Executive Overview
What do Elizabeth Taylor, Olivia Rodrigo, Marge Simpson, and Sofia Coppola share? Beyond their undeniable status as cultural touchstones, each has been immortalized wearing Chanel’s quintessential tweed skirt suit. As of September 2026, these diverse figures are bound by another, more surprising thread: they serve as the conceptual muses for 31 Rue Cambon, a witty, intellectually rigorous, and visually striking new art project by contemporary sculptor Tom Sachs.
Nestled inside the Tom Sachs Studio at 245 Centre Street in New York’s vibrant Soho neighborhood, this immersive exhibition offers a meticulous, tongue-in-cheek simulacrum of Chanel’s legendary Parisian flagship boutique. Curated in collaboration with fashion historian, philanthropist, and Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute co-chair Colby Mugrabi, the installation mimics the high-end retail experience from the outside in. Yet, upon closer inspection, the entire boutique reveals itself as a brilliant subversion of mass consumerism and luxury culture.
The garments hanging on sleek racks—ranging from iconic flap shoulder bags to intricately textured tweed jackets—are not woven from fine wool or stitched with silk thread. Instead, they are masterworks of raw materiality, constructed entirely from painted plywood, extruded syringe-laid acrylics, Lego bricks, and everyday ephemera. Blending high fashion with humble industrial materials, 31 Rue Cambon functions simultaneously as a reverent homage to a century of design excellence and a cheeky, critical send-up of late-stage capitalism. It asks viewers to look past the alluring veneer of branding and contemplate the profound human impulse to make, covet, and collect.
Detailed Chronology: From Elizabeth Taylor to Centre Street
The intellectual genesis of 31 Rue Cambon traces back years, rooted in an artist’s long-standing obsession and a piece of archival imagery that refused to leave his mind.
The Spark of an Obsession
Tom Sachs’s journey toward the project began with a personal longing: a yearning to possess an authentic Chanel piece of his own, an ambition inextricably linked to a classic photograph of Elizabeth Taylor. In attempting to mentally—and eventually physically—recreate the legendary actress’s garment, Sachs realized that standard replication would not suffice. Capturing the essence of Chanel required an entirely new methodology of craft.
This realization sparked an intensive period of material experimentation within Sachs’s studio. To replicate the complex, multicolored weave of classic French tweed without a loom, Sachs and his team engineered unorthodox techniques. They scraped through fresh layers of paint and extruded acrylics via syringes to generate string-like textures, weaving them together to mimic highfalutin textiles. To capture the signature lionhead buttons—a nod to Coco Chanel’s astrological sign (Leo) and her well-documented fascination with the occult—artists meticulously hand-painted intricate details onto humble wooden bases.
Constructing the Simulacrum
With the clothing prototypes underway, Sachs partnered with Colby Mugrabi to conceptualize the physical environment of the boutique. Window dressing, Mugrabi notes, is a vital pillar of the modern luxury retail experience, often functioning as an art form in its own right. Leveraging Sachs’s early career experience—he famously worked on the holiday window displays at Barneys New York during Simon Doonan’s avant-garde tenure—the duo designed an immersive architectural facade on Centre Street.
Visitors step inside through a disorienting, octagonal antechamber framed by mirrors and illuminated by an improvised chandelier constructed from bicycle reflectors. Beyond this threshold lies a clean, minimalist sales floor. Here, flattened, two-dimensional and semi-relief plywood dresses hang cheerily on industrial racks, illuminated by gallery lighting that mimics the antiseptic glow of high-end retail environments.
Rather than focusing purely on fashion history, Sachs views the exhibition as a meditation on the psychological pivot point where the "desire for an object is sublimated into the experience of making."
Supporting Context & Metrics: Deconstructing House Codes and Pop Culture
31 Rue Cambon is not merely a superficial parody; it is grounded in an exhaustive, analytical exploration of brand iconography and design systems.
Decoding Chanel’s Visual Language
Colby Mugrabi’s involvement brought a historian’s rigor to the project. Working alongside Sachs, she unpacked the historical archives of the House of Chanel, examining minute details that define the brand’s enduring legacy.
"Standing in this room, seeing all of this work, makes you think about the importance of design systems," Mugrabi explains. "When we started to really unravel and unpack the history of Chanel as a brand, all of these design systems started to expose themselves."
