Interim studio design teams, like the one leading Dior until the brand decides on a replacement following Raf Simons’ departure, are in a precarious position. They’re charged with keeping the house running and keeping customers interested, but they can’t do anything too audacious or interesting, lest costumers get irritated when a new creative director arrives and the slate is wiped clean. For Dior Fall 2016, the studio team did probably as well as they could.
Accessories are a particularly tough spot for these teams; launching a new bag requires planning and marketing that spans seasons and eats up budgets, and that’s simply not feasible for a bag that might not be kept around very long once someone with a new vision arrives. Customers demand newness, though, so re-embellishing the existing designs is often not quite enough. To solve that problem, Dior’s studio team turned the fan-favorite Lady Dior into an east/west version of itself, complete with a thick, short shoulder strap that makes the whole thing mimic the proportion of a Fendi Baguette, as improbable as that sounds.
There were also some bags not based on the Dior classic, and they seemed to be inspired by the bags you’d find in a woman’s suitcase; in particular, folding vanity cases and vintage-feeling, frame-closed pouches for sunglasses. The handbags based on the fold-up cosmetics carriers were shown open so the audience got the full effect of the bag’s interior, complete with a wallet compartment in a contrasting color and leather. If these completely new bags will be produced and for how long is anybody’s guess, so if you like them, I’d call you local boutique ASAP.
[Photos via Vogue Runway]
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But, according the principles of the era, a “good” straightforward day bag had to be made of the finest exotic skins such as python or ostrich and hand-picked into the highest level of quality. The irony being that while Dior was crafting his dresses together with billowy full crinoline skirts and tiny waists, he wasn’t that concerned with all the purses himself. He would farm out handbag production to some other luxury good firms, who then benefited in the Midas touch of placing the Dior name in their products.Decades following Christian Dior’s passing, the handbag became an important bit of the Dior collection in 1990s. And in 1995, the fashion house introduced the largest “it tote” of the 20th century, the Lady Dior. The story goes that Bernadette Chirac, the first lady of France, gave Princess Diana the tote, which featured cannage stitched leather along with four charms for every one of the letters in DIOR. Due to her, in the year 1997, 140,000 of those newly dubbed Lady Dior bags sold for $1,200. Designer John Galliano, with his wildly inventive purses, is mostly responsible for the company’s success in the handbag industry. His Saddle Bag, which has appear on “Sex and The City,” is shaped like a saddle using C and D charms hanging from miniature leather stirrups. In 2007, he also redesign his iconic bag into 12 new styles representing 12 countries–Argentina, Mexico, France, Russia, Morocco, Spain, China, the United States, India, Japan, Egypt and England. Other popular Galliano luggage incorporate the Rasta tote, the Samurai, as well as the Dior 61.
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