[Lady Art] Mai-Thu Perret on Exploring the Chamaeleon Qualities of the Lady Dior

Dior Lady Art

Welcome to the Dior Talks series themed around the 5th edition of Dior Lady Art and hosted by Paris-based journalist Katya Foreman. For this year’s event, ten artists and collectives from around the world have participated in a game of metamorphosis by rendering the iconic Lady Dior handbag as a unique piece of art.

Reinventing tradition and questioning modernity is a creative signature for our latest guest, the multidisciplinary Swiss artist Mai-Thu Perret whose sources of inspiration range from modernist art to literature, historical costume, the occult, and notions of community and utopia as seen through a feminist prism.

The Geneva-based artist studied English literature at the University of Cambridge and worked for several artists including the late New York-based painter Steven Parrino before attending the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She credits her experience working as a curator and art critic with influencing her process and her interest in narrative.

For her reinterpretations of the Lady Dior, Perret textured the body of the bag with shaggy long-pile tapestry and precious glass bead embroidery in geometric motifs inspired by the German thinker Friedrich Fröbel, whose pictograms were used in kindergarten classrooms in the 19th century, reflecting her fascination with graphic alphabets and languages while nodding to the fashion lexicon and the symbolism of the logo. Made using Venetian jewelry-making techniques, her small enamel versions of the Dior charms resemble “little bones.”

Tune in to hear all about Perret’s exploration of the “chameleon-like” Lady Dior, and the playful, unexpected side she discovered in the classic “ladylike” icon.

Discover Mai Thu Perret’s creations :https://youtu.be/wo-_ZS24dJk