The Dior Bobby bag, introduced by current creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for autumn/winter 2020 as a tribute to Monsieur Dior’s beloved dog, Bobby, has come over all bohemian for spring/summer 2021. At the French house’s Paris Fashion Week showcase on 29 September, models walked around the church-inspired setting, illuminated by the collages of feminist artist Lucia Marcucci, swinging ornate Bobbys from their hands.
Steeped in Dior history, the hobo-style handbag features a clasp decorated with the house founder’s initials and the brand’s 30 Montaigne atelier address embossed on the back. It was launched in classic black, cream, camel and blue Dior Oblique canvas as “an emblem of timeless modernity”, but now the Bobby 2.0 is here to shake up proceedings. Hand-embroidered with Mediterranean prints to match Grazia Chiuri’s bohemian spring/summer 2021 dresses and with striking logoed straps to make street-stylers salivate, the new-season iteration is a riotous addition to Dior’s accessory offering.
The whimsical Bobby is in line with Dior’s relaxed spring/summer 2021 silhouette, influenced by the housebound nature of 2020, and the cosy, informal clothing it brought with it. “The shape is not constricting, it’s a shape in which you feel good, you feel at home,” Chiuri told British Vogue of the new Dior look. “We are living in a different way.”
The free-spirited accessories – which also included gold chains strung with trinkets and earrings laden with charms – added to the offbeat nature of the new Dior mood which, like the Bobby, has the house’s rich and intriguing history at its core.
