Gilbert & George put a subversive spin on the Lady Dior bag

Dior Lady Art Lady Dior bag by Gilbert & George

Limited-edition bags, price on request, part of the Dior Lady Art project, by Gilbert & George, for Dior

(Image credit: Photography by Neil Godwin at Future Studios for Wallpaper*, fashion by Jason Hughes)

published 13 October 2023

British art’s foremost provocateurs, Gilbert & George, have teamed up with Parisian fashion house Dior on the latest iteration of its Dior Lady Art Project. Now in its eighth edition, Lady Art invites an eclectic array of international artists to put their unique stamp on perhaps Dior’s most recognisable handbag, the ‘Lady Dior’ (see results of the seventh edition here). The style – originally called the ‘Chouchou’ – was popularised by Diana Princess of Wales when she was presented it as a gift by then-First Lady of France, Bernadette Chirac, in 1995 (she wore various iterations over the years that followed).

If the style has become synonymous with ladylike elegance and restraint, Gilbert & George’s take has an altogether more subversive air, seeing the handbag’s printed and embossed calfskin exterior – with velvet and 3D resin inlay – adorned with their likenesses, arranged like a cross and staring contemptuously outwards at the wearer. On the other side, ‘Love always and always’ is printed alongside the artists’ signatures. The bag is completed with a bold red velvet strap.

The launch of the handbag – which will also see editions by Mircea Cantor, Jeffrey Gibson, Ha-Chon Kyun, Mariko Mori and Mickalene Thomas, among others – coincides in part with the opening of the Gilbert & George Centre this past April. Located on Heneage Street, just off London’s Brick Lane and a stone’s throw from the artists’ home and studio, the space, designed by SIRS Architects, was built to preserve and showcase the duo’s works.

This article appears in the November 2023 Art Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.

Jack Moss is the Fashion Features Editor at Wallpaper*, joining the team in 2022. Having previously been the digital features editor at AnOther and digital editor at 10 and 10 Men magazines, he has also contributed to titles including i-D, Dazed, 10 Magazine, Mr Porter’s The Journal and more, while also featuring in Dazed: 32 Years Confused: The Covers, published by Rizzoli. He is particularly interested in the moments when fashion intersects with other creative disciplines – notably art and design – as well as championing a new generation of international talent and reporting from international fashion weeks. Across his career, he has interviewed the fashion industry’s leading figures, including Rick Owens, Pieter Mulier, Jonathan Anderson, Grace Wales Bonner, Christian Lacroix, Kate Moss and Manolo Blahnik.

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