A bag is a portable and practical object, wedded to the wearer’s unique habits and routines. Unlike an artwork, it is something you take with you into the world. “I knew I didn’t want to make a bag that was too much of an art object,” says Swiss artist Mai-Thu Perret when asked about her contribution to the fifth edition of Dior Lady Art, for which 10 artists and collectives are invited to create their own interpretation of the Lady Dior bag. “I wanted my bag to be able to pass as a fashion product, an accessory, rather than for it to be a precious, unwearable object,” says Perret. “It had to be a bag that I would want to wear myself, to carry around every day.”

Over the past five years of Lady Dior Art commissions, artists such as Jason Martin, Lee Bul, Jamilla Okubo, Mickalene Thomas, Song Dong, and Mat Collishaw have reworked the bag and its characteristic canage quilting and boxy shape in all kinds of materials, textures and embellishments. Originally launched in 1994 under the creative direction of Gianfranco Ferré for Dior, Lady Dior quickly became a symbol of the French elegance encapsulated in its perfectly proportioned handles and alphabet charms spelling out DIOR.

While handbags frequently become iconic in shape, symbolism and name – as is the case with the Lady Dior – they are also containers for our intimate and idiosyncratic possessions. It’s in this spirit that Perret approached her contribution, allowing the immediately recognisable construction of the bag to form a blank canvas for an imaginary alphabet of enigmatic glyphs, woven in tapestry on the regular version of the bag and elevated with precious glass bead embroidery on the miniature version. “The alphabet on the bags is inspired by a 19th-century book of drawing exercises used in German kindergartens to teach children how to draw. The idea was that they first learn to master abstract forms before moving on to drawing from nature,” she explains.

“I think the idea that there is an abstract structure underlying existing reality is fascinating.” A rebuke to the instant communication so beloved of our time, Perret’s interpretation of the Lady Dior bag implores us to delight in the enigmatic. ◉