Fashion
Bag charms selling for $1,000 are retail’s next little luxury
By
Bloomberg
Published
August 14, 2025
Years after Jane Birkin famously decorated her eponymous Hermès handbag with clusters of trinkets and strands of beads, bag charms have made a big comeback.
Plush Labubu keychains helped revive the Gen Z-fuelled accessorise-your-accessory trend and catapulted it into the mainstream. Now charms are showing up on elite fashion runways and dangling from the purses of celebrities.
Designer handbag makers, anxious for growth during a downturn, are especially eager to get in on the phenomenon. If affluent shoppers can’t be persuaded to drop thousands of dollars on a new purse, perhaps they can be enticed to spend a few hundred dollars on a branded charm for a purse they already own.
Ethan Diaz, 24, used to splurge regularly on high-priced purses and streetwear that he would barely use. Now, bag charms enable him to quickly switch up the look of his purses without blowing his budget. He recently dressed up his $695 Coach Soft Empire Carryall Bag with a handful of eclectic charms, including a $120 Longchamp keyring in the shape of a croissant.
The commercial director from New Jersey began buying the embellishments a year ago and now owns 30, the most expensive being a $1,010 Louis Vuitton crab charm that doubles as a small pouch. “You can mix and match and put it on different bags, so you’re not limited to one specific style,” Diaz said.
Sales at luxury brands have been falling for several quarters, and companies are putting out more affordable and smaller accessories to reverse the slump and drive up store traffic.
Last month LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE reported that second-quarter sales fell 9% in its key fashion and leather goods unit as shoppers reined in purchases of costly purses and clothing. Rival Kering reported that Gucci sales plunged 25% during the same period compared with a year earlier, while sales at Prada declined 3.6%.
Shares in the companies are all down double digits in the last 12 months, and consultancy Bain & Co. expects the personal luxury goods industry to shrink between 2% and 5% this year. That would be the worst performance since the 2009 global financial crisis if the pandemic is excluded.
Tapping into the viral bag charm craze is “sensibly opportunistic” for luxury companies that might as well “make some money off the back of it,” said Neil Saunders, managing director at analytics firm GlobalData.
Tapestry Inc., which has been outperforming top-tier labels thanks to strong sales at its attainable luxury brand Coach, has expanded its assortment of charms there and at Kate Spade. The company plans to significantly increase the number of pieces offered at Kate Spade, where sales have been falling, during the holiday season.
Unique bag charms provide “an accessible way in” to the two brands, said Alice Yu, Tapestry’s vice president of strategy and consumer insights.
Ultra-luxury brands have sold charms for years, but mainly as afterthoughts to big-ticket items. Many sold them online only. Now the charms are front and centre in boutiques and at fashion shows.
“If we don’t get into this and lean into this, someone else will,” Saunders said of the prestige brands. And as some of their wealthy customers hold off on buying new purses and clothes, hooking them with a stylish bag charm helps maintain valuable client connections during a rough patch. “The worst thing for a brand is to lose a consumer completely,” he said.
During recent visits to Bloomingdale’s stores, statement charms were featured throughout the handbags departments. At the retailer’s Manhattan flagship, Prada was showcasing its $825 black and gold robot charm attached to a $2,300 backpack. In Los Angeles, Gucci’s $510 dragonfly-shaped keychain was clipped to one of the handles of a $1,950 handbag, and three dog-shaped charms, $450 each, were lined up in a display case alongside monogram card holders and wallets.
Although bag charms are booming, industry analysts caution that they can only bolster luxury brands to a point.
Ultimately, charms “will make up a very small portion” in sales for premium fashion labels, said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Deborah Aitken. “Enough to keep brands active in the minds of potential shoppers, but at very limited total value.”
Louis Vuitton and Loewe declined to comment on their bag charm strategies or provide sales figures. Gucci and Fendi did not respond to requests for comment.
Klevisa Hendrix, a 27-year-old content creator from Los Angeles, began buying bag charms this year after seeing them on the Coach runway and now has a dozen in her growing collection. She typically spends less than $100 on a single charm. “You want to be fashionable,” she said, “but you want to still be able to afford fashion.”
Woven garment exports slightly outpaced knitted garment exports in terms of growth. Knitwear exports (Chapter **) rose by *.** per cent to $*.*** billion, compared to $*.*** billion in the same period of fiscal ****–**. Woven apparel exports (Chapter **) increased by *.** per cent to $*.*** billion, up from $*.*** billion in July–September ****, EPB data showed.
Home textile exports (Chapter **, excluding ******) also grew, rising by *.** per cent to $***.** million, compared to $***.** million in the same period of the previous fiscal. Collectively, exports of woven and knitted apparel, clothing accessories, and home textiles accounted for **.** per cent of Bangladesh’s total exports, which stood at $**.*** billion during the period. Higher demand for diversified and value-added textile products supported this growth.
Slightly more than half of the various industrial sectors produced less than they did one year previously. Of the eight largest industrial sectors, output rose the most sharply in the repair and installation of machinery, while it fell the most sharply in the transport equipment industry.
A more accurate picture of changes in short-term output is obtained when the figures are adjusted for seasonal effects and the working-day pattern. After adjustment, manufacturing output rose by 1.7 per cent in August relative to July, CBS said in a press release.
In August 2025, Dutch manufacturing output remained unchanged year-on-year, although output declined in over half of the industrial sectors.
After seasonal adjustment, output rose by 1.7 per cent compared to July.
The strongest growth was seen in the repair and installation of machinery, while transport equipment recorded the sharpest decline.
After adjusting for seasonal and working-day effects, manufacturing output often fluctuates significantly. In the spring of 2020, output declined rapidly, reaching a low point in May 2020. This was followed by an upward trend until May 2022. The trend has reversed since then.
Producer confidence was less negative in September than it was in August. Manufacturers were more positive regarding output for the next three months, in particular.
Germany is an important market for the Dutch manufacturing sector. In September, German manufacturers were more negative than they were in August, as reported by Eurostat. In August, the calendar-adjusted output of the German manufacturing sector was down by 5.1 per cent, year on year. Relative to July, output fell by 5.5 per cent, as reported by Destatis.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RR)
The first subprogramme, approved in 2022, introduced pivotal policy measures that guided the energy sector toward a more efficient and renewable development pathway. Building on this foundation, subprogramme 2 advances regulatory reforms to strengthen the energy efficiency framework and enhance policy clarity to attract private sector investment. A key milestone under the subprogramme is the introduction of the country’s first set of regulations establishing Minimum Energy Performance Standards for electrical appliances, starting with air conditioners, which account for the largest share of energy consumption in the residential sector, ADB said on its website.
Subprogramme 2 will also establish an Energy Efficiency Revolving Fund aimed at facilitating access to finance for local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to invest in energy-efficient technologies. The revolving fund will be set up through a financial intermediation structure to enable local banks to extend loans to SMEs for energy efficiency investments. By mobilizing domestic financial institutions and supporting SMEs, the revolving fund is expected to accelerate the nationwide scale-up of energy efficiency investments.
Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved $82.5 million for Phase 2 of Cambodia’s Energy Transition Sector Development Programme to support clean energy through policy reforms and