Opinion: Why New Dior Bags Are Falling Flat
Have you heard of the Ammi? No? What about the Key bag? The Essential, the Club, or the Dream bags?
The Dior Club bag from the website, available for purchase.
Three of them have had their own launches in the past year. The Key is to be launched once it hits shelves, and the Dream I just learned of myself whilst browsing in through their online selection. All these bags, and all I see are a couple influencers wearing them for fashion week or their launches and nothing more. This leads me to question, why are Dior bag launches and their new designs bombing in epic proportions?
Dior’s influencer social media marketing strategy when they re-released the Dior Saddle bag in 2018 may have been the first time that the strategy was so well executed on such a grand scale. Sure, millions of loyal fans were outraged that a few beautiful women were gifted the bag with little to no effort, but the Saddle sold so well that vintage prices skyrocketed nearly to 1000% from the time before it was seen on the Runway for SS2018*. While the love for this bag has died down in recent years, you’ll rarely find a Saddle under $1500 on the pre-loved market these days.
My Saddles at the peak of their resurgence.
While the 30 Montaigne and the Tote received similarly warm welcomes (albeit smaller), styles like the Bobby sat un-bothered on their shelves. Even Dior noticed their recent and past failures. When they recently released the 95.22 bag, they released the model “by order” only. Given their price point ($6500 for the small and $7200 for the large) The bag was created to attract a certain clientele, but it also appears as if the brand is testing the waters to ascertain whether the bag is worth releasing at all.
This might have been due to that same public distaste for their massive social media pushes, or that buyers don’t want very expensive non-classic styles that will be discontinued before long in a recessionary period. From a non-economic perspective, it may further denote that the consumer is tired of all the noise on social media, though that hasn’t stopped them from buying every Prada bag of the moment. I think it boils down to something simpler, most of these bags are forgettable and uninspired.
The Dior Essential from the site, available for purchase.
The Essential, a bag I’ve never seen the style out in the wild, is only “Dior” in its now-outdated Archi-Cannage style. And while this may be my own opinion, the Club and the Key both resemble popular contemporary designs, repackaged with a Dior logo and/or a Cannage pattern. Nothing about the bag gives that “Dioressence” one may find in the Saddle, the Lady, or the previously popular Diorama. The Ammi, while sumptuous, is made for another time, when large slouchy bucket bags were favoured, and is very similar to a pouch John Galliano released in the 2000s (that one had pearls on it, I still dream of it too). Evoking “Dior” was not the point of the aforementioned and therefore they fell flat on their faces.
While I used to be an avid buyer and self-proclaimed “Di-Whore” (proud owner of 5 Dior bags and borrower of her mother’s Lady Dior here), I can no longer say that is the case, or has been since 2019. That being said, I wouldn’t mind a venture if the winds change.
Ever yours,
God Save the Bag
*This figure is based off of informal research and the self-scouring of the bag pre-rerelease. The Dior Saddle was usually sold for 200–500 circa 2017 (depending on the colour and model), and the Dior pochette sold for even less.
