NEW YORK — How much would you pay for a designer handbag that couldn’t even hold a grain of salt?
Someone paid $63,000 at auction on Wednesday for a microscopic handbag created by a Brooklyn art house.
The handbag measures just 657 x 222 x 700 microns.
Barely visible to the human eye, the fluorescent yellow-green bag is based on a popular Louis Vuitton design – although it’s the work of a New York art collective and not the luxury label itself.
Brooklyn-based group MSCHF dubs their tiny creation “Microscopic Handbag” and claim the bag is slim enough to fit through the eye of a needle and smaller than a grain of sea salt (though that can depend on how coarse you like your salt). ).
The object was made using two-photon polymerization, a manufacturing technology for 3D printing plastic parts on a micro scale. It was sold with a microscope fitted with a digital display through which the bag can be viewed.
A promotional photo shows the design in more detail and features Louis Vuitton’s signature ‘LV’ monogram. The bag appears to be based on the French label’s OnTheGo bag, which currently retails in full size for between $3,100 and $4,300.
The sale was hosted by Joopiter, an online auction house founded by American musician, record producer and designer Pharrell Williams. Although Williams currently serves as creative director for menswear at Louis Vuitton, Kevin Wiesner, MSCHF’s chief creative officer, previously told the New York Times that the collective did not seek permission from him or the French label to use his logo or design.
“Pharrell loves big hats, so we made him an incredibly small bag,” he told the newspaper.
Founded in 2016, the MSCHF has made headlines with its so-called “drops,” irreverent art projects that often poke fun at consumer capitalism — while profiting from it. The group was sued by Nike for their “Satan Shoes,” a line of 666 pairs of modified Nike sneakers featuring Satanic symbols and drops of real human blood. The dispute was eventually settled out of court.
Known for teasing the art world for its excesses — whether by selling fake Andy Warhol drawings or cutting up Damian Hirst paintings — the collective has also turned its attention to luxury fashion.
In 2021, the group tore up four Birkin handbags to create sandals (dubbed “Birkinstocks”), which they were selling for up to $76,000 a pair. More recently, the cartoonish wellies known as “Big Red Boots” became a viral sensation after being worn by the likes of Doja Cat, Iggy Azalea and Janelle Monáe.
Ahead of this week’s sale, MSCHF declined to answer CNN’s questions about the making of his handbag. However, in a statement released alongside the auction listing, it said that the fashion industry’s love of small bags has meant that they have become “more and more abstracted”, to the point that the accessory is “purely a trademark”.
“Earlier small leather handbags still required one hand to carry them – they became non-functional and caused inconvenience to their ‘carrier,'” the statement continued. “’Microscopic Handbag’ brings this to a logical conclusion. A practical object is reduced to ornament, its entire supposed function evaporated; in luxury items, ease of use is the angel’s share.”