what comes after labubu?
The frenzy peaked. The charm trend didn't. Here's what 2026 actually looks like.
The short answer: after Labubu, the charm trend split in two — charms worn as necklaces, and one considered plush pendant per bag instead of a cluster of collectibles. Texture won: fur, shearling and soft plush over hard vinyl. The eight charms worth swapping to are below.
Let's say the quiet part out loud: the Labubu moment is over. Pop Mart's elf-eared plush was the bag charm of 2025 — 100 million units, queues, resale mania — and then fashion hit peak Labubu. By this year the styling press was calling the look exhausted: bags drowned in keychains, the same viral toy on every handle. But here's what the obituaries miss — the charm trend itself never dipped. It just grew up. This is the field guide to what's actually being worn now.
The alternatives, by what you actually want
Most "what to buy instead" lists hand you ten blind-box characters and call it a day. The useful question is which itch you're scratching — the collecting, or the look.
- You want the collecting thrill. Pop Mart's own stable is the closest substitute — Skullpanda (darker, more fashion-editorial), Crybaby (pastel, teary-eyed) and Molly (the veteran, vintage-sweet). Same drops, same mechanics, a fraction of the saturation.
- You want small, quiet and Japanese. Sonny Angel — the bare cherub with a headdress — is the original blind-box charm and predates the whole craze; Smiski, the glow-in-the-dark crouching figures, is the other long-runner. Both read as collected rather than chased.
- You want instant recognition. Sanrio: Hello Kitty, and Kuromi for the punkier version. No queue, no resale premium, and available almost everywhere.
- You want nostalgia with no drop culture. Monchhichi has been on bags since the seventies and never needed a hype cycle to justify it.
- You want the bag to still look like a bag. This is where the trend actually went in 2026 — one soft, characterful plush chosen to suit the bag, rather than a cluster of collectibles. It's the brief our plush animal charms were built for: £7.99, no drop, no queue.
One warning that hasn't dated: counterfeit Labubus — "Lafufus" — still flood unofficial sellers. Below retail price, missing Pop Mart seals, an off-model grin (the real one has nine teeth): walk away. A fake reads worse than any alternative on this list.
Trend one: the charm becomes a necklace
The biggest 2026 shift is charms leaving the bag entirely: tiny pouches, kiss-lock purses, pendants and trinkets worn on long chains as jewellery — a look sent down the spring/summer 2026 runways and tipped as the year's It item. The ethos carries back to the bag too: fewer, smaller, more deliberate pieces rather than a cluster of collectibles.
Trend two: texture over plastic
The other direction is tactile: fur stoles, shearling and soft textured charms with a seventies flavour, replacing hard vinyl collectibles. The signal has flipped from "I won the drop" to "this feels considered" — which is exactly the register the whole 2026 charm trend has moved into.
The constant: the understated plush pendant
Running under both trends is the thing that outlived the craze: one soft, characterful plush per bag. Not a viral collectible — a charm chosen because it suits the bag. That's the brief our plush animal charms were built for: five original characters — Cocoa Cub, Marmalade Mew, Pippin Chick, Noodle Pup and Pickle Duck — with a long soft neck that wraps around any handle, no hard clip to scuff the bag. £7.99 each, or £5.99 added to any bag on the accessories page. No drop, no queue, no resale premium — which, in 2026, is rather the point.
If you're still collecting
No judgement — the collector market is alive and well and limited drops still vanish in minutes. The named picks are at the top of this page; the only thing worth adding is that collecting and styling have split into different hobbies. A shelf of blind-box figures and a bag that looks considered are no longer the same project, and 2026's rule is simply not to do both on the same handle.
Styling it now
The 2026 rules: one hero charm, hung slightly off-centre, tonal with the bag or gently contrasting it — placement and layering are covered in how to style bag charms. And the pairing that puts you on both of the year's big accessory trends at once: a plush charm on a translucent jelly bag — the charm reads twice, against the bag and through it. See the TPU Baguette.
More questions? See the FAQ or DM us on Instagram @jelli.world.
Labubu is a Pop Mart character; all brand names above belong to their owners and are mentioned editorially. Last reviewed: 2026-08-22.
