Carried right, the Saddle reads as the house's working signature: the asymmetric, stirrup-clasp silhouette John Galliano drew up for Dior in 1999. The finish is python (a centrepiece exotic skin permitted under CITES with the appropriate paperwork), which is half the reason the piece carries its name forward. The 8 by 9 by 2 inch format reads as compact rather than incidental, which is precisely the point. It sits comfortably in the section of any serious wardrobe earmarked for the camera-friendly, the recognisable and the genuinely worn. Pieces from this lineage are the ones a collection is measured against, not the ones that fill it. Catalogued by Maison de Beaubigonne for the buyer who has already chosen.

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