What do Elizabeth Taylor, Olivia Rodrigo, Marge Simpson, and Sofia Coppola all have in common? Of course, they’re all cultural icons—and furthermore, they’ve all been spotted wearing one of Chanel’s iconic tweed skirt suits. As of yesterday, they have another connecting thread: they’re some of the many muses who helped inspire artist Tom Sachs’s heady, humorous new project—an ersatz Chanel store nestled along Centre Street in New York’s Soho neighborhood.
Sachs worked with fashion historian Colby Mugrabi to curate the show, titled 31 Rue Cambon. Together, they built a simulacrum of the iconic Parisian retail location out of humble materials from the outside in. Inside, the wares hanging in the exhibition create a Chanel store complete with dresses that are all made of plywood that has been painted and manipulated to evoke tweed, embroidery, and other highfalutin textiles and ornamentation. Accessories like the iconic flap shoulder bag are there, too—plus shoes, jewelry crafted from Legos, and other commonplace ephemera. It is a cheeky celebration and subversion of consumerism, both an homage and a send-up of the ridiculous world of luxury goods.
“I consider everything in here to be a sculpture,” Sachs said, standing outside the “shop” during a preview yesterday. “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.”
