By Daniil Gritsenko, as told to Jake Silbert.

If you're in New York for fashion week, you may walk down Centre St in Manhattan and see what looks a lot like a Chanel store. But it isn’t. Inside, there's no Chanel for sale. Technically, there aren't even any clothes inside. The jackets, bags, shoes, and jewelry are all sculptures handmade from waste, scraps, and other discarded materials.

The installation, titled "31 Rue Cambon," was created by Tom Sachs, who first notched success as an artist driven by illustrative DIY design cues and then again as a longtime Nike collaborator, whose recently resurrected NikeCraft imprint powered this project. Built inside his own downtown studio, "31 Rue Cambon" recreates Chanel’s famous Paris flagship with cream awnings, wrought-iron gates, beige carpeting, mirrored walls, and soft-light windows.

Walk inside and all appears normal. Bouclé suits line the racks beside quilted bags, slingback shoes, and costume jewelry. But none of it is as it appears. The jackets are carved from plywood, the bags are built from cardboard, and the jewelry is assembled using diamanté and LEGO.

The 31 jackets on display are each based on a Chanel look worn by a famous face, from Naomi Campbell and Olivia Rodrigo to Marge Simpson. Sachs’ favorite, we learned at an exclusive press preview the day before the opening, is Coco Chanel’s ivory jacket from the 1960s. Its bouclé texture was recreated by carving white paint to reveal the rough yellow layer beneath.

All imperfections are intentional, as is typical of Sachs' practice. Sachs intent is always to emphasize, not hide, the seams, tool marks, exposed edges, and uneven surfaces, laying bare the construction of each object. The handiwork is as much the point as the finished product. Chanel normally hides its labor behind a flawless finish. Sachs puts that labor front and center.

His "relationship" with luxury label — such that it is, as "31 Rue Cambon" is not officially sanctioned by Chanel — goes back nearly 30 years.

In 1998, Sachs created a Chanel-branded guillotine that "pissed off" the house’s famously proactive lawyers. Former creative director Karl Lagerfeld, however, had a different opinion. Upon glimpsing a photo of Sachs' work, Lagerfeld reportedly stated, “I love it.”

And Sachs is the closest thing that Nike has to a fine artist in its roster. Sure, it partners with creatives like Slawn and KAWS but Sachs drives The Swoosh to fresh terrain, like pushing would-be sneaker shoppers to spend time journaling in exchange for rare trinkets.

The "Chanel" store is a perfect example of Sachs' eagerness to take NikeCraft to the extremes of ingenuity, utilizing Nike resources to deliver something so fresh that it practically demands attention. "Boring" shoes one day, the next: a commentary on luxury and consumer culture that doubles as a selfie-friendly pop-up experience. Mass appeal with high-brow intent. That's Tom Sachs.

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