artist. What’s the story behind that?

""My background and training is as a costume maker - that perhaps unlocked my desire to become a visual artist. The desire to make work outside the confines of the body propelled me to try newer forms of making. I take it as my time to learn key lessons in form, color, and texture that have stayed with me to this day."

Tell us how you’ve reinterpreted the Lady Dior. What was the inspiration, and how did you translate it into the final work?

“I’ve more or less reinterpreted the Lady Dior using one of my strongest points as an artist – my visual language. I took cues from previous works I had done up until then and went with a more concise, manicured outlook for the work. The serpentine lines, graduating colours, and shiny textures were keystones in my works that I wanted very much to incorporate into the final sculpture… The work was hand assembled from start to finish, with the finished work exactly one and a half times the size of a medium Lady Dior. 

 The conceptual intent leaned into the idea of lightness and darkness of being, mirroring some of the more abstract philosophical moments of thought in my mind that I have continually expressed through my works.”

How did you meld both Dior’s and your own artistic identity into the work?

“I was quite adamant that it had to still look like the iconic Lady Dior we all recognise. I felt it would have been wrong or maybe even disrespectful to stray too far from the object of reference. I thus injected myself through how I responded to the bag’s form and details, and how I envisioned its materiality… With regards to materials, I decided upon a dégradé metallised ribbon, which I ruched and then applied onto a custom wood frame. The work was hand-assembled from start to finish, with the finished work exactly one and a half times the size of a medium Lady Dior.”

As someone who’s familiar with fashion, what does Dior represent to you?

"Dior has always led the charge in telling fantastical stories through visual means. From the days of John Galliano to Raf Simons, and now to present-day Maria Grazia Chiuri, they all offered something new not only to the house but to the world at large. It was collections like Dior couture F/W 2010 that really had a hand in shaping what I perceive beauty to be."

The Lady Dior is one of the most iconic bags by the maison. How much of a bag person would you say you are, and how might this have influenced the work created for Lady Dior As Seen By?

"I love bags — one Lady Dior and Saddle in every color, every size, please, thank you, next. I feel like my prior knowledge of the legacy of the Lady Dior helped for sure. Throughout the years, there have definitely been many iterations of the bag, but I personally think the undisputed true form is that 5:6 ratio of the medium-sized Lady Dior with the cannage. It’s the small things that truly make the bag, and I’ve definitely utilised them in my conceptualization of my artwork."

What do you hope to express through this project?

“Aside from what I’ve mentioned about encapsulating myself in the work and evoking a sense of connection with the viewer, I hope the work paves the way, as others have done for me, for future interdisciplinary collaborations and artistic endeavours with Singaporean artists. This is just a tiny portion of an immensely richer and more vibrant larger picture."

GRACE TAN

Fashion insiders might be familiar with Tan’s signature Kwodrent series, which began in 2003 as a cross-disciplinary project that explored how rectangles could be transformed into clothing and accessories. Over the years, that curiosity has progressed beyond the realm of wearables and into more sculptural pieces that are driven by her experimentations with materials and structures.

Tell us more about how you’ve reinterpreted the Lady Dior. What was the inspiration and how did you translate it into the final work?

“I was really drawn to the proportion and lines of the Lady Dior bag. I realised the geometric pattern on the bag is based on the cannage design of the cane chairs used by Christian Dior at his couture shows.. The cannage is a highly recognisable woven structure with three axes, and I wanted to interpret this woven design into a three-dimensional composition. I imagined how the three axes would intersect to create the geometric shapes on my work - these shapes, which I call prisms, are then thrusted outwards to create an irregular surface. The magic happens when light and shadow add another dimension to the geometric arrangement of the prisms.”

You’re well-known for using unusual materials like cable ties to create your artworks. What materials and techniques were used to create your Lady Dior work?

“I wanted to work with Carrara marble because of its rich history and association - for example, the statue of David by Michelangelo is one of the most emblematic works made with Carrara marble.

The idea to use Carrara marble came about when I was playing with the notion that the geometric cannage patterns on the Lady Dior bag could be interpreted as building blocks. By ‘playing’ with these building blocks, I could create an irregular surface by pushing the prisms in and out. By doing so, the flatness and singularity of the cannage pattern are broken up.”

The Lady Dior is one of the most iconic bags by the maison. How much of a bag person would you say you are, and how might this have influenced the work created for As Seen By?

"Bags are interesting objects in terms of what they project externally (our personalities and so on), but also how we use them and what we put inside them. A bag is really more than just a bag! I would say I am a bag person who is still searching for my elusive ‘it’ bag(s).

For the Lady Dior As Seen By project, I wasn’t working so much on the premise of a bag. I was more drawn to the elements of the Lady Dior bag – its minimalist rectangular form, semi-circular handle, and geometric patterns. I wanted to deconstruct these highly recognisable parts of the bag. With the sheer weight and cultural materiality associated with Carrara marble (Tan's work reportedly weighs 15kg)x, it would be interesting to engage viewers to rethink the notion of a bag - I wanted to create a paradox between a bag as a mobile object (something functional that we carry around) and an art object."

What do you hope to express through this project?

"My work is about the transformation of things – of how things come together and become something. While the Carrara marble arrangement might suggest something stoic and static, I wanted to use the material as a reflection of transformation – just as how marble as a material is formed through metamorphism (the process by which rocks are changed in composition, texture, or structure by extreme heat and pressure).

GENEVIEVE CHUA

Chua is an award-winning visual artist who specialises in abstraction, particularly through the medium of painting. She’s particularly drawn towards projects where she can choreograph various elements to create a narrative or mood that deeply connects with audiences.

Your website says that a key theme in your practice is abstraction. How did you blend both Dior’s and your own artistic identity in this work?

“This reinvention envisions the Lady Dior bag as a timeless relic cast in aluminium, suspended within a glass block, frozen amidst a futuristic and desert landscape. Like an ancient fossil preserved in amber, the bag's charms have tarnished and matured gracefully, symbolising both timelessness and the fluidity of time, transcending epochs as it shifts seamlessly into the future. Whether it's been an hour, a year, or a century, this Lady Dior stands as a testament to enduring allure and evolving sophistication. My version of the Lady Dior bag offers a unique perspective as its side is “cut open”, revealing its inner lining.”

What materials and techniques were used to create your Lady Dior work?

“I used my iPhone 15 Pro to 3D scan the work and remodelled the bag in ZBrush (a digital sculpting tool). Using the software, I applied a material that resembles graphite-colored aluminium with a hint of the cannage molding on its surface, as a nod to the history of the bag. The background environment was created using the 3D programme Cinema 4D.”

The Lady Dior is one of the most iconic bags by the maison. How much of a bag person would you say you are, and how might this have influenced the work created for As Seen By?

"Over the years, I have owned a wide range of bags, from oversized ones for carrying art materials and tools to more utilitarian and unassuming ones. Nowadays, I prefer bags with small hidden slots for stashing pocket change or keys and fobs, which is something I've translated into my artwork for this project - my Lady Dior opens curiously from the side."

What do you hope to express through this project?

"One of the ideas I explored was the word 'ajar.' In this artwork, the (right side of the) Lady Dior is intentionally left ajar. The "exposed" side is like a door that's never closed to the next person or thing that enters, as if to say: Stay open and accept."

The Lady Dior House exhibition is on now till August 11, 2024, 11am - 9pm daily, at 5 Jiak Kim Street. Entry is free - register for a slot here.