The Dior "it" Saddle bag is back, and celebrities are obsessed

Beyonce’s a fan. So was Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City.

Excitement for the return of Dior’s equestrian-inspired Saddle bag line – which dominated the “it bag” era of the early 2000s alongside Balenciaga’s Lariat and the Fendi Baguette before being discontinued – has been bubbling up since designer Maria Grazia Chiuri put them in her runway show in February.

Trend-setting models Bella Hadid and Elsa Hosk were soon spotted carrying vintage Saddle bags, driving up demand on luxury resale sites like Vestiaire Collective.

Then, last week, just as Europe’s other fashion houses were winding down for their summer recess, Dior unleashed the bags in a marketing blitzkrieg that was hard to miss: scores of Instagram influencers from around the world posted images modelling the US$2,000-plus bags on the same day that Dior released its own campaigns, with models posing against vintage cars on the streets of Paris.

Vogue and Marie Claire published dreamy videos from Dior’s ateliers of the bags being hammered into shape on wooden moulds. On the Chinese social network Weibo, Dior took a more literal approach, posting a clip of Hong Kong fashion star Elle Lee posing as an elated client in front of a shop mirror. Some of the Instagrammers acknowledged that they’d been gifted the bags using hashtags like #SuppliedByDior.

Making a splash with new product launches is becoming more important and more challenging for luxury brands as social networks become more saturated with fashion images than ever. The prestigious airs that top-end labels have spent decades cultivating are increasingly seen as a mere prerequisite.

For LVMH, whose brands including Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Celine are among the world’s most established, new product launches are essential to keep up growth – and to maintain its lead on fast-growing challengers like Kering’s revamped Gucci and Balenciaga divisions.