Ripoff Vuitton handbag smaller than a grain of salt fetches $63,750 at auction
(2023/06/30)
- Reference: 1688135530
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/06/30/microscopic_handbag/
- Source link:
A trendy Louis Vuitton handbag will set you back nearly $3,000 these days, but a scaled-down version has been sold for more than 20 times as much.
And when we say scaled down, we do mean scaled down – to 657 x 222 x 700 micrometers. So the proud owner who dropped $63,750 on the item through record producer Pharrell William's [1]Joopiter auction house won't be lugging much of anything around in it unless, of course, they happen to be an ant.
[2]
In these straitened times of economic hardship, however, it may still be large enough to hold all your human money, though we will assume the owner will not miss the cash if they are willing to spend that on something "smaller than a grain of sea salt." At least it's not an NFT, but we hope it doesn't get lost in the mail.
The project was created by Brooklyn-based art hooligans MSCHF, who kindly threw in a microscope with a digital display so viewers can marvel at the luminous green speck of 2-photon polymerization printed high fashion. Bidding started at $15,000 last Friday and ended on Tuesday so the winner may simply have ended up with an overpriced science instrument.
[3]
[4]MSCHF , whose work looks like a Vice magazine cover if Vice was still cool and not bankrupt legacy media, claimed the handbag is "narrow enough to pass through the eye of a needle," adding on [5]Instagram : "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."
[6]Mummy and Daddy Musk think Elon's cage fight against Zuck is a terrible idea
[7]California man jailed after manure-to-methane scheme revealed as bull
[8]Gen Z and Millennials don't know what their colleagues are talking about half the time
[9]Election Excel blunder declared a 'low point' for Austrian social democracy
As for what Monsieur Vuitton would have to say about his logo being used, MSCHF chief creative officer Kevin Viesner told [10]The New York Times : "We are big in the 'ask forgiveness, not permission' school."
Indeed, the aptly named collective has been in hot water over appropriating trademarks before. In 2021, MSCHF was forced to recall 665 modified Nike Air Max 97s it was selling for $1,018 each under the name [11]"Satan Shoes." The sneakers, designed in collaboration with rapper Lil Nas X, allegedly contained a drop of human blood and all but one had been sold before Nike caught wind and wanted them removed from circulation. The settlement also included the "Jesus Shoes," which we [12]briefly mentioned in 2019.
Any similar moves by Louis Vuitton would have to actually find the handbag first. Amusingly, Viesner has admitted: "I almost hope somebody eats it."
[13]
MSCHF is not standing still, however. Its [14]latest venture , "Pyramid Chat," is a barefaced pyramid scheme run through Discord where users buy access to the server for $8 and each person they refer earns them $5. MSCHF said the aim of the scheme was "to help idiots make a quick buck." ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.joopiter.com/products/mschf-microscopic-handbag
[2] https://regmedia.co.uk/2023/06/30/handbag1.jpg
[3] https://regmedia.co.uk/2023/06/30/handbag2.jpg
[4] https://mschf.com/
[5] https://www.instagram.com/p/CtehXZEuZY-/?hl=en
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/29/musk_parents_worried_fight/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/28/manue_methane_ponzi/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/13/workplace_jargon_language_barrier/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/06/austria_election_excel_blunder/
[10] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/13/style/mschf-microscopic-handbag.html
[11] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56684773
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2019/10/11/prestbury_ghost_tour_cancelled/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZJ78IbePCC--odqg2uvJrgAAA1Q&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[14] https://hypebeast.com/2023/6/mschf-pyramid-chat-project-info
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
And when we say scaled down, we do mean scaled down – to 657 x 222 x 700 micrometers. So the proud owner who dropped $63,750 on the item through record producer Pharrell William's [1]Joopiter auction house won't be lugging much of anything around in it unless, of course, they happen to be an ant.
[2]
In these straitened times of economic hardship, however, it may still be large enough to hold all your human money, though we will assume the owner will not miss the cash if they are willing to spend that on something "smaller than a grain of sea salt." At least it's not an NFT, but we hope it doesn't get lost in the mail.
