“Louis Vuitton” Labubu
What happens when collectibles, stuffed animals, and bag charms collide? You get the viral purse monsters known as Labubus, that is, if you can find them. Add the blind box gambling aura of Pokémon cards, and voilà! It’s the latest social media craze, which seemingly has hit critical mass with front-page articles in the Wall Street Journal and an article in the NYT about spotting and even collecting the counterfeit Lafufus (more on this later).
Another “cool” factor that makes these dolls irresistible to the fashion-conscious is that you can buy “designer” clothes for these little creatures, often making the plushies better dressed than their owners. Who had been outdressed by your accessory on their bingo card?
Kasing Lung, Creator of Labubu – Photo by Instagram@belowground.hk
In case you live under a “Pet Rock” (ugh, remember those things?), authentic Labubus come from Pop Mart and are the creation of Hong Kong artist and children’s book illustrator Kasing Lung, who was inspired by Nordic folklore and first drew “The Monsters” in 2015.
Madonna Labubus, instagram@madonna
Throw in a mix of Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are,” the Teletubbies, the troll collection that I coveted as a youngster, perhaps a little Cabbage Patch Doll, and somewhat more recently, the Fendi Bag Bugs, and you have an idea of what these things look like.
Hanging key chains or items dangling from a bag are not a new concept (remember the Kipling monkey, the omnipresent rabbit’s foot, or the now-vintage Hush Puppies plush toy), but lately, it has been embraced as a way to personalize what you carry and produced by all price points of handbag brands.
Kim’s collection of Labubus
Although gender is not an issue these days, Labubu is a female and has been created in over 300 different iterations. Her presence became duly noted last year when Lisa of the K-pop group BLACKPINK posted a photo of her Labubu.
Rihanna and Labubu
Next, it was Rihanna in May at the airport with a Labubu affixed to her Louis Vuitton (as one does), followed by Madonna posing on Mother’s Day with two Labubu x Sanrio sling pouches, and Kim Kardashian showing a Labubu collection supposedly bought for her son.
As for Lafufus (also known as counterfeit Labubus), I reached out to Professor Susan Scafidi, an expert in Intellectual Property and founder of The Fashion Law Institute, to see what she had to say about the matter of both the fakes and unauthorized “designer” inspired clothing.
“Brand protection teams are battling the layered look this summer – counterfeit handbags festooned with knockoff-wearing Labubus (or, in the case of committed copyists, Lafufus) and other suspicious bag charms, ” she explained in an email.
Chanel Labubu
“These armloads of accessories can be infinitely personalized, including a mix of real and fake, as deliberately curated as Coco Chanel’s mix of gems and costume jewelry. However, they all come with questions of authenticity and potential liability.
Lisa of BLACKPINK started the frenzy.
Labubus, like Beanie Babies before them, are catnip to collectors, with the bonus of being on public display when clipped to a bag. Any product that has gone viral is likely to attract copyists, and it can be more difficult to authenticate an inexpensive mass-produced product like a Labubu than a luxury good.
QR codes are helpful, but other indicators, such as the use of high-quality natural materials or precise stitching, cannot be used to distinguish between genuine and reasonably competent fakes when the original itself is made of plastic and synthetic fiber.
Simone Biles “Gucci” Labubus
To make matters worse, the economics of authenticating an item that retails for under thirty dollars don’t add up. Like new parents counting the 10 fingers and 10 toes of their little bundles of joy, Labubu mamas buying on the secondary market may have to count nine teeth and hope for the best.
Regarding dressing Labubus in designer duds, there’s no question that most of the outfits on the market are unauthorized. The Labubu phenomenon is too new – and thus far too downmarket — to have led to a stream of genuine collaborations.
It remains to be seen whether well-known brands will invest significant efforts in shutting down the brisk trade in Labubu-sized counterfeit couture or wait out the fad. Still, it’s safe to bet that a series of cease-and-desist letters has already found targets.
In other words, IP law does apply to Labubus, but the tiny targets can be hard to hit,” she concluded.
Photo credit: Roxy Jacenko Instagram
My question is, why do we want to hang monsters on our bags in the first place? Is it fueled by a compulsion for the creepy/cute, or perhaps like many micro-trends, it’s a “void filler,” as one former compulsive handbag collector YouTuber has suggested? Prof. Scafidi remarked, “There’s something about the world going crazy that makes us all reach for cute fuzzy things and toys for grown-ups.”
Although I can’t understand the Labubu lunacy myself, I do enjoy watching the TikTok unboxings with the ASMR sounds of crinkling foil wrappers and the overly campy reactions of the person depending on whether they received the Labubu they wanted or not.
Reddit features some of my favorite Labubu and Lafufu chats, where users seek to have others authenticate their plush. One particular query featured a posted photo of someone’s cat in a cozy-looking hat with the caption “Is my Labubu real?”
“It looks more like a LaMewMew,” was another’s reply. You can’t say that Redditors lack a sense of humor.
