Chanel at The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Chanel Métiers d'Art Paris-New York 2018 (2018)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Temple of Dendur hall in New York hosted Chanel's Métiers d'Art Paris-New York collection show.

The venue

The Metropolitan Museum of Art occupies a long stretch of Fifth Avenue along Central Park in Manhattan, with galleries arranged around courtyards and wings. The Temple of Dendur sits in its own glass-roofed hall, a sandstone temple relocated from Egypt and rebuilt stone by stone beside a reflecting pool. The hall is a single open volume with a wide floor and a shallow pool at one end.

How the space was used

The temple hall was cleared and turned into a runway set: seating banks ran along the length of the room facing the temple, with the stone structure and pool as backdrop rather than prop. Guests entered through the museum's galleries, moved into the hall and were seated on either side of a central runway. Egyptian motifs were carried into the staging and lighting.

Why it works here

The hall gives a fashion show a fixed architectural backdrop and a single controlled volume, so seating, runway and sightlines can be arranged without structural work. Its museum context lends a collection show a cultural frame, and the space is already used for evening events and performances outside public hours.