Lauri’s Blog:

As the sun came up the other morning I found myself standing in line to see the Chanel Mobile Art exhibit in Central Park, along with my daughter, Tracy, and her boyfriend, Matt. We had invited Joe, my husband, to come along but he opted to sleep in.

Why on earth would I stand out there - for hours! - to see an exhibit inside a super modern spaceship looking white pod, designed by architect Zaha Hadid in collaboration with Karl Lagerfeld and based on the quilted, chain-strapped Chanel bag known as the 2.55? For two reasons: 1) Because I wanted to share the “experience” with Tracy, who is absolutely wild about anything Chanel, and with Matt who is an artist and 2) I was curious to see what was on the inside of this super modern spaceship-looking white pod that was traveling the world. Hey, we’re talking movable interiors!

So, here’s what I will tell you in case you did not wait in line at dawn: It was so much better than I’d expected because it was like nothing I’d expected.

Upon entering we were warmly welcomed and asked to surrender everything except our inner layer of clothing. We were seated in a row, literally on the wall, and each given an MP3 player and headset, which was placed on us.

We were then asked to, individually, follow the directions given by the seductive, deep, French voice of Jeanne Moreau, which asked us to stand, turn, left or right, and instructed us when and where to walk. Ultimately, for me, it was all about the experience of the sights, the sounds and the dynamics that were created by the 15 artists within that environment and not, so much, about the iconic handbag that inspired the tribute (although, I admit, I really love the 2.55 darling Joe gave me early in our marriage and, interestingly, which a fellow shopper, fashion designer Mary McFadden, had advised him to buy.)

Like The Gates, Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s 2005 Central Park project, the Chanel exhibit was a true New York “happening;” if you happened to have had the desire and patience to wait on a very long line, very early on an autumn morning.