Tom Sachs’s 31 Rue Cambon: The Handmade Chanel Boutique, in Review

Artist Tom Sachs turned his studio at 245 Centre Street in Manhattan into a Chanel boutique for “31 Rue Cambon,” named after the address of Chanel’s Paris flagship. The installation opened September 11 and closed October 10, open free of charge on Thursday and Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons, with very limited space.

Everything inside was a handmade copy: Chanel suits, bags, shoes, sunglasses, jewelry, packaging and retail displays. The materials were everyday ones, including plywood, acrylic, cardboard and tape, with LEGO pieces and bicycle reflectors worked into the jewelry. There was furniture recalling Gabrielle Chanel’s Paris apartment and a soundtrack that mixed ambient and horror-film music with archival Chanel advertising.

Each suit carried a name, such as Coco, Naomi or Diana, along with the season and designer it was based on. The show asked where value sits: in a logo, a material, or the labor of making. On the show’s official site, Sachs puts it this way: “Lust for consuming is replaced with love of making.” Chanel was not involved; the project was unauthorized.

The work extends a line Sachs began with his 1998 Chanel Guillotine. It was curated by fashion historian Colby Mugrabi. The show is over, but the official site offers the catalogue as a free PDF, and a zine made for the exhibition is on sale at store.tomsachs.com. The studio sits near Canal Street, long known for counterfeit goods, which gave a handmade fake boutique an extra layer of meaning.