Contemporary artist Tom Sachs has unveiled 31 Rue Cambon, an immersive exhibition that transforms his studio at 245 Centre Street in New York City into a handmade reinterpretation of Chanel’s historic Parisian fashion house address. The installation is open to the public from September 11 through October 10, 2026.
Curated by Colby Mugrabi, the exhibition recreates the visual language of the Paris storefront while translating its fashion and architectural details through Sachs’ industrial approach and use of raw, functional materials.
Reimagining Chanel Through Handmade Materials
The installation’s exterior features cream awnings and interlocking double-C gates, leading into an interior designed with beige carpet, mirrored walls and glass display cases. Thirty-one suits, modeled after Chanel looks spanning different decades, are arranged throughout the space.
Rather than reproducing the garments in traditional fashion materials, Sachs constructs each suit from three-quarter-inch plywood. Paint is dragged across the surfaces to suggest the textured appearance of bouclé, turning a familiar couture material into a distinctly handmade interpretation.
The same approach extends across the exhibition’s smaller details. Hardware components become central to objects throughout the space, including a chandelier incorporating bicycle reflectors. Slingback footwear is constructed from cardboard and wood, while brooches combine costume elements with LEGO bricks.
Luxury Codes Reworked Through Studio Tools
31 Rue Cambon continues Sachs’ long-running engagement with luxury branding, using everyday and industrial materials to reinterpret recognizable symbols of fashion and status.
The project builds on ideas explored in his 1998 work Chanel Guillotine (Breakfast Nook). In the new installation, haute couture garments and retail architecture are recreated using the kinds of hardware and studio materials associated with Sachs’ practice.
By replacing conventional textiles and refined production materials with plywood, paint, cardboard, wood and hardware components, the exhibition considers how strongly luxury remains identifiable through its visual codes alone. The Chanel-inspired silhouettes, storefront elements and decorative details retain their recognizability even after being stripped of their expected materials.
Presented in Sachs’ New York studio, the exhibition brings fashion, retail architecture, and contemporary art into a single constructed environment. Its handmade treatment gives familiar luxury references a new physical language while maintaining the recognizable forms that define them.
31 Rue Cambon is open to the public at the Tom Sachs Studio in New York from September 11 through October 10, 2026.
