Karl Lagerfeld came up with a zany idea. And low and behold – it came to life.

No, you’re not looking at a flying saucer, but rather, the “Chanel Pavilion,” a mobile, collapsible, exhibition pod set to take off in 2008 and travel over a two year period the from Hong Kong to Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, London, Moscow and Paris.

Under the guise of a “noble research investment,” Lagerfeld commissioned Iraqi-born artist Zaha Hadid to design the collapsible fiber glass container in order to house the supposed Chanel inspired work of twenty internationally acclaimed artists.

The pod is supposedly “a celebration of the iconic work of Chanel, unmistakable for its smooth layering of exquisite details that together create an elegant, cohesive whole. The resulting structure is very much tied to that original inspiration—elegant, functional, and versatile both in its overall structure and detail.”

Somewhere I’m missing something because I don’t see the functional versatility. I suppose you can take it down and put it back up, but you can also move a house from Santa Monica to Santa Clarita. Does that really make it more functional? I mean while moving the house the roof got sheared off. And the “smooth layering of exquisite details” - well it looks smooth and I suppose it’s exquisite, but it certainly doesn’t remind me of the little black dress.

Regarding the artists, they were given a brief to create art in connection with Chanel’s back catalog of iconic handbags. The artists were all given a tour of Coco Chanel’s apartment in Paris and of the workshops in Verneil where the bags are handmade. Beyond that – the world was their oyster.

Stephen Shore chose to shoot the workshops in the style of American landscapes whilst Sylvie Fleury lined an entire room in leather, giving the impression of walking inside a handbag. Who knows what Yoko Ono or celebrity yoga guru Subodh Gupta will come up with… Style.com is partial to “the video by the Blue Noses collective from Russia, which imagines a future in which Chanel bags become the linchpin for all human relations.”

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