Galeries Lafayette in China has pioneered a new “comfort shopping” area called Gift Market, which is packed with customers shopping for cuddly toys such as TeddyTales. Even Bottega Veneta played homage to the trend at its spring/summer 2025 show, where seats were replaced with a playful menagerie of animal-shaped beanbag chairs chosen specifically for each guest.
It’s not just the fashion world that is embracing these symbols of youth though. Grown-ups everywhere are recapturing their childhood by investing in toys that bring them joy. Chinese firm Pop Mart, which sells collectible designer toys including Labubu and the Molly series, achieved record sales and profits last year. Experts are predicting that the collectable toy market will reach US$38.2 billion by 2034.
“The democratisation of prices has encouraged a broader audience to own collectable toys. For women there’s been a rise in collectable bag charms driven by K-pop. Blind-box toys – where you buy a sealed box and don’t know which specific toy from a series you are getting – are also popular, especially as people enjoy sharing on social media,” says Bryan Fok, head of supply acquisition, Greater China, for StockX, which sells various collectibles.
So how did toys transition from playpens into must-have accessories and collectible keepsakes for adults? Experts say the trend originated in Hong Kong, a global centre for toy manufacturing in the 1970s and 80s.
A wave of creativity followed in the 90s, when local artists like Eric So and Michael Lau pioneered a new category of toys that embraced innovative design and modern culture, attracting an entirely new audience.
It wasn’t long before more collectable toys began to emerge from Japan. While old-school creations such as Hello Kitty, Little Twin Stars and Pokémon attracted a younger audience, newer designs immediately struck a chord with an older crowd.