The Art of the Unnecessary: Luxury's Most Delightful Curiosities
Anyone can buy the bag. The bag is the easy part — it is famous, it is photographed, it is expected. The real connoisseur is given away by something else entirely: the small, slightly absurd, utterly beautiful object that nobody needed and everybody wants the moment they see it.
These are the things the great houses make not because they must, but because they can — the flex that has nothing to do with practicality and everything to do with taste. Summer, with its long idle afternoons, is exactly when they come out to play. Here is a short edit of luxury's most wonderful curiosities.
The Dior Sarong
Start here, because it is the gateway. Dior's Dioriviera collection turns the most ordinary thing on the sand — a length of fabric tied at the hip — into a statement, the sarong splashed with the house's Toile de Jouy print in sun-bleached blues and corals. It is the rare item that is genuinely useful and completely unnecessary at this price, which is precisely why it works. Knot it over a swimsuit and the entire beach knows the holiday is being taken seriously.
The Chanel Frisbee
Yes, it exists. As part of its seasonal novelty pieces, Chanel has produced a frisbee — black, interlocking Cs, sailing through the air like the most expensive thing ever to land in a rock pool. It is sport as theatre, beach play for people who do not, strictly speaking, play. Nobody buys a Chanel frisbee to throw it. They buy it because it is the most charming flex on the entire shoreline.
The Hermès Pull Toy
This is where the storytelling becomes irresistible. Through petit h — its workshop that rescues offcut leathers and crystal to make whimsical one-off objects — Hermès has made pull toys: small wheeled animals in saddle-stitched leather, built by the same artisans who make the Birkin. A toy, finished to the standard of a five-figure handbag. It is the kind of gift that says you have everything, and the confidence to be playful about it.
The Tiffany Bookmark
The quietest piece here, and perhaps the most elegant. Tiffany & Co. makes bookmarks in sterling silver — slim, weighty, engravable — to mark your place in a novel the way a paperclip never could. It is the perfect just-because gift: small enough to be unexpected, fine enough to be kept forever, personal enough to mean something. The reader in your life will think of you every time they open a book. (image courtesy @arianadecastro_)
The Dolce & Gabbana Folding Fan
Before air-conditioning there was the fan, and Dolce & Gabbana has never met a piece of Italian romance it didn't want to revive. Its folding fans — hand-decorated, lace-trimmed, painted with Sicilian lemons or baroque florals — are equal parts accessory and performance. On a sweltering afternoon it is the most useful thing you own; in a photograph it is the most beautiful. Few objects do both.
Why These, and Not the Obvious
The lesson in all of it: true luxury stopped being about what you need a very long time ago. The houses that endure are the ones still willing to make the playful, the surplus, the delightfully pointless — and the people who truly understand luxury are the ones who notice. Anyone can carry the icon. It takes a particular eye to delight in the unexpected.
At Luxe Marché, we hunt down the rare and the unexpected from the world's great houses — the pieces people don't see ordinarily. Browse the edit at luxemarche.in.
FAQ
Does Chanel really make a frisbee?
Yes. As part of its seasonal sport and beach novelty pieces, Chanel has released items like frisbees, beach rackets and even surfboards — produced in small numbers and highly collectible, far more for display than for play.
What is Hermès petit h?
Petit h is an Hermès workshop that repurposes leftover leathers, silks and crystal into one-of-a-kind objects, from leather pull toys to homeware. Each piece is unique, made by Hermès artisans, and produced in very limited quantities.
Are luxury folding fans actually functional?
Yes — beyond their decorative beauty, hand-crafted folding fans from houses like Dolce & Gabbana are fully functional, and have become a favourite accessory for summer events and weddings in warm climates.
What makes a good luxury gift for someone who has everything?
Look beyond the obvious. Small, unexpected objects — a sterling silver Tiffany bookmark, an Hermès petit h piece, a hand-painted fan — feel far more personal and memorable than another predictable designer staple.