replicabags

Take one princess, a simple bag and a photograph and you’ve got the makings of a marketing sensation. ENRICA LONGO reports.
The princess, the President, his wife and the Christian Dior bag. The tale goes like this: France’s first lady, Bernadette Chirac gave Britian’s Princess Diana a designer bag. That bag was caught in the frames of hundreds of press photographs and lead to an overnight marketing sensation.
When Lady Chirac gave Diana the Christian Dior “cannage bag” (now named the Lady Dior bag) she inadvertently started a boom for the Dior boutique that had launched the bag a month earlier.
In Paris, Christian Dior executive Sidney Toledano still can’t believe the stroke of luck. “We couldn’t have hoped for anything better,” he says.
The princess had come to Paris last October to open the Cezanne exhibition and the First Lady thought it fitting that she be given a little token of appreciation: a 5500FF ($A1200) cannage bag (soon to be released in Australia). She chose Dior because it had sponsored the exhibition.
It was not until several weeks later that the gesture took on a greater significance. While the princess was at a hospital in England she bent down to hug a child and the bag (held by arm straps) made it into the frame of thousands of press shots.
The rest is history, and documented at the Dior Paris headquarters in Toledano’s office. The bag was featured in several hundred media outlets world-wide and Christian Dior management in Paris started rubbing its hands together. “I have studied the photos closely,” says Toledano, “and she has not removed the DIOR gold letters.” He also has photographs of Princess Diana in Argentina and Liverpool elegantly holding the bag.
Toledano, who oversees accessories at Dior, says: “We knew the bag would be a success but the Di factor has definitely helped it along. It’s hard to quantify exactly, but our sales took off once she was photographed with it.” (Toledano now expects at least 10,000 bags will be sold in the first year of its launch.) Such a response naturally raises the question: Was the whole thing a publicity stunt? “Absolutely not,” says Toledano.
“She cannot, because she is royalty. We have no financial agreement with her and do not want one. It was just a bit of luck.”
Australian women will be able to buy the bag later this year when Christian Dior opens its first Australian boutique in Queensland. This will be followed by a second store in Sydney.
Ms Robyn Sheppard, Christian Dior’s Australian manager says the company aims to capitalise on the Di factor in promoting Dior. But at $1200 for a cannage bag who, apart from princesses, will be able to afford it? “Australian women are becoming more like Europeans in their attitude to fashion,” says Sheppard.
“We’re learning that one very good quality item a year is better than all the fashionable things that date. One really good piece lasts season after season.”
Inspired by the golden cane-bottomed chairs the late Christian Dior used for his couture shows, the cannage bag was designed by Dior’s current designer Gianfranco Ferre in a bid to launch a more modern look to the company’s accessory line.
So taken was Princess Diana by the bag, says Toledano, that she has bought two more: a custom-made navy suede one, and another in navy microfibre. He is now searching for another princess: “a shoe princess I size seven. Are there any in Australia?,” he says speaking English with an irrepressible French accent. Put yourselves forward ladies.