Would You Buy This Microscopic Handbag?
Mschf, the makers of those big red boots and sneakers with blood in them, is no stranger to a controversial item release. Its latest drop, however, is not a polarising shoe: it’s a handbag that takes the mini-bag trend to the next level. It’s so small it’s only slightly bigger than a crumb.
Called the Microscopic Handbag, Mschf’s itty-bitty bag is made of photopolymer resin that measures 657 by 222 by 700 micrometers. (For scale, that’s comparable to about a speck of dust.) The miniature bag is modelled after Louis Vuitton’s monogram OnTheGo handbag – however, Mschf reportedly did not get permission from the French house, so it’s not an official collaboration.
Sound like a silly investment? Maybe it helps to know that the bag is more of an art piece than a wearable accessory. The brand is releasing the item as a statement on luxury bags and the extremes people will go to wear them (whether that’s rocking huge or mini versions of them). “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 said in a release. “Previous small leather handbags have still required a hand to carry them – they become dysfunctional, inconveniences to their wearer.”
You can own the tiny bag, though, should you wish. It will first be displayed in a sealed gel case and pre-mounted beneath a microscope on public view at the 8 Avenue Matignon gallery in Paris from 20 June to 24 June. Then it will make its way into the Just Phriends sale – an upcoming auction from Pharrell Williams’s auction house, Joopiter. The starting bid is unknown just yet – but given it’s extremely gimmicky, its status as a collector’s item could make it valuable.
This isn’t the first buzzy handbag Mschf has released. Last year, it created a black Mschf logo handbag that was manufactured in Italy, Texas – a cheeky take on the made-in-Italy label that many designer handbags often feature. (That one, however, was regular-people size – not something too small for Barbie.) Say what you want about the brand’s divisive releases, but one thing is for sure: they always get you talking.
This article was originally published on Vogue UK.