Dior My Lady Dior Spring 2019 Ad Campaign by Pamela Hanson

One of fashion’s most dynamic create powerhouses is that which is happening at the house of Dior. Women’s Creative Director Maria Grazia Chiuri has the wisdom to empower others to help perpetuate the brand as more meaningful than simply product. In-house she is fortunate to have Olivier Bialobos, Dior’s VP of International Communications who understands that Dior is as much a content and experience creator as it is a developer of items one can wear.

Together these leaders have created an ongoing narrative that is pulled along by Fabien Baron of Baron & Baron, in the form of both online and print, the Dior Magazine.

The Impression has watched as season-after-season the publication, currently at issue number 26, has transcended the genre of magalogue to become art fare in itself. By example, the current issue features a stunning story by Brigitte Niedermair entitled ‘Abstractions’ that is as sublime and engaging anything in most galleries today.

And of course, the publication and online sister gives the house the opportunity to showcase key items. Thankfully the triad has chosen to do so in an interesting fashion for the iconic ‘Lady Dior’ bag. The story, lens by Pamela Hanson, showcases the bag in a more youthful and contemporary manner through capturing a series of models in New York but it is the recent video that really grabs our attention. Newbie director Belle Smith is granted the gift of Fabien Baron as art direction, along with Margot Populaire, to help mentor the artist to push bounds, mix angles, and layer in effects to build a piece that is more entertaining and visually arresting that standard model confessional fare. Flipping for landscape to portrait, models Alyssah Paccoud, Carissa Pinkston, Eftagine Fevilien, Emily Gafford, Emma Boyd, Gianna Noëlle, Hanna Kamelina, and Sijia Kang transition from posers to documentary subjects.

The result humanizes the talent, endears the audience and ultimately the house, who wisely doesn’t spend time talking about the handbag, rather the more interesting subject of where it lives, which is precisely what Grazia Chiuri, Bialobos, and Baron know. That products are souvenirs of brand experiences, and they are building the best destination to experience fashion of late.