The world’s tiniest handbag, created by MSCHF, has sold at US musician Pharrell Williams’ Joopiter auction.
The handbag measures 657 by 222 by 700 micrometers – smaller than a grain of sea salt – and is modelled after Louis Vuitton’s OnTheGo tote. The bag was created by American art collective MSCHF, reportedly for American musician Pharrell Williams, who currently serves as the creative director of Louis Vuitton.
MSCHF was founded in 2016 and has become famous for creating items and wearables out of modified luxury items – like a series of 66 pairs of Nike sneakers featuring satanic symbols and a pair of “Birkinstocks” made out of ripped up Birkin handbags.
“There are big handbags, normal handbags, and small handbags. Various brands at various times have dabbled in the extremes of each. Smaller than a grain of salt, MSCHF’s Microscopic Handbag is made via a stereolithographic process commonly used for making tiny mechanical biotech structures,” MSCHF stated.
“It is the final word in bag miniaturisation. 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.
“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.”
The bag sold at auction on June 28th for U$63,750 (approximately AU$96,410) via Williams’ Joopiter (which he launched in November 2022).
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