FLOAT 100 · Handbags · No. 51
Dior Lady Dior Medium
France's first lady needed a gift for a princess, Dior offered a quilted bag nobody had named yet, and after Diana carried it everywhere for a year the house renamed it for her and sold 200,000 in two years.
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- Maker
- Christian Dior
- By price in handbags
- 49 of 100
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- Medium Lady Dior in black Cannage lambskin with gold-finish hardware, Ref. M0565ONGE_M900
- Maker
- Christian Dior, Paris; current bags made in Italy
- Designer
- Gianfranco Ferre, Dior's artistic director, 1994
- Early names
- Chouchou ('favorite'), then Princesse; Lady Dior from 1996
- Made famous by
- Diana, Princess of Wales, who received one from Bernadette Chirac in Paris in September 1995
- Size
- 24 x 21 x 12 cm / 9.5 x 8.5 x 4.5 in
- Signature details
- Cannage quilting from Dior's Napoleon III show chairs, dangling D.I.O.R. letter charms, rigid boxy body
- Early sales
- More than 200,000 Lady Dior bags in roughly its first two years, per a 1997 report
- Dior US price
- $6,700, October 1, 2026
- Resale ask seen
- $3,500 for a pre-owned medium in black lambskin, October 1, 2026
A bag called Chouchou
The bag that became the Lady Dior was designed in 1994 by Gianfranco Ferre, then Dior's artistic director. It was a rigid, boxy bag with top handles, quilted in Dior's cannage pattern and hung with charms spelling the house's name. Inside the house it was unofficially called Chouchou, French for 'favorite,' and then briefly Princesse.
The cannage stitching comes from furniture. When Christian Dior showed his first collection on Avenue Montaigne in 1947, he seated guests on gilded Napoleon III chairs with caned seats. The crisscross weave became a recurring house motif, reproduced in stitched leather on the bag and, later, on jewelry and even the facade of a Dior building in Japan.
The construction is unusually involved for a handbag. One French report counted 144 pieces in the finished bag. A later account says the classic version 'alone uses 32 different elements.' The two figures may measure different things, and neither source explains its count.
A gift for a princess
In 1995 Bernadette Chirac, wife of the newly elected French president Jacques Chirac, wanted a special gift for Diana, Princess of Wales, who was visiting Paris. The event organizer Francoise Dumas later told how Chirac asked her to choose something from the Dior boutique: 'I had noticed a little bag, which at the time was made of fabric, and so I had it wrapped and sent to the Elysee.' Other accounts describe the bag Diana received as black, and one calls it leather; the sources do not settle the material.
Diana was given the bag in September 1995, the day she took tea at the Elysee and then opened a Cezanne exhibition at the Grand Palais alongside the Chiracs and Bernard Arnault, whose group helped finance the show. She took to it at once. She was photographed with it during an official visit to Birmingham and again weeks later in Argentina. One account says she liked it so much she asked Dior for it in every color.
In 1996 she carried a blue satin version to her first Met Gala in New York, worn with a Dior slip dress. That year the bag was renamed Lady Dior in her honor. Diana had been known as Lady Diana before her 1981 marriage, a title from her father.
Paris, 1995
The gift came at a turning point in French politics. Jacques Chirac was elected president in May 1995, and in June he announced that France would resume nuclear tests in French Polynesia. Diana's September visit, with tea at the Elysee and an exhibition opening alongside the Chiracs, was part of the new presidency's first months.
It was a heavy year elsewhere. The Oklahoma City bombing in April killed 168 people. In July, Bosnian Serb forces overran Srebrenica and killed thousands of Bosniak men and boys. In November, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated at a peace rally, and the Dayton Agreement to end the Bosnian War was reached in Ohio and signed in Paris in December.
The same year the World Trade Organization was established, and Microsoft released Windows 95 in August. Against that backdrop, a quilted handbag on Diana's arm was soon being called 'iconic' and 'legendary' in the French press.
From one bag to a whole line
Dior put the bag into larger production under its new name, and sales followed the photographs. A 1997 French business report said the Lady Dior had passed 200,000 units since its launch, and a 1996 fashion report said Dior's leather goods sales had multiplied by ten since November 1995, solely because of the bag. The name was later lent to a Dior watch in 1999 and to makeup.
Dior built its advertising around the bag. Marion Cotillard, chosen by John Galliano, was the face of Lady Dior from 2008 to 2017, starring in short films directed by Olivier Dahan, Jonas Akerlund, David Lynch and John Cameron Mitchell; in 2012 she designed her own Lady Dior. More recent campaigns have featured Jisoo and Rosalia.
Artists have reworked it too. The touring exhibition Lady Dior As Seen By traveled from 2012 to China, Japan, Italy and Brazil with more than a hundred works inspired by the bag. Since 2016 the annual Dior Lady Art project has invited artists to treat the bag as a canvas; its ninth edition, in November 2024, featured 11 artists. In 2022 Dior reissued the mini blue satin bag Diana carried to the 1996 Met Gala in a limited edition of 200 at 5,000 euros. In June 2025 Dior's new creative director, Jonathan Anderson, unveiled a reimagined Lady Dior made with the textile artist Sheila Hicks.
The bag also turned up on screen in Sex and the City and Gossip Girl, and in the fifth season of The Crown in 2022, carried by Elizabeth Debicki as Diana.
