Hermès and Chanel bags become marble sculptures. Art or kitsch?

Several variants of the Hermès Kelly and the Chanel 11.12, designed by Karl Lagerfeld, appear in the catalogue. Yet, Marble Bags does not sell bags.

The project by Swiss artist Andrea Valsecchi transforms some of contemporary fashion’s most iconic models into marble sculptures. Drawing on a savoir-faire inherited from his family — which has been working with stone for over a century — Valsecchi continues this tradition through sculpture, choosing as his subject the bags of the great fashion houses.

"Attention to detail is not a detail" is the sculptor’s motto. In his hyperrealistic works, every fold, button, and stitch is recreated with extreme precision. The result is an almost literal translation of objects designed for the softness of leather into a hard and enduring material like marble.

The approach recalls that of pop art, which transformed consumer products into works of art — although here the objects do not belong to mass culture, but to the realm of the most exclusive luxury. The gesture is not ironic; rather, it is openly celebratory: Marble Bags’ work thus becomes a kind of tribute to the fashion houses and the formal language they have developed over time.

At the core of the project lies a deep interest in the object itself. Valsecchi is, first and foremost, a collector, and sculpting these bags is for him a way to study and understand them, as well as to celebrate them. The subject emerged after years of experimentation with marble in his family’s workshops, where the artist learned to engage with the most characteristic qualities of working with stone: patience, perseverance, and the ability to accept failed attempts as an inevitable part of the process.

In the case of Marble Bags, the result is a kind of material immortality for objects originally designed for everyday use. The sculptures are unique pieces, often customizable, and enhanced with metal or fabric details that complete each work.

But what is their real meaning?

More than to pop art, these sculptures also seem to belong to another aesthetic category: kitsch, on which Umberto Eco wrote some of the most famous reflections.

Eco recounted how foreign travelers visiting Italian cities wanted to take home a fragment of the wonders they had seen. Unable to purchase the original works, they commissioned modest artists to create copies or “sketches” — from which, according to one possible etymology, the word “kitsch” may have originated.

Viewed through this lens, Valsecchi’s work takes on a different meaning. His marble bags allow us to contemplate objects originally created for use and consumption purely in terms of their form, isolating them from context and function. No longer fashion accessories, they become aesthetic relics: icons of luxury removed from consumption and transformed into objects to be admired.