Dior in hot water after alleged third-party repair of limited-edition handbag

Luxury fashion house Dior is facing backlash after a customer discovered that a handbag the company claimed had been sent to its Paris headquarters for repair was allegedly handled by a local third-party repair shop in Korea instead.

A customer living in Yongin, Gyeonggi, purchased a Fall/Winter runway collection handbag for about 7 million won ($4,700) at a department store in Haeundae, Busan, in 2016, according to Yonhap News on Thursday. 

The customer noticed a couple of beads had fallen off the bag and brought it to a Dior location in a department store in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, for repairs in 2024.

Store employees reportedly told the customer that the handbag was a limited-edition item and that replacement beads were available only at Dior’s headquarters in Paris, meaning the bag had to be sent there for repairs.

The customer did not receive the handbag back for more than a year after leaving it for repairs.

Tired of waiting, the customer protested to the store in February and was told that the bag would “arrive soon from Paris.” The following day, the store suddenly informed the customer that the repairs had been completed and that the bag had arrived.

The customer remained uneasy about the situation until March, when they happened upon a video posted on social media showing a repair shop in Korea working on what appeared to be the same bag as the customer's.

The video reportedly showed the repair shop workers removing original beads from one part of the bag and reattaching them to less noticeable areas.

When the customer sought clarification from the luxury fashion house, store representatives allegedly changed their explanation multiple times, first saying the "repair had been completed in Paris headquarters," then claiming that "replacement beads had been received from Paris and that the actual work was carried out at a domestic workshop."

“It’s upsetting enough that I have no idea where or how the bag was stored for more than a year,” the customer said. “Now I can’t even verify if the bag is authentic.”

Dior reportedly offered to either send the bag back to its Paris headquarters for repairs or issue a refund as backlash grew. The fashion brand has not publicly commented on the matter.

Online commenters criticized Dior’s response, with some accusing the brand of deceiving consumers.

“This probably isn’t the first time this has happened — it’s just the first time they got caught,” one online comment wrote. “The problem is not that they used a local repair shop, but that they lied about it from the beginning. That’s clear consumer deception,” read another comment. 

BY SHIN HYE-YEON [[email protected]]