How to read a medium black Lady Dior
Dior's current medium Lady Dior in black Cannage lambskin, reference M0565ONGE_M900, measures 24 x 21 x 12 cm (9.5 x 8.5 x 4.5 inches) and weighs about 1 kg. It has a goatskin and lambskin lining, an interior zip pocket, a large slip pocket and a thin, removable, adjustable shoulder strap of 110 to 120 cm. The D.I.O.R. charms are in pale gold-finish metal. Dior says the bag is made in Italy.
The medium is the classic middle of a line that now runs from micro to large and through many materials and finishes; one recent report counted about 80 versions on Dior's US site, priced from about $5,000 to $10,000. The Lady D-Lite, with its reversible strap, and the Lady D-Joy are different models. Sources disagree on when the D-Lite arrived: one says 2019, another calls it a Spring/Summer 2020 design.
Resale listings show how carefully the details need checking. One pre-owned medium offered at $3,500 on October 1, 2026, was listed as black lambskin with gold hardware, a red fabric interior and measurements of 24 x 20 x 12 cm, yet its own description called it pearlescent pink with silver hardware.
What it costs
One price guide says the medium Lady Dior cost $2,500 in 2010; it puts the Lady Dior at $2,250 in 2009 without naming the size. In July 2020 Dior raised US prices, and the medium rose from $4,450 to $4,900, a 10.1 percent increase. The same guide put the medium in lambskin or calfskin at $6,500 earlier in 2026.
On October 1, 2026, Dior's US site listed the medium black Cannage lambskin bag at $6,700. Pre-owned examples are offered well below that; one listing the same day asked $3,500.
No source we found reports an exact auction result for a plain black lambskin medium Lady Dior. Auction records for the model are dominated by limited editions, artist versions and multi-bag lots.
The numbers
- Dimensions (Dior, medium)
- 24 x 21 x 12 cm / 9.5 x 8.5 x 4.5 in
- Weight
- About 1 kg / 2 lb
- Material
- Black lambskin with Cannage stitching; goatskin and lambskin lining
- Hardware
- Pale gold-finish metal D.I.O.R. charms
- Strap
- Thin, removable, adjustable leather strap, 110-120 cm
- Production quantity
- Not stated for this version; more than 200,000 Lady Dior bags of all kinds were reported sold by October 1997
Timeline
Christian Dior's first show seats guests on caned Napoleon III chairs, the source of the cannage motif.
Gianfranco Ferre designs the bag, known inside Dior as Chouchou.
Jacques Chirac is elected president of France.
Bernadette Chirac gives the bag to Diana, Princess of Wales, in Paris; Diana opens a Cezanne exhibition at the Grand Palais.
Dior's leather goods sales begin a tenfold rise attributed to the bag.
The bag is renamed Lady Dior; Diana carries a blue satin version to the Met Gala.
A French business report says the Lady Dior has passed 200,000 units since launch.
The Lady Dior name is given to a watch.
Marion Cotillard becomes the face of Lady Dior, a role she holds until 2017.
The medium Lady Dior costs $2,500, according to a price guide.
The touring exhibition Lady Dior As Seen By opens.
Dior launches the annual Dior Lady Art project.
Dior raises the US price of the medium Lady Dior from $4,450 to $4,900.
Dior reissues Diana's 1996 Met Gala mini bag in an edition of 200; The Crown shows the bag in its fifth season.
The ninth Dior Lady Art edition features 11 artists.
Jonathan Anderson unveils a reimagined Lady Dior with Sheila Hicks.
Dior lists the medium black Cannage lambskin Lady Dior at $6,700 in the US.
The world in 1995
The World Trade Organization is established.
The Oklahoma City bombing kills 168 people.
Jacques Chirac is elected president of France.
Chirac announces the resumption of French nuclear tests in French Polynesia.
The Srebrenica massacre.
Microsoft releases Windows 95.
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated.
The Dayton Agreement ending the Bosnian War is signed in Paris.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | $2,500 | Asking price, not a saleDior US retail for the medium Lady Dior, as stated by a price guide. |
| Jul 2020 | $4,450 | Asking price, not a saleDior US retail for the medium Lady Dior before the July 2020 increase. |
| Jul 2020 | $4,900 | Asking price, not a saleDior US retail for the medium Lady Dior after the July 2020 increase. |
| 2026 | $6,500 | Asking price, not a saleDior US retail for the medium Lady Dior in lambskin or calfskin, as stated by a price guide earlier in 2026. |
| Oct 1, 2026 | $6,700 | Asking price, not a saleDior US retail, medium Lady Dior in black Cannage lambskin, Ref. M0565ONGE_M900, live product page. |
| Oct 1, 2026 | $3,500 | Asking price, not a saleResale listing, pre-owned medium in black lambskin with gold hardware, very good condition; its description is internally inconsistent. |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Dior Lady Dior Medium is number 49 of 100 in the handbags entries of the FLOAT 100. 19 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (51 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Before it was the Lady Dior, the bag was called Chouchou, French for 'favorite,' and then Princesse.
- The cannage quilting copies the caned Napoleon III chairs Christian Dior used at his runway shows.
- Dior's leather goods sales were reported to have multiplied by ten after Diana began carrying the bag.
- David Lynch directed a Lady Dior film, Lady Blue Shanghai, starring Marion Cotillard.
- Dior reissued Diana's blue satin Met Gala mini bag in 2022 in an edition of only 200.
- The event organizer who picked the gift said that the bag, at the time, was made of fabric.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026