Knockoff handbag, as big as grain of salt, sells for over $63K

A microscopic handbag bearing Louis Vuitton’s signature monogram, and designed by an artist, sold for over $63,000.

A bag, dubbed the “microscopic handbag” by its designer, MSCHF, was sold at an auction for $63,750, which was tens of thousands of dollars from its initial asking bid of $15,000.

The auctioned item was primarily a microscopic, fluorescently neon green handbag with a Louis Vuitton’s monogram—that was coupled with a microscope to allow the buyer to view the product.

According to the images, the handbag was so small that it was similar in size to a sand particle or a grain of salt.

“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 social media post about the bag. “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,” MSCHF said of the artistic intent and work.

The bag was made of photopolymer resin and created with a 2-photon polymerization, a form of 3D printing, CBS News reported.

The bag was not in association with Louis Vuitton, but rather a commentary of a fashion commodity.

“We are big in the ‘ask forgiveness, not permission’ school,” Kevin Wiesner, MSCHF’s chief creative officer, said of not asking for permission for using the brand’s logo.

“Previous small leather handbags have still required a hand to carry them—they become dysfunctional, inconveniences to their ‘wearer,’” MSCHF stated in its auction listing.

“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,” MSCHF continued.