Every week on the Bag Maker's Workroom livestream, we share a bag making story in our Thursday Thread segment. Sometimes it's a story from my life; other times it's sent in by one of you; and sometimes it's a story from history. Lately, we've been learning about handbag history and some of the most iconic bag designers of all time.
This week, we talked about Dior. As you may know, Dior is a French fashion house that is known for its intricate embroidery, luxurious fabrics, and sculptural shapes. Today, they’re famous for making some of the best-selling bags in the world — but their early history actually had nothing to do with bag making.
If you missed the livestream, you can watch the replay below or keep reading to learn more.
Watch the Bag Maker's Workroom Replay
The theme of this week's episode was Bag & Wallet Lining. The segment about Dior begins at 18:47 — click here to jump right to it.
About Christian Dior
Christian Dior was born into a wealthy French family in 1905. He loved art, fashion, and architecture from an early age. In his early 20s, he opened a small art gallery in Paris and became friends with contemporary artists like Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali. However, after a few years, deaths in the family and financial difficulties caused the gallery to shut down.
For the first time in his life, Christian Dior had to fully support himself, so he began selling his fashion sketches. At first, he mostly designed hats. This got him a job with a designer named Robert Piguet, who mentored Christian Dior for several years until Dior was called to serve in the French army.
He completed his service in 1941 and moved back to Paris, where he found a new job with the fashion house of Lucien Lelong. It was the middle of World War II, so it was not a great time for fashion. Resources were scarce and demand was down, so most work at the time came from dressing the wives of Nazi officers.
However, Christian Dior was not a Nazi sympathizer by any means. His sister Catherine was actually a member of the French Resistance, and Christian let her use his apartment to host meetings, even though it was extremely risky. Toward the end of the war, she was captured and imprisoned in a concentration camp, but she fortunately survived. Christian Dior later named his first perfume “Miss Dior” in her honor.
The New Look
After the war, Christian Dior found a wealthy investor and was able to open his own fashion house. He released his first clothing collection in 1947, and it completely revolutionized women’s fashion. Harper's Bazaar magazine called it “The New Look” because it was so different from the simpler styles that were worn throughout the war. It was bold and extravagant, with rounded shoulders, cinched waists, and full skirts. Notably, it included a lot of hats but no bags.
Christian Dior did make some bags in the 50s, as we can see below, but they weren’t what he was known for.
He continued to release new clothing collections for the next 10 years, until he died of a heart attack at just 52 years old.
Marc Bohan and the Ready-to-Wear Era
When Christian Dior died, Yves Saint Laurent took over for a couple years, followed by Marc Bohan in 1960. Marc Bohan introduced ready-to-wear fashion that people could buy off the rack, instead of having everything custom made.
This was the age of women embracing trousers as a symbol of freedom, and he leaned into that while still maintaining the brand’s classic aesthetic. In the late 60s, he designed the famous Dior Oblique monogram pattern, pictured below.
Gianfranco Ferré and the Lady Dior Bag
In 1989, Gianfranco Ferré became the creative director of Dior, and he is arguably the person who brought Dior handbags to the mainstream.
In 1995, he was asked to make a custom bag for Princess Diana. He created the Chouchou — a black, quilted leather bag with arched handles and yellow-gold hardware. He made it rectangular and very structured, because princesses don’t slouch and their bags shouldn’t either.
The quilted pattern is called cannage, and it was inspired by a set of woven chairs that Christian Dior used for fashion shows. This pattern had been used in other Dior designs in the past, but never before on a handbag.
Fun fact: This is also the pattern we use on the quilted Simply Classic Clutch.
Princess Diana carried her custom bag at royal events all around the world. It became so iconic that it was renamed the Lady Dior bag after Lady Di herself, and the company sold over 200,000 of them in the first two years of production. This bag is still being made, and it’s one of the most collected designer bags of all time. This bag is made of 144 different pieces and is completely hand stitched, even to this day.
John Galliano and the Saddle Bag
John Galliano became the creative director of Dior in 1996. He is a controversial figure who got himself fired from the company in 2011 — but it is undeniable that his time at Dior made a big impact on handbag design.
John Gaillano is probably best known for designing the Dior Saddle Bag. It’s a unique, kidney-shaped shoulder bag with a detachable strap. It originally came in denim as part of a cowboy-inspired collection.
It even features hardware that was inspired by a horse’s bit. It’s not a traditional saddle bag — meaning, it’s not a bag that’s meant to attach to a horse’s saddle. Instead, it mimics the shape of a saddle, so that’s where it gets its name.
The Saddle Bag was a departure from the classic silhouettes and materials that Dior was known for, but it still had a very sleek, feminine shape like people expected from the brand. Not everyone loved this bag, but it was a hit among the younger crowd. The Saddle Bag was carried by lots of celebrities in the early 2000s (we can see Paris Hilton with it above), but it was more of a trend than a classic bag, so it fell out of fashion by 2007.
But then in 2014, Beyonce was spotted carrying a Dior saddle bag, and other celebrities followed suit. It regained popularity, so Dior’s first female creative director, Maria Grazia Chiuri, relaunched it in 2018. It’s been popular ever since, especially with the Y2K revival over the past few years. Only time will tell if it sticks around. Interestingly, Dior tried to trademark the bag’s signature shape in Europe, but they were denied because it was deemed not distinctive enough.
Charms, Motifs, & Other Influences on Dior Handbag Design
The Dior brand has evolved a lot over the past 75 years, but it is still known for its impeccable details and unique motifs. Christian Dior himself was known for being quite spiritual. He consulted astrologers and psychics before making big decisions, and he carried talismans and good luck charms that he also featured in his designs.
One example is the lily of the valley, which is still used in Dior designs to this day, like on this Lady Dior bag below. The letter charms on the Lady Dior bag were also inspired by the good luck charms that Christian Dior carried.
Christian Dior also incorporated his lucky number 8 in his designs. He even opened his fashion house in the eighth borough of Paris, in a building with eight stories and eight workshops. That tradition is carried on today with the Dior 8 bag collection for men. If we look at the buckle on this bag below, we can see that it looks like both the number 8 and the initials CD for Christian Dior.
It’s fascinating that someone’s unique quirks can become long-lasting symbols that influence what people wear, even decades later!
To wrap up, let’s take a look at a couple more Dior designs that have influenced handbag trends. Here we have the Diorama from 2012 and the Diorever from 2016. Both of these bags have been discontinued but are still highly sought after by collectors.
The Diorama is a great example of a bag that’s known for its lining. Most Dior bags have canvas lining, but the Diorama uses leather that matches the bag exterior, which gives it an even more luxurious look and feel.
Overall, we can see that Dior bags are very structured and sculptural, which makes sense because architecture was a big inspiration for Christian Dior. The brand prioritizes the quality of their materials and impeccable hand stitching, even to this day. They also incorporate symbolism and use hardware in interesting ways. That can really be an inspiration for all of us to ask ourselves, “What little details can I include in my bags that will give it a uniquely personal touch?”
Tune in Next Week for More Handbag History
Our theme for next week's episode of the Bag Maker's Workroom is Bag Straps & Handles. We'll talk about how to choose webbing that matches your bag, techniques to create designer-inspired straps and handles, and the history of Gucci. Gucci is known for their bamboo bag handles, so it's a perfect fit for our theme!
Click here to go to the livestream on YouTube. You can click the "Notify Me" button to get a notification when we go live — just make sure your device has YouTube notifications turned on. As a reminder, we're live on YouTube every Thursday at 7 pm ET/4 pm PT. I hope to see you there!
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