09/10/2026
Tom Sachs' new exhibition "31 Rue Cambon" reimagines the mythology of luxury through the lens of bootleg culture.
Inside his SoHo studio, one of fashion's most recognizable retail environments, Chanel's flagship boutique, has been reconstructed entirely by hand. Suits become painted plywood. Jewelry is built from LEGO pieces, rhinestones, and bicycle reflectors. Nothing here is the "real" material, yet everything is instantly recognizable.
The work sits in a long lineage of artists examining commodity culture, from Claes Oldenburg's "The Store" to Sachs' own 1998 piece "Chanel Guillotine," now in the Centre Pompidou's permanent collection. It's not a Chanel collaboration. Sachs has said the show isn't really about Chanel at all, it's about where value actually lives: in materials, in brand mythology, or in the labor of making something by hand.
On view September 11 – October 10 at Sachs' studio, 245 Centre Street, SoHo.
