Soft power: Why luxury wants to look like Jellycat

What happened Luxury houses are buying into the kidult economy — adults spending on toys for themselves — a trend led by British plush-toy giant Jellycat. On Xiaohongshu (also known as RedNote), users are even comparing some new designer accessories to Jellycat’s soft, round-eyed characters. Chanel’s penguin-head clutch on a chain, from its Coco Neige 2026/27 capsule, and Louis Vuitton’s $1,380 Dachshund Micro Bag, a faux-fur crossbody that doubles as a bag charm, are among the pieces drawing comparisons. The incentive to echo Jellycat is clear: the “jellycat” hashtag had 3.35 billion views on Xiaohongshu. The crossover is coming from several directions. Texas-based Jellykin Bags sells plush handbags modeled on Jellycat’s smiling characters, including what it markets as a “Jellycat Birkin,” and has built a strong following among mainland shoppers. In November 2025, Selfridges released an exclusive Jellycat toy shaped like its yellow shopping bag to mark 25 years of the two companies’ partnership. Shoppers carry it as a handbag and post photos of themselves with it on Xiaohongshu. Now a global phenomenon, the toy company was founded in London in 1999 by brothers Thomas and William Gatacre. More than a quarter-century later, it has built the kind of emotional pull that luxury brands chase. In China, young adults buy its toys as comfort objects and collectibles, and clip them to their bags as accessories. Sales have been growing fast. Jellycat’s revenue for its 2025 financial year rose 43% YoY to 450 million British pounds ($601.6 million), ITV News reported. China is a major market. Consumers there bought an estimated $117 million of Jellycat products through major e-commerce platforms in 2024, according to Moojing Market Intelligence data cited by the BBC. It was also reported that the brand’s Tmall flagship sales topped 100 million RMB ($14.9 million) during that year’s Double 11 (Singles’ Day) festival. Its collector culture has grown so intense that a UK teenager officially secured a Guinness World Record in December 2025 for the largest collection of Jellycat memorabilia, at 877 items. She has since grown it to more than 1,100. Offline, department stores, toy retailers, lifestyle boutiques and multi-brand shops sell Jellycat in Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Its Jellycat Café pop-up debuted at Shanghai’s Jing’an Kerry Centre in September 2024 and returned in September 2025, at Shanghai’s Plaza 66 and Beijing’s China World Mall. In February 2026, Jellycat opened a space-themed pop-up at Beijing’s SKP-S. For luxury houses, playful, toy-like designs offer a way into a market that a plush-toy maker defined first. The Jing Take Comparisons with Jellycat reflect a wider shift in what Chinese consumers want from the things they buy. In China, the idea of “meng” (萌), a childlike cuteness, has long helped sell products. Young shoppers now spend heavily on what they call “qingxu jiazhi” (情绪价值), or emotional value: purchases that lift their mood or give them a sense of belonging. Plush toys deliver this cheaply. Pop Mart turned Labubu, a character created by Hong Kong-born artist Kasing Lung (龍家昇), into a global status object. Jellycat has done something similar in reverse: a British toy brand that now draws queues at pop-up cafés in Shanghai. Bag charms have taken off over the past two years, and luxury houses have moved to meet the appetite for plush. Louis Vuitton launched its Vivienne Fashionista charms in 2024. In July 2025 it added Louis Bear charms and new Vivienne designs, a move widely read as a response to Labubu mania. Fendi tried the idea in China as early as 2019 with Fendidi, a logo-covered panda whose name means “Fendi’s little brother.” Louis Vuitton’s Rabbit XL Bag, a Pharrell Williams design, goes further. Made from lambskin shearling, it’s a working handbag that looks like a giant furry toy, and it sells for $25,000 to $35,000. The price shows luxury houses recognizing an appetite for joy-driven collectibles at the very top of the market: as aspirational shoppers pull back, brands are courting high-net-worth individuals who want high-value pieces they can treat as investments. Commercially, the case is just as strong. Luxury demand in China has slowed again: LVMH said its fashion and leather goods sales fell 5% on an organic basis in the third quarter, blaming weaker Chinese demand. Many younger shoppers are holding back from four-figure handbags. Charms and micro bags give them an affordable entry point to a brand. They also photograph well, so they get shared online and keep the brand in the conversation. Dilution is the risk. When a toy sets the aesthetic, a heritage brand becomes the follower. The houses that benefit most will be those that make cuteness feel like their own idea. The Jing Take reports on a piece of the leading news and presents our editorial team’s analysis of the key implications for the luxury industry. In the recurring column, we analyze everything from product drops and mergers to heated debate sprouting on Chinese social media.

Soft power: Why luxury wants to look like Jellycat

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Soft power: Why luxury wants to look like Jellycat

TUMI’s new growth playbook: From travel expertise to lifestyle performance