Brooklyn-based art collective MSCHF, known for its tongue-in-cheek contemporary art, has created a microscopic replica of a Louis Vuitton bag. Its size is only 657 micrometers in height and 700 micrometers in length – smaller than a salt crystal.
The bag can be seen with the naked eye, but you will need a microscope to see the details. The model is decorated with the Louis Vuitton logo and the iconic print. To create it, the team used a 3D printer, which is usually used in the field of biotechnology.
“Brands make large bags, medium bags, small bags. Companies flirt with extremes from time to time. As a previously functional object becomes smaller and smaller, its status becomes more and more abstract until it becomes simply a symbol of the brand, explains MSCHF. “Previous models of micro bags still require people to carry them, making them inconvenient for owners. The microscopic bursa is the logical conclusion of this process. The object becomes a decorative adornment, its functions are reduced to zero.”
The artists’ work was exhibited in Paris and then sold at the Just Phriends auction. The buyer paid $63,750 for the microbag, while the brand’s full-size models cost an average of $3,000-4,000.