Chanel shoppers are known to be a discerning bunch, but artist Tom Sachs has created an unauthorized replica of the luxury house’s sought-after Paris boutique in lower Manhattan.
Located in Sachs’ studio at 245 Centre Street, the phony Chanel store has a sign with 31 Rue Cambon on its front door, and a black Chanel-esque ensemble in one street-front window and a red one in the other. During a pass-by Monday night, the studio’s security grates were down and a sign on the front door read, “NOTICE BY ENTERING YOU ARE TO BE RECORDED.”
Media requests to Sachs were unreturned.
Although Sachs’ outpost has a sign with what looks like a handwritten version of Chanel’s proprietary interlocked “CC” monogram, the designer label has not been involved in the project in any way. A Chanel spokesperson said Thursday, “Chanel is not involved in this project, and we did not participate in its conception or development. This is not part of the cultural [programs] that Chanel supports around the world and has no affiliation with Chanel.”
Scheduled to open Friday and to run through Oct. 10, Sachs’ store will have highly limited access — with hours set for 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays. The artist’s body of work includes jabs at consumerism, materialism, logomania and high-low dressing. His Centre Street studio’s new faux Chanel outpost is prismatic in a few ways, including the fact that his space is a short walk to Canal Street where counterfeit goods are sold in abundance.
Sachs’ faux boutique coincides with the $20 billion Chanel’s accelerating growth and shoppers’ fervor for fashion artistic director Matthieu Blazy’s designs. Chanel hauls have gone viral, thanks to influencers like Elle Ferguson, who posted in March about traveling 30 hours to get the other Chanel bag of the season — the maxi flap bag in shearling. (She already had scored the mini rectangular bag in gold.) TikTokers like Mikayla Nogueira are sharing their much-coveted loot too with followers.
Asked about the potential impact of Sachs’ project on Chanel, Luca Solca, global luxury goods analyst at Bernstein, said Thursday, “Imitation is the best form of flattery. This seems to confirm how powerful Chanel has grown into our collective perception.”
The New York-based Sachs focuses on recreating modern icons with everyday objects like plywood, including Le Corbusier’s 1952 Unite d’Habitation with foam core and a glue gun or variations of NASA’s spacecraft like the Lunar Module. His unyielding tongue-in-cheek career narrative touches on craftsmanship, luxury and nihilism.
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In 1998, his notoriety or fame rose with the creation of a Chanel-type guillotine. Along with Chanel, Sachs has also taken aim at Hermès with his art projects including his 2006 Tiffany Value Meal — a riff on McDonalds’ “Happy Meal” in Tiffany & Co’s signature blue with what appeared to be the company’s logo. The New Yorker also dreamed up a Prada toilet and a NASA “Kelly” bag, a white painted vintage Hermès bag that was imprinted with NASA. His portfolio includes a Chanel-inspired .357 Magnum, which was made of oil, cloth tape, wood and metal that was sold by Rago Auctions for $7,450 in 2002.
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In a recent interview with The Observer, Sachs said that his homemade Chanel boutique is not really about fashion; “it’s about my interest and obsessions with these things, how they’re made, the stories behind them, why they matter, my desires and obsessions.”
For his 31 Rue Cambon-inspired shop, Sachs has reportedly recreated the chandelier that hung in Coco Chanel’s salon to its exact size, but he incorporated “meticulously cut” bicycle reflectors, fishing weights and UV dental epoxy. Sachs’ take on Chanel’s signature tweed suits are made of plywood and synthetic polymer, but they look deceptively real in the street-front windows. The knockoffs have “CHANEL” labels and are displayed on black coat hangers with the gold-colored “CC” monogram.
The temporary shop is located downtown on a stretch between Broome and Grand Streets that is known as “Little Paris,” due more to the area’s French-owned businesses more than the Beaux-Arts architecture. While celebrities like Teyana Taylor, Tilda Swinton, Vanessa Paradis, Pedro Pascal, Lupita Nyong’o and “Love Story’s” Sarah Pidgeon turned up front-row at Chanel’s haute couture show in July, everyday types are more likely to seek out Sachs’ installation.
Like other luxury houses and designers, Chanel is diligent about protecting its trademarks, creative assets and design rights. In 2024, a New York federal jury ruled in favor of Chanel in its trademark infringement battle against What Goes Around Comes Around and the company was awarded $4 million in statutory damages.
Fashion has what some brands view “as a parody problem,” according to Susan Scafidi, founder of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School. “Their logos and iconic styles are so recognizable and the industry itself is so culturally significant that artists can find fashion houses’ intellectual property almost irresistible, when it comes to making a statement — or making a buck,” she said.
In addition, the law allows “significant leeway” for artists to use a brand’s intellectual property when commenting on, or criticizing that brand, Scafidi said. Even if Chanel decided that challenging Sachs’ installation would be worthwhile, “the maison would have a legal battle on its hands,” she said, adding that previous similar attempts by Louis Vuitton “were met with little sympathy from the courts.”
Although Chanel, which has its own history of collaborating with artists (including Xavier Veilhan, Valentina Li and Sarah Sze in different capacities), may not find Sachs’ styles to be “particularly appealing,” Scafidi said the brand’s best bet may be to simply wait until this particular unauthorized art is “so last season.”
The Chanel spokesperson declined to comment about whether the company has taken legal action against Sachs or is planning to.
In the past, Chanel has run ads that read, “A note of information and caution to all editors, advertisers, broadcasters and product license holders: A Chanel is a Chanel. Anything else is something else. Even if we are flattered by such tributes to our fame as ‘Chanel-issime, Chanel-ed, Chanels, and Chanel-ized’, PLEASE DON’T. Our lawyers positively detest them. We take our trademark seriously. Merci, Chanel, Inc.”
In a 2016 interview with WWD, Sachs said he didn’t know if he was “against” fashion, but that he loved the way Chanel looked on his wife.
“[I don’t like] the advertising aspect of it that contributes to her body dysmorphia. Buy this dress and you will get the guy, lose this weight and you will get the better job, or whatever,” Sachs said. “But there’s another side. The other half is fashion seasons and things go in and out of fashion. I’ve been wearing the same tie for 30 years. It’s called planned obsolescence, or to be technical, perceived obsolescence, and those things prevent us from buying or making heirloom products. I like things that last.”