The Facts
On September 10, 2026, Thaddaeus Ropac announced '31 Rue Cambon,' Tom Sachs's recreation of Chanel's Paris flagship inside his SoHo studio, constructed from plywood, corrugated cardboard, diamanté, and Lego. Curated by fashion historian Colby Mugrabi, the installation continues Sachs's series of immersive brand environments, following his McDonald's 'Nutsy's' (2003–2005) and NASA's 'Space Program' (2007–present). The project also revisits Sachs's earlier luxury-brand works, including 'Chanel Guillotine (Breakfast Nook)' (1998), which received a one-line approval from Karl Lagerfeld and is now in the Centre Pompidou's collection. Sachs said the handwork is couture-like but deliberately exposes seams and tool marks.
The Signal
With '31 Rue Cambon,' Sachs adopts a less adversarial stance toward luxury consumption, telling the gallery that 'you can't be a critic of consumerism without being an active participant.' The project reinforces a trend of artists engaging with fashion houses as creative material, and highlights Thaddaeus Ropac's willingness to present large-scale immersive installations. For collectors, it deepens Sachs's ongoing examination of brand systems, a body of work already validated by institutional acquisitions such as the Centre Pompidou's holding of 'Chanel Guillotine.'
- Artists: Tom Sachs
- People: Tom Sachs, Colby Mugrabi, Karl Lagerfeld, Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, Sofia Coppola
- Galleries: Thaddaeus Ropac
- Museums: Centre Pompidou
- Locations: New York
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