Luxury brands embrace Labubu, Totoro and more to lure younger shoppers

Labubu dolls have emerged as a must-have accessory in luxury fashion, with celebrities like Blackpink’s Lisa pairing the toys with Louis Vuitton and Hermès bags.

The coveted blind box toys — collectible plushes that look like a rabbit-esque monster with jagged teeth — are a relatively inexpensive status symbol at $27, though they routinely sell at a premium on the resale market. Now, high-end brands are testing whether Labubu fans are willing to pay luxury price points.

In June, a collection of 14 customized Labubus dressed in designs by Carhartt and Japanese brand Sacai raised $337,500 at auction with the top lot fetching $31,250. At the recent U.S. Open, tennis champion Naomi Osaka touted crystal-encrusted Labubus that cost some $500 from A-Morir. Due to high demand, the “Lablingblings” take four to six weeks for delivery, according to the New York custom eyewear and accessories maker.

Next up, the dolls are teaming up with Parisian maison Moynat. In just over two weeks, the fashion house is releasing a collection of handbags, leather accessories and, of course, bag charms that feature Labubus and two other characters by artist Kasing Lung, the Hong Kong Dutch artist who created Labubu. Moynat’s signature monogrammed canvas totes start at $2,150 and bag charms retail for $450.

While Labubu mania is new, high-end brands from Tiffany to Loewe are increasingly featuring characters like Pikachu and Totoro to court younger and digitally savvy customers. Done right, these collaborations not only generate hype, but pay off.

Omega’s “Silver Snoopy” Speedmaster watches are coveted collectors items, with its 2015 model, originally priced at $7,350, worth nearly $38,000 on the secondary market, according to market data provider WatchCharts. Jimmy Choo’s two collections with Sailor Moon, with the most recent one released in October, quickly sold out. Some brands create their own endearing characters, like Louis Vuitton dropping a line of “Louis Bear” stuffed animal bag charms in July.

Boston Consulting Group’s Jeff Lindquist told CNBC that these collaborations have picked up in popularity in the past decade to target customers who can afford high-end items but aren’t fashion-obsessed.

“Cute is not trivial. It is strategic,” said Lindquist, partner at BCG, where he advises luxury fashion and beauty brands. “It performs incredibly well on platforms like TikTok where virality and cultural relevance are what drives the visibility and the desirability of the brands.”

Moynat’s Bertrand Le Gall said the collaboration with Lung is a way for the 176-year-old maison to stay culturally relevant and resonate with customers.

“The cute elements, even though they have this deep artistic value and this deeper design value, I think we are playing on the emotional value of of everything,” said Le Gall, the image and communication director. “This emotional value is so important when it comes to a house like ours with a very long legacy and historical background.”

Gen Z customers are especially looking for emotional value, according to Lindquist. Many have pulled back their spending as they have felt the effect of inflation and see less value in traditional luxury goods.

“Gen Z sees luxury less as craftmanship and artistry and status and more as mirrors to their identities and their beliefs,” he said.

Daniel Langer, professor of luxury strategy at Pepperdine University, compared the draw of characters to that of celebrities.

“The characters stand for something, and those characters also have a fan base,” he said. “There’s people who really love them.”

But to drum up hype, collaborations, like Labubu blind boxes, should tap into the thrill of the hunt, he added. In the case of the Moynat collection, it will not retail online and only sell at one Moynat boutique at a time from Oct. 11 to early 2026

“Everyone who has a Labubu can tell a personal story about how they got them,” said Langer, who described buying an authentic but reasonably priced one for his daughter as “quite an undertaking.”

Capsule collections give brands the opportunity to experiment with new looks and broaden their audience, according to consultant Alexander Thiel.

“Collabs give you a license in the eye of the consumer to do something that otherwise for your brand would be unexpected and therefore opening it up to new audience,” said Thiel, who led McKinsey’s consumer packaged goods and retail business in Switzerland until September.

That said, brands run the risk of alienating their core audience, according to Thomai Serdari, marketing professor at New York University. For instance, while Loewe’s three collections with Studio Ghibli were successful, it would not have made sense for a more traditional brand to sell Totoro purses or wallets with the mouse from “Spirited Away.”

“In the case of Loewe, it made perfect sense, because they had an intentional shift from something very low-key and very traditional quiet luxury before the acquisition by LVMH,” she said. “Then within the portfolio of LVMH, they became the creative kid, the smaller brand that experiments and is playful.”

She also cautioned against trend chasing, saying a phenomenon like Labubu mania can “collapse as quickly as it was built.”

Shares of Pop Mart, the manufacturer of Labubu dolls, have sunk by roughly 21% since peaking in late August on analyst fears that the frenzy is fading. However, the stock is still up nearly 200% year to date, and some analysts are still bullish on Pop Mart’s prospects. HSBC’s Lina Yan noted that Labubu only started actively collaborating with brands like Coca-Cola in 2024.

“The supply and demand of Labubus won’t tilt 180 degrees,” Yan wrote. “We believe it is too early to call for a peak.”

It’s too soon to judge Labubu’s staying power. But Thiel said he thinks that the Labubu craze and influx of bag charms like Louis Bear indicate consumers are looking for innocent distractions from economic anxiety.

“We see that there’s a lot of anxiety and a lot of uncertainty, and not only in the parts of the socioeconomic demographic that are struggling economically, but across all levels,” he said. “I think it’s not surprising that there’s a bit of clinging to wholesomeness and that element of cute. I think it speaks to something deeper.”