The Best Chanel Money Can’t Buy Tom Sachs: '31 Rue Cambon'

By Jacob Gallagher

The most impressive garments I’ve encountered so far at New York Fashion Week were made of three-quarter-inch plywood.

Their tags say Chanel, and they hang at a boutique with the address 31 Rue Cambon painted on the door — only they are a creation of Tom Sachs, a wackadoo bricolage art wizard.

“I really wanted a Chanel suit, but I’m not the kind of guy that can wear one,” Sachs said at a preview of the installation, which opens today at 245 Centre Street in Lower Manhattan. “But I wanted one as a flex to go in my closet next to my, like, Gore-Tex raincoat.”

So Sachs made one in his favored material: plywood. Then he made 30 more. Many are named for their famous wearers: Anna for Anna Wintour. Marge for Marge Simpson. More than a dozen jackets and pantsuits were on display in Sachs’s faux storefront. Other suits channeling Chanel creations worn by ASAP Rocky and G-Dragon were still in progress elsewhere in Sachs’s labyrinthine atelier.