"Microscopic Handbag" That Can Pass Through Eye of Needle Sells for $63,000
The designer micro bag was inspired by Pharrell Williams.
No, it's not just your imagination: The price of designer handbags has soared over the past decade. For example, the classic Chanel Medium Flap Bag has more than doubled in price since 2016, going from $4,900 to a whopping $10,200. But can you imagine paying over $60,000 for a designer bag that's barely visible to the naked eye? Reportedly, someone out there has. A Louis Vuitton-inspired miniscule bag sold at auction for $63,000 on Wednesday, with several bidders hoping to nab the exclusive purse.
Measuring just 657 by 222 by 700 microns (or less than 0.03 inches wide) the Louis Vuitton-inspired "Microscopic Handbag" is actually a work of art courtesy of MSCHF, a Brooklyn-based art collective.
"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," they wrote in a June 14 Instagram post. "There are big handbags, normal handbags, and small handbags, but this is the final word in bag miniaturization."
"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 post concludes, showing off the neon yellow bag emblazoned with the LV logo.
According to MSCHF's chief creative officer Kevin Wiesner the collective had not sought the French label's permission to use its logo or design, but that it was inspired by Louis Vuitton's creative director of menswear, Pharrell Williams. "Pharrell loves big hats, so we made him an incredibly small bag," he told the New York Times.
Not so coincidentally the auction was hosted by Joopiter, an online auction house founded by Williams himself. And, according to the auction page, there were 63 bids for the tiny bag, the first bid starting at a cool $15,000.
In May, the auction house announced "Just Phriends," describing it as "an auction curated in partnership with Sarah Andelman, featuring over 50 unique lots: a mix of rare and bespoke artworks, objects and exclusive collaborations, assembled from the orbit of JOOPITER's founder, @pharrell."
