by If you’re of a certain generation, you may never be considered a shy toy as an accessory. Something to stick to while you suck your thumb? Definitely. A friend you could tell all your secrets to over a packet of Fruit Pastilles. Only me? Now, however, they are feeling the warm embrace of life style. They are enjoying bags and shopping, lunch, work, enjoying the freedom outside of cribs and baby grooming.
London fashion week showed its softer side when the front rows of the shows featured celebrity guests such as Harry Styles, Lena Dunham and the swan’s current fairy, Kelly Rutherford. Street stylists such as Yu Masui brought shy toy-shaped bags into events with carefully policed guest lists. They were also there in New York, and at Copenhagen fashion week last month, Teletubbies and Daffy Ducks hung the bags of the show goers.
But it’s not a new accessory that the industry is toying with – just look around the bus or the next supermarket you walk into and see if you spot a shy toy adorning a handbag.
This is the fluffy side of the current trend of accessorizing, especially handbags, with chains and charms. It’s “a bit like show-and-tell for adults,” explains Amanda Marcuson, founder of the Texas-based store Bag Crap, which calls itself the “#1 Source for BAG CRAP ™️.”
Much of this shy moment, as described by the people who designed and subscribed to it, is about laughing in the face of an industry that is very much against it. Marcuson describes his goal as “bringing a new sense of humor to such a serious industry … fashion can be accessible, approachable, and not so serious. It’s about laughing with each other rather than trying to be ‘cool’.” Cuteness is also in vogue at the moment, and after its ubiquity online through content like kittens the respect that finally giving it what it deserves – to the point that Somerset House has dedicated an entire exhibition to the subject.
As with so many current trends, Miu Miu played a part, showcasing bag charms in its spring/summer 2024 collection. maybe not with culture toys but certainly with other ephemera. But the biggest inspiration has to come from Japanese culture. “Little cuddly toys on bags were a big trend in Japanese girl culture starting in the late 1990s,” says Joshua Paul Dale, author of Dorresistible: How Cuteness Wired our Brains and Conquered the World.
Clapping rabbit ears and bright little characters pulling on bags at the End of the Road festival earlier this month, I spoke to some of their owners about the appeal. Everyone said that Japanese culture was a great source of inspiration. “I’m definitely inspired by Japanese streetwear and kawaii [cute] culture,” said 22-year-old Lulu. Harry, 30, who lives in Bristol, and Katie, 29, from Swansea, both decorators, were wearing small toys on their bags which they had chosen on a recent trip to the country. Muda, a 20-year-old psychology student, brought her doll, which she named Sky Bark Mountain, to the front of a Sunday evening gig on the Garden stage. “I think she’s really cute and it’s a fun little thing to have on your bag.” She wants to add Chiikawa, a little mousey manga character, to the roster, taking her on walks and trips to the beach.
Eleri, 26, who lives in London and runs a pop-up market with Lulu – “a bit of a thumb sucker” – had a Monchhichi doll hanging from her khaki green shoulder bag as she waited with friends queuing to for food. They all exchange cultured toys the way other people – especially Swifties – exchange friendship bracelets. “Fashion can be taken so seriously and honestly when I’m dressing I just want to have fun,” she said.
In an increasingly globalized world, where trends move their way from social media feed to the brain with equal ease, it leaves many of us wondering where the lines of our own taste end and where which starts the algorithm. On the contrary, this customization through fringes is seen as an expression of individuality. “A lot of people have the same things – the cross-body bags – so it makes them spruce up and it makes you more,” Katie said.
“Adding a cute toy to a bag is a form of self-expression, but something subtle,” says Dale. “It lets people know what you’re wearing, but it’s not announcing your position on something like a political button or a sticker.”
Toys in general are very popular and the adult toy market in the UK is worth £1bn a year. Miffy has a moment and Hello Kitty is crying louder than ever. But it’s not just gen Z – “Disney adults” are often a group of millennial adults who love the Walt Disney Company’s output (although they often get a lot of internet ridicule 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 tiny rebellion against the delicious cultural spread that has been his quiet luxury. “Throwing a vintage Teletubby on my bag seems to cure everything.”
There is neuroscience behind this fuzz. “Brain imaging studies have found that something cute activates the pleasure centers in our brain,” says Dale. While that “doesn’t explain the current trend in toy culture, there is also empirical evidence that cuteness lowers stress and increases happiness.” People are stressed because of economic pressure, difficult political times, and something cute helps them cope.” While no amount of anime characters will solve all our problems, he thinks they could at least make them easier.
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