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Microscopic Louis Vuitton Knockoff Bag “Narrow Enough To Pass Through The Eye of A Needle" Sells For More Than $63,000
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_iuPpvolZw
A handbag bear- ing Louis Vuitton's signature mono- gram has sold for thousands of dol- lars – and you can barely even see it with the naked eye.
The bag, dubbed the "microscopic handbag" by its maker, the Brooklyn-based art collective MSCHF, meas- ures at just micrometers. It was sold in a Joopiter auction
this week for $63,750 – a high escalation after the initial bid of $15,000 – and comes with a microscope that has a digital dis- play so that its buyer can enjoy the bag's design.
"Smaller than a grain of sea salt and narrow enough to pass through the eye of a needle, this is a purse so small you'll need a microscope to
see it," MSCHF said in a
post about the bag. "There are big handbags, normal handbags, and small hand- bags, but this is the final word in bag miniaturiza- tion."
The bag is made of photopolymer resin and was created with a 2- photon polymer- ization, a form of 3D printing, and appears to be a knockoff of luxury
designer Louis Vuitton. The microscopic bag is a fluorescent green tote and features the icon- ic LV in its center and a design sim- ilar to that of the luxury label's OnTheGo bags, which retail for between $3,100 and $4,300.
"As a once-func- tional object like a handbag becomes smaller and smaller its object status
becomes steadily more abstracted until it is purely a brand signifier," MSCHF said.
Kevin Wiesner, MSCHF's chief creative officer, told The New York Times earlier this month that the group did not seek permission from Louis Vuitton to mimic its brand.
"We are big in the 'ask forgiveness, not permission' school," he said.
That rule applied even in this auc- tion. The house hosting it was founded by Louis Vuitton men's designer Pharell Williams.
"Pharrell loves big hats, so we made him an incredibly small bag," Wiesner said.
CBS News has reached out to Louis Vuitton for comment and is awaiting
response.
Tiny purses and bags have emerged as a star in the fashion world, with celebrities show- ing them off on red carpets. In 2019, Lizzo famously arrived at the American Music Awards with a tiny Valentino purse.
"Previous small leather handbags have still required a hand to carry them — they become dysfunc- tional, inconven- iences to their 'wearer,'" MSCHF says in its auction listing. "Microscopic Handbag takes this to its full logi- cal conclusion. A practical object is boiled down into jewelry, all of its putative function evaporated; for luxury objects, useability is the angels' share."
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