The research extended to the evolution of garment labels. The curators analyzed how typography has shifted across decades, noting the distinct fonts utilized for haute couture versus ready-to-wear collections. By mapping these micro-details onto plywood and paint, the exhibition transforms corporate branding into a legible graphic language.
A Pantheon of Muses
The garments recreated in the studio represent a cross-section of pop culture history and high-society fashion. Eagle-eyed visitors can trace the lineage of specific iconic looks across decades:
- Royalty and Cinema: Replicas include suits worn by Princess Diana, Sofia Coppola, and Elizabeth Taylor.
- Fashion Royalty: Supermodel milestones are heavily featured, including a memorable look worn by Naomi Campbell during the Fall 1994 and Fall 1995 runway presentations, alongside pieces modeled by Linda Evangelista.
- Pop Culture Icons: The exhibition embraces contemporary icons and fictional figures alike, featuring looks tied to Margot Robbie’s cinematic portrayal of Barbie, Liza Minnelli, art dealer Mary Boone, and even animated icon Marge Simpson.
According to Sachs, the curation process was organic, driven by the visual power of archival imagery. "The muse sometimes comes before the suit or after," Sachs notes. "And sometimes it’s the photo. I mean, that picture of Naomi made it happen… Like, of course. Of course we had to make that one."
Official Statements and Artistic Philosophy
At the heart of 31 Rue Cambon lies a complex philosophical tension: how an artist who openly critiques consumer culture can find deep inspiration within one of the world’s most lucrative luxury houses.
The Spirit of Claes Oldenburg and Karl Lagerfeld
Sachs draws a direct artistic lineage between his plywood boutique and historical precedents in pop art. "I consider everything in here to be a sculpture," Sachs stated during a studio preview. "The clothes—you can’t wear them. They’re sculptures in the spirit of Claes Oldenburg’s The Store from 1961. You know, a hamburger you can’t eat, a TV you can’t watch, and a dress that you can’t wear. But there are these beautiful sculptures."
Furthermore, Sachs points to the late, legendary creative director of Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, as a primary intellectual influence. "He was always respecting the tradition," Sachs observes, referencing the house codes established by Coco Chanel. "And always fucking with it. Finding that razor’s edge is key. It’s an inspiration for how I do a lot of things in my art because I despise fashion and advertising because it’s so insidious and increases the envy spectrum, but at the same time I’m as guilty as anyone else."
Escaping the Lust-Envy Cycle
For Sachs, the grueling, meticulous labor required to build these plywood facsimiles represents a therapeutic antidote to modern materialism.
"That’s my greatest privilege and accomplishment from my own development as a human being," Sachs reflects. "Being able to get away from the lust-envy cycle and into the pure experience of making, which is a lot like what athletes experience in the ecstasy of the game."
Mugrabi contextualizes this friction through a poetic framing of modern value propositions: "They say the best things in life are free, but the second best things are very expensive. So this maybe is about that fissure between the second most expensive and the first best."
When queried about whether the exhibition was ever conceptualized around other luxury giants—such as Louis Vuitton or Hermès—Sachs rejected the premise outright. "There was no other choice," he affirmed. "It had to be Chanel."
Future Outlook: Exhibition Logistics and Cultural Legacy
As 31 Rue Cambon opens its doors to the public, it arrives at a pivotal cultural moment where the boundaries between fine art, fashion curation, and retail spectacle are increasingly porous. By turning a luxury storefront inside out and rendering its merchandise entirely unwearable, Sachs and Mugrabi have created a physical manifestation of consumer critique that is both accessible and intellectually challenging.
Visitor Information
- Dates: Friday, September 11 through Saturday, October 10, 2026.
- Hours: Thursday and Friday, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM; Saturday, 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM (Closed Sunday through Wednesday).
- Location: Tom Sachs Studio, 245 Centre Street, New York City.
- Admission: Free and open to the public.
Looking forward, the installation is expected to draw considerable crowds from the intersecting worlds of contemporary art, fashion scholarship, and pop culture fandom. By stripping away the functional utility of luxury goods and replacing them with the raw honesty of plywood, paint, and Lego bricks, 31 Rue Cambon challenges audiences to reconsider what they value—and why.
