Fashion isn’t always about the latest trends; it’s often more avant-garde, more abstract, and yes, sometimes much more ridiculous. Take, for instance, the new microscopic ‘Louis Vuitton’ handbag by MSCHF that’s so small, you need a microscope to see it. It’s silly, pointless, downright ridiculous — and it just sold for $63,750 at auction this week.
Created by NY-based art collective MSCHF, the “Microscopic Handbag” measures less than 0.03 inches wide and can barely be seen when not under a microscope. The neon green “bag,” modeled after the ever-popular Louis Vuitton OnTheGo tote, was made with a 3D printer and the details, when viewed under the aforementioned microscope, are pretty impressive.
Online auction house Joopiter, which was founded by Pharrell Williams, listed the MSCHF micro bag, which brought in a pretty impressive sum considering what the winner is actually getting. However, many can see the sense of humor that went into creating the piece.
Kevin Wiesner, MSCHF’s chief creative officer, told the New York Times that they made Pharrell an “incredibly small bag” since he “loves big hats.” He described the bag as “a funny object because it derives from something rigorously functional. But it has basically become jewelry.”
It’s unclear whether or not MSCHF — who, lest we forget, created those gigantic cartoon red boots that have been going around — plan to make more microscopic objects. However, it’s clear this bag has made its mark.
“As a once-functional object like a handbag becomes smaller and smaller its object status becomes steadily more abstracted until it is purely a brand signifier,” the brand wrote in the auction post. “Previous small leather handbags have still required a hand to carry them – they become dysfunctional, inconveniences to their ‘wearer’. Microscopic Handbag takes this to its full logical conclusion. A practical object is boiled down into jewelry, all of its putative function evaporated; for luxury objects, useability is the angels’ share.”
