The Travel Chanel, Not the Shopping Chanel

A roving art exhibition about a several-thousand-dollar handbag is likely to inspire more than a little cynicism--especially in the current economic climate, and especially when the kicker of the show is a bed-sized Chanel bag holding a giant Chanel compact.

Yet Chanel Mobile Art, which just opened to the public in New York's Central Park, manages to be refreshing. That's in part thanks to the nautilus-inspired space Zaha Hadid created, in part thanks to the art, which can be diverting, even enchanting. But mostly it's due to the fact that Mobile Art is not as commercial as it could be.

Chanel logos and motifs abound in the show's 18 works of art, which were inspired by the 2.55 handbag Coco Chanel created in 1955. In one installation, by Russian art group Blue Noses, a pair of naked women smack each other in the head with the quilted bags. But the French company refrains from applying that strategy (metaphorically speaking) to visitors. Nothing is for sale here. Not the tickets, not the works of art. Not postcards. There is no gift shop.

"If someone suddenly decides they need a bag, they can go to Madison Avenue, or 57th Street, or Soho," said Andrea Schwan, who is helping to publicize the show.

The press materials for Mobile Art focus not on handbags or even the art, but on Hadid's curvaceous white building, which has been assembled in Hong Kong and Tokyo, and will go on to London, Moscow, and Paris.

It's potentially a smart brand-building strategy at a time when even luxury goods, thought to be immune to an economic slump, are taking a hit. Chanel doesn't report financials, but LVMH recently said its sales had slowed from 5 percent in the first half to 3.1 percent in the third quarter. It's the wrong time to pull a Murakami; just give people a pleasant experience they don't have to pay for.

The restraint doesn't extend to Chanel fans--all 23,000 of the advance tickets, which were offered online, were snapped up in less than two days. (Walk-up tickets are also available.)

And, frankly, it doesn't extend all the way to Chanel stores. The brand has created a set of limited-edition 2.55s to commemorate Mobile Art, each signed under the flap by Karl Lagerfeld. Prices reportedly run as high as $31,500.

By Sara Clemence

Photograph: Chanel Mobile Art in Tokyo, by Ben Simmons/Sipa Press