MSCHF’s microscopic handbag sells for over $60,000

MSCHF, the American art collective known for its wacky creations, has sold its Microscopic Handbag for a whopping $63,750 USD. The piece was sold at Just Phriends, an auction hosted by Sarah Andelman and Joopiter, the digital-first auction house and content platform founded by Pharrell Williams.

The collective that caused a furore at his ridiculously oversized Big Red Boots earlier this yearannounced its latest creation earlier this month.

“Smaller than a grain of sea salt and narrow enough to pass through the eye of a needle, this is a bag so small you need a microscope to see it,” the group said in an Instagram post announcing the new accessory was revealed. it as a “work of art”.

How small is this handbag actually? It measures 657 by 222 by 700 micrometers. So small, in fact, that the group lost some of the “bags” when the monsters first arrived, reported The New York Times.

The item, made from resin and through a process called two-photon polymerization, is intended to reference the growing fashion trend of miniaturization, where once-practical accessories become nothing more than status symbols.

“There are large handbags, normal handbags and small handbags, but this is the last word in bag miniaturization,” the collective said in the Instagram post. “As a once functional object like a handbag gets smaller and smaller, its object status becomes more and more abstract until it is purely a brand signifier.”

The microscopic handbag is itself modeled after the popular Louis Vuitton model OnTheGo carrying casealthough MSCHF did not ask the brand for permission to use the logo or design, according to the New York Times.

“We’re big on the ‘ask forgiveness, not permission’ school,” Kevin Wiesner, the company’s chief creative officer, said in an interview with the publication.

MSCHF has faced not only public scrutiny but also legal trouble for its past creations. In 2021, the group settled a trademark lawsuit with Nike over their “Satan Shoes,” which were modeled after the Nike Air Max 97 sneaker, created in collaboration with rapper Lil Nas X and reportedly contained a drop of human blood.

PART: