Vietnamese Tia Thuy Nguyen produces one-of-a-kind Dior creation

Vietnamese designer Tia-Thuy Nguyen and fashion icon The House of Dior have unveiled the Lady Cloud. The artwork is an adaptation of the Lady Dior bag, inspired by the purity and expansiveness of clouds.

Lady Cloud gives the strong impression of being made of quartz, which is sparkling and durable. 

In January 2024, the House of Dior invited Tia-Thuy Nguyen to be part of the creation of a work of art from the legendary Lady Dior bag. This is a project by Dior in collaboration with talented artists from many countries called Lady Dior As Seen By.

It takes the form of an itinerant exhibition that travels to many cities and features works in which Dior collaborates with artists to create an image that reflects the international creative context, transcending principles and borders. This special collaboration is also a tribute to Christian Dior's passion for art.

Designer Tia-Thuy Nguyen makes a hat from a block of stone weighing 103kg. Photo: The Hanoi Times

Contemporary artists who have collaborated on this project include Mircea Cantor, Jeffrey Gibson, Ha Chong-Hyun, Lee Kun-Yong, Mariko Mori, Ludovic Nkoth, Hilary Pecis, Mickalene Thomas, Zadie Xa, Michaela Yearwood-Dan and Xu Zhen. Dior will bring the artworks to many countries, allowing art and fashion lovers to admire them for years.

According to the House of Dior, Dior, like the public, is becoming more thoughtful and curious about the possibility that art and fashion can combine to bring inspiration to life.

Lady Cloud will be exhibited and classified as one of Dior's special artifacts, not as a limited edition product to be sold in stores.

Tia-Thuy Nguyen did a lot of research on the Lady Dior bag from a creative perspective and then started sketching on paper. Still using the image of colorful clouds as her creative inspiration and the handmade process as her signature, Tia-Thuy Nguyen created a 3D prototype in clay. This allowed her to accurately visualize the structure and proportions of the work in real space.

The work of art in the making. Photo: The Hanoi Times

Tia-Thuy Nguyen explains that she chose quartz as the main material because, in Feng Shui, quartz is a stone that balances qi, calms the mind, crystallizes thoughts and eliminates negative emotions. From an aesthetic point of view, quartz resembles clouds, allowing light to pass through, bending its direction and reflecting its surroundings. The contrast between the solidity of quartz and the lightness of clouds can challenge the viewer's imagination and lead to open-ended personal contemplation.

The quartz crystals are chosen to form a cloud around the bag, which is a problem not only because of the journey to find the right quartz block, but also because of the extremely complicated process of attaching it.

Tia-Thuy Nguyen and her colleagues have to go to famous quarries in Yen Bai, Da Nang, Dak Lak or Ha Tien... and even search in other countries.

The soil in each place produces quartz rocks of different colors, smoke levels, and radiation properties. After much searching, she found the most suitable block of stone, weighing 103kg, in Phan Thiet.

Next, the stone sculptures are created, and the large blocks of stone are divided into hundreds of thousands of tiny quartz crystals from different angles and colors. All the cutting and polishing is done by hand. After classification, Tia-Thuy Nguyen and the artisans began attaching the stones to create a soft, flexible cloud with changing colors from light to dark surrounding Lady Cloud. 

Lady Cloud is covered with thousands of quartz crystals, meticulously arranged in color and texture. Under the lights, she will evoke different feelings in the viewer, depending on the moment and the angle.

Tia-Thuy Nguyen shared: “This combination is not only a collaboration to adapt a Dior icon but also an intersection between two design thoughts and philosophies. I bring my signature aesthetic and spontaneous personality, and Dior represents exemplary elegance with its classic bag shape,” she said.

The artwork is currently on display at An Gallery, Union Square, HCM City, until April 14.