As controversy continues to swirl around the environmental impact of NFTs, the form has taken another headlines-garnering turn with the sale of a 3D animation of a Hermès Birkin bag.
The piece from artists Mason Rothschild and Eric Ramirez, titled “Baby Birkin,” was designed as an “ironic nod” to the highly coveted (and always pricey) accessory. Featured in the transparent bag design is a baby in all stages of a 40-week pregnancy.
The final winning bid, per the sale’s Basic.Space listing, marked the equivalent of $23,500. In other words, an intangible and irony-focused take on the Birkin bag pulled enough money to fit into the usual range of costs associated with securing an actual Birkin. By comparison, Saweetie was gifted a rare Birkin bag last July that’s worth up to $30,000 on the resale market.
Speaking with Highsnobiety ahead of the sale, Rothschild cited Gunna’s 2019 track “Baby Birkin” as well as Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s daughter North as important cultural touchstones that helped inform the eventual creative process behind the NFT with Ramirez.
“More recently, the Baby Birkin (smallest size) has been having a moment in pop culture whether it’s North West holding her own, or Gunna’s ‘Baby Birkin’ song,” Rothschild said. “We wanted to make something that was a literal take on the words ‘Baby Birkin’ and the rest [just makes it] a bit more special.”
This isn’t the first time artists have taken a somewhat subversive approach to the Birkin aesthetic. Back in February, Future was spotted wearing $48,000 sandals made from Birkin bags. The so-called “Birkinstock,” as the art collective MSCHF explained at the time, was not a collaboration with any referenced brand but instead a “transubstantiation.”
