From Big Red Boots to a Microscopic Handbag, MSCHF’s viral designs – in pictures

5 hours ago 1

This Foot Does Not Exist, 2019The internet has brought more obscure fetishes to the public eye – such as feet as objects of desire. MSCHF played with the idea of the ‘foot picture’ – as seen in memes and on sites like wikifoot – by creating images using AI. Both eerie and funny, they are also a time capsule. With multiple toes or smushed toes, this was a different time – one when AI tools were a novelty to play with rather than something more sophisticated, and scary.

Medical Bill Art, 2020MSCHF’s work often uses visuals and stunts to make comment on the way we live now. Medical Bill Art turned three unpaid medical bills from a man called Isaiah Tull into supersized painting. Sold at auction for the exact amount owed, the money was used to pay off the debt. A comment on the exorbitant price of healthcare in the US, it feels prescient five years on – when Luigi Mangione has, perhaps oddly, become something of a folk hero after shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare.

Severed spots, 2020Damien Hirst’s spot paintings have sold for millions at auction – but while most of us might not have that in the bank, could we at least buy an individual spot? MSCHF asked that question with this work. They bought one of Hirst’s spot prints for $30,485 (£24,159) and sold each of the 88 spot for $480 (£380) at auction. They sold within minutes.

Satan shoes, 2021MSCHF first made shoes in 2019. The Jesus shoes had Holy water injected in the air bubble of Air Max 97s meaning the wearer could walk on water. Two years later, they switched to the devil. Satan shoes, made in collaboration with pop star Lil Nas X, had human blood in the air bubble. Prompting a lawsuit with Nike, who did not like the associations with satan, they nevertheless managed to ship all 666 pairs of the shoes before the restraining order from the sportswear giant arrived. They were later recalled.

cut-up sections of a Hermes Birkin, a handbag priced at around $10,000 if you can get your hands on one. By MSCHF doing the unthinkable of destroying this ultra-expensive item, not to mention fusing it to something worn on the feet of thousands round the world, they questioned the very idea of luxury fashion.

Key4all, 2022A favourite project of the MSCHF collective, this saw the collective buy a 2004 car and create 5000 different keys for it. Those who bought the keys could drive the car – if they could find it. A location hotline helped – as did the online communities independently made by those keyholders. The car journeyed across the country, it was decorated in different colours, it was stolen, it was shared. And all while being co-owned. If this wasn’t an art project, the spreadsheet would have been a nightmare.

Microscopic Handbag, 2023

The size of handbags – or the ‘right’ handbag – has long been a discussion in fashion. Despite its impracticality, the tiny handbag replaced the oversized type as the shape to own, thanks to brands such as Jacquemus and Telfar. MSCHF took it to an extreme however – and showed the absurdity – by making a microscopic handbag, smaller than a grain of salt. A replica of the Louis Vuitton Speedy, it was sold by Joopiter, the digital auction house founded by the brand’s men’s creative director, Pharrell Williams

Photograph: Courtesy TOILETPAPER magazine

Big red boots, 2023Oversized and straight out of a cartoon (think Astro Boy or Sonic the Hedgehog), the big red boots swiftly became a favourite of the internet – with celebrities like Janelle Monáe, wrestler Seth Rollins and editors at New York fashion week wearing them, and a meme circulating to allow others online to show how they would wear what inevitably became known as the ‘brbs’. The 200 actual pairs sold out instantly. A pair of yellow boots – modelled by Paris Hilton, and a collaboration with Crocs – followed.

Global Supply Chain Telephone Handbag, 2024

The foibles of the fake handbag market have led to shonky details that become dead give-aways or much-loved quirks depending on your point of view. MSCHF played with that idea by platforming those working in the supply chain. They asked a factory in Peru to create a ‘Birkin’. With that sample, they then went to other factories to make it closer to other designer bags. The result? A Frankenstein of a luxury product and a comment on how things are made. Made By MSCHF is published by Phaidon on 6 March

Photograph: Courtesy TOILETPAPER magazine