If you’re of a certain generation, you’ve probably never thought of a cuddly toy as an accessory. Something to hold onto while sucking your thumb? Sure. A friend you can tell all your secrets to over a packet of Fruit Pastilles. Just me? But now, they’re feeling the warm embrace of the style world. They’re strapped into their bags, taken shopping, to lunch, to work, enjoying freedom outside of cribs and baby bags.
London Fashion Week showed its softer side, with soft guests flexing their muscles in the front rows of shows, alongside Harry Styles, Lena Dunham and fashion’s current fairy godmother, Kelly Rutherford. Street stylists like Yu Masui brought plush toy bags to events with otherwise carefully supervised guest lists. They were there in New York too, and at Copenhagen Fashion Week last month, Teletubbies and Daffy Ducks were seen hanging from show attendees’ bags.
But it’s not just a new accessory the industry is playing with; look around on the bus or in the first supermarket you enter and see if you can spot a plush toy adorning your bag.
This is the fluffy side of the trend of accessorizing accessories, especially bags, with chains and charms. Amanda Marcuson, founder of Texas-based shop Bag Crap, calls herself the “#1 Source for BAG CRAP™️” and explains that “it’s become a bit of a show-and-tell style for adults.”
Much of this cute moment, as defined by its creators and subscribers, is about laughing at a largely dour industry. Marcuson describes her aim as “bringing a new sense of humour to an otherwise serious industry… fashion can be accessible, approachable and not so serious. It’s not all about trying to be ‘cool’ but about laughing at each other.” Cuteness also has a huge reputation right now, and after being as ubiquitous online as kitten content, it’s finally getting the respect it deserves – so much so that Somerset House dedicated an entire exhibition to the subject.
Like many current trends, Miu Miu played a role in its spring/summer 2024 collection by using bag charms. So did Jane Birkin, who filled and accessorized her eponymous Hermès Birkin with other trinkets, but not necessarily stuffed toys. But her biggest inspiration came from Japanese culture. “Little stuffed toys in bags were a big trend in Japanese girls’ culture from the late 1990s on,” says Joshua Paul Dale, author of Irresistible: How Cuteness Wired our Brains and Conquered the World.
I spoke to some of the owners about the bunny ears and cute little characters hanging from the bags at the End of the Road festival earlier this month. They all said Japanese culture was a big inspiration. “I definitely get inspired by Japanese streetwear, pleasant [cute] “The culture,” said Lulu, 22. Harry, 30, from Bristol, and Katie, 29, from Swansea, both illustrators, were carrying small toys in bags they had bought on a recent trip to the country. Muda, a 20-year-old psychology student, had brought her doll, which she has named Sky Bark Mountain, to a performance on the Garden stage one Sunday afternoon. “I think it’s really cute and a fun little thing to have in your bag.” She wants to add Chiikawa, a small mouse-like manga character, to the cast, taking her on walks and beach trips.
Eleri, 26, who lives in London and runs a pop-up market with Lulu, had a Monchhichi doll — “a little guy who sucks his thumb” — hanging from her khaki green shoulder bag as she waited for friends to queue for food. They all swap their stuffed animals the way others — especially Swifties — swap friendship bracelets. “Fashion can be taken very seriously, and to be honest, when I dress up, I just want to have fun,” she said.
In an increasingly global world, where trends flow seamlessly from social media feed to brain, many of us wonder where the boundaries of our own taste end and the boundaries of the algorithm begin. In turn, personalization with these cuddly toys is seen as an expression of individuality. “A lot of people have the same thing — crossbody bags — so it enhances it and makes it more specific to you,” Katie says.
“Putting a cuddly toy in a bag is a form of self-expression, but it’s a subtle one,” Dale says. “It lets people know what you like, but it’s not announcing your position on something like a political badge or sticker.”
Toys are proving popular across the board, with the adult toy market worth £1 billion a year in the UK. Miffy is having a moment and Hello Kitty is purring louder than ever. But it’s not just Gen Z – so-called “Disney adults” are a group of adults, mostly millennials, who love the Walt Disney Company’s products (but often find themselves the butt of many internet jokes in the process).
“I think adults, myself included, are hungry for a little break from the seriousness of being an adult,” says Marcuson, who also sees it as a small rebellion against the tasteful cultural flattening that is a quiet luxury. “Throwing an old Teletubby in my bag seems to cure everything.”
There’s neuroscience behind all this confusion. “Brain imaging studies have found that seeing something cute activates the pleasure centers in our brains,” Dale says. “While that doesn’t explain the current trend toward stuffed animals, there’s also empirical evidence that cuteness reduces stress and increases happiness. People are stressed out because of economic pressures, because of difficult political times, and having something cute nearby helps them cope.” The number of cute anime characters doesn’t solve all our problems, but it does make them seem bearable.
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