The project was created by Brooklyn-based art hooligans MSCHF, who kindly threw in a microscope with a digital display so viewers can marvel at the luminous green speck of 2-photon polymerization printed high fashion. Bidding started at $15,000 last Friday and ended on Tuesday so the winner may simply have ended up with an overpriced science instrument.
[3]
[4]MSCHF , whose work looks like a Vice magazine cover if Vice was still cool and not bankrupt legacy media, claimed the handbag is "narrow enough to pass through the eye of a needle," adding on [5]Instagram : "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."
[6]Mummy and Daddy Musk think Elon's cage fight against Zuck is a terrible idea
[7]California man jailed after manure-to-methane scheme revealed as bull
[8]Gen Z and Millennials don't know what their colleagues are talking about half the time
[9]Election Excel blunder declared a 'low point' for Austrian social democracy
As for what Monsieur Vuitton would have to say about his logo being used, MSCHF chief creative officer Kevin Viesner told [10]The New York Times : "We are big in the 'ask forgiveness, not permission' school."
Indeed, the aptly named collective has been in hot water over appropriating trademarks before. In 2021, MSCHF was forced to recall 665 modified Nike Air Max 97s it was selling for $1,018 each under the name [11]"Satan Shoes." The sneakers, designed in collaboration with rapper Lil Nas X, allegedly contained a drop of human blood and all but one had been sold before Nike caught wind and wanted them removed from circulation. The settlement also included the "Jesus Shoes," which we [12]briefly mentioned in 2019.
Any similar moves by Louis Vuitton would have to actually find the handbag first. Amusingly, Viesner has admitted: "I almost hope somebody eats it."
[13]
MSCHF is not standing still, however. Its [14]latest venture , "Pyramid Chat," is a barefaced pyramid scheme run through Discord where users buy access to the server for $8 and each person they refer earns them $5. MSCHF said the aim of the scheme was "to help idiots make a quick buck." ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.joopiter.com/products/mschf-microscopic-handbag
[2] https://regmedia.co.uk/2023/06/30/handbag1.jpg
[3] https://regmedia.co.uk/2023/06/30/handbag2.jpg
[4] https://mschf.com/
[5] https://www.instagram.com/p/CtehXZEuZY-/?hl=en
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/29/musk_parents_worried_fight/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/28/manue_methane_ponzi/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/13/workplace_jargon_language_barrier/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/06/austria_election_excel_blunder/
[10] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/13/style/mschf-microscopic-handbag.html
[11] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56684773
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2019/10/11/prestbury_ghost_tour_cancelled/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZJ78IbePCC--odqg2uvJrgAAA1Q&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[14] https://hypebeast.com/2023/6/mschf-pyramid-chat-project-info
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Roger Kynaston
Naah. Too big for that!
The perfect size!
Ball boy
This is just the thing for me to store my f**ks in.
See [1]Thomas Benjamin Wild's amusing I've no more f***s to give recording for details. Link very NSFW by the way - but, hey, it's a Friday afternoon so there!
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqbk9cDX0l0
There's an old proverb
Arthur the cat
about fools and their money.
Re: There's an old proverb
Mark 85
Also one about a sucker being born every minute.
"the final word in bag miniaturization"
Pascal Monett
Nonsense.
I created a Vuitton replica that was smaller than the dot at the end of this line.
Unfortunately, just when I finished, the cat jumped on the desk and the resultant air flow blew it away . . .
I saw something like that "in real life"*
Mishak
Some poor guy building circuit boards unexpectedly sneezed over a pot of very small surface-mount devices...
* as my kids say all the time...
YetAnotherXyzzy
If I could upvote articles, I would upvote this one for "whose work looks like a Vice magazine cover if Vice was still cool and not bankrupt legacy media".
Doctor Syntax
This would be ideal for SWMBO. She's always complaining her bag is too heavy. Something like this would stop her putting so much stuff in it. Problem solved!
The proud owner who dropped $63,750 on the item
Howard Sway
will be able to carry their brain cell around in it
It's been bought by Suella Braverman, she's using it to carry her humanity...