Why everyone is obsessed with toys right now

For years, we told our toys to get stuffed. We flogged our bashed-up Tamagotchis on Depop, gave Betty Spaghetti a one-way lift to the car boot and banished our teddies to the loft.

Not anymore. It seems like every man and his plush dog is collecting characters, stacking charms and plastering their possessions with cute stickers. The toys-for-adults market is worth £1bn a year in the UK alone – and it’s no longer fuelled solely by action figure anoraks, Games Workshop geeks and anime enthusiasts. Now, art school kids, fashion heads and trinket girlies are spending their pay packets like pocket money, taking their Miffy plushies for matcha, attaching Teletubbies charms to Telfar bags, and arranging IRL Smiski swaps.

“I have collections of characters like Snoopy, Miffy, Doraemon, Bearbrick, Totoro, Ponyo, Sylvanian Families, Tamagotchi,” says knitwear designer and toy fan Freya McKee, who loves Snoopy so much she has a tattoo of the beaming beagle [where we didn’t ask]. ​“I could probably go on forever…”

Of course, the most popular toy du jour is Sonny Angel. Launched in 2004 by Japanese toy manufacturer Toru Soeya, ​“he” is a three-inch-tall, cherubic boy with a thing for twee, animal-themed hats.

Last year, Bella Hadid shared her enviable stash of Sonnys as part of an Instagram dump. A few months ago, FACE cover star Dua Lipa starred in a Saturday Night Live sketch playing a girl infatuated with her ​“little boyfriends” (a wall of 500 Sonny Angels). And just last week, another FACE cover star Beabadoobee revealed her (and her Grandma’s) love of the tiny characters. The toys are currently so in demand that distributor Dreams USA is currently facing a worldwide shortage.

Part of the appeal is their ​“blind box” packaging, which means you don’t know exactly which of the 1000 Sonny variations you’ve got until you tear it open. But as Alex Kessler, lead editor at SSENSE, notes, they also make ace accessories. ​“Sonny Angels stand out in charm accessorising due to their rarity, adorable appeal, aftermarket value and unique packaging,” he says. It’s not the only toy that’s becoming a style staple, though. ​“Now, with cult brands like Heaven, Ashley Williams and Chopova Lowena [being] driven by the nostalgia-loving Gen‑Z crowd, trinkets have become a major styling hack.”

He’s right. Chopova Lowena’s new installation at central London’s Dover Street Market is chock-a-block with curios and tchotchke, drawing on the brand’s dolled-up toy box necklaces, toy print tops and trinket-inspired rings from past seasons. Meanwhile, Heaven’s nearby flagship store in Soho is basically a teen girl’s dream bedroom, with vintage movie posters, fluffy pink rugs and shelves brimming with a kitsch collection of toys, from squishy Garfield plushies to Troll Dolls with purple electrified wigs.

Heaven has also turned its double-headed bear logo, in collaboration with German toy company Steiff, into a conjoined twin teddy; commissioned a new toy collection from artist Nhozagri; and created a range of kooky keyrings with Kiko Kostadinov. It all makes sense when you see the home of creative director Ava Nirui, who launched Heaven with Marc Jacobs: her Brooklyn flat accommodates a sprawling collection of Teletubbies, Tweety and Pikachu plushies.

Over the past year, other fashion houses have also headed to the doll’s house for larger-than-life, toy-themed collections. Loewe took notes from Polly Pocket for AW23; Margiela transformed models into porcelain dolls for SS24; and Marc Jacobs drew inspiration from paper dolls that same season. At this month’s Copenhagen Fashion Week, Danish brand (Di)vision went all Jean-Charles de Castelbajac and covered a coat in soft toys, making the model look like they’d slathered themselves in PVA glue and rolled around the inside of a claw machine.

Last year, GCDS – which has collaborated with designer toy brand Bearbrick in the past – also went big with their AW24 Toys for Adults collection, featuring a dark, vampiric take on toys and a brand-new Hello Kitty collaboration. ​“I believe fashion is a way of playing. I wanted to let everyone play with their own ambition and show you can still be sophisticated but in your own way,” says Giuliano Calza, the brand’s creative director. “[Toy] collections become a part of self-expression and joyful, playful escapism. I had an obsession with collecting Hello Kitty items when I was in college, as a prize, a memory or a reward after passing an exam.”

It would be remiss, also, not to mention the role social media has played in our newfound obsession with toys. Before they started making their way onto runways, kitsch toys were trickling into the mainstream via viral collectors. Many were reunited with long, lost Sylvanian Families thanks to Sylvaniandrama, the social media phenomenon that sees the dolls star in bonkers sketches.

“I randomly had the idea to make videos with them during lockdown while I was stuck at home doing my first year of [uni] over Zoom,” says the account’s creatlr Thea von Engelbrechten. ​“They take up so much space it’s hilarious. My room looks like a weird Sylvanian shrine out of context.” Her TikTok account is so popular that it’s led to collaborations with the likes of Burberry and Sephora, turning toy money into real cash.

Others have also used social media to make these toys their work as well as play – see Bag Crap, which sells playfully curated vintage keychain packs on Instagram. ​“It seems like the trend of excessive, kitschy and chaotic charms really started to take shape last summer,” says founder Amanda Marcuson. ​“Jane Birkin had just passed away and every article was talking about the unique and crafty charms she was known to wear on her Birkin bag.”

That trend was no doubt sent into overdrive last October, after Miu Miu sent over accessorised bags down the runway at Paris Fashion Week. But instead of stylish ribbons and fabric patches à la Birkin, Bag Crap sells Mr Potatohead keyrings, tiny Tamagotchis and dinky Tinky-Winkys, many of them sourced from car boot sales. ​“The juxtaposition of these characters paired with a designer bag is just a chef’s kiss for me,” Amanda says.

But why exactly are so many of us spending our hard-earned cash on toys right now? And why have cute cartoon characters suddenly become fashion staples?

For some, it’s about returning to simpler times – childhood, basically. ​“In a world that feels vastly out of control and is often very scary, it’s nice to have something that makes you smile and feel less alone,” says Amy, a social media manager and Miffy enthusiast.

Others are just looking for some light-hearted fun. ​“We all have an inner child yearning to break free,” says SSENSE’s Alex. ​“As we age, the allure of shedding our inhibitions and indulging in the joys of childhood becomes even more irresistible.”

Amanda agrees. ​“I think people are kind of exhausted from having to take themselves too seriously – I know I am! One way around that is to throw a couple of Furbies and miniature hotdogs on your bag and call it a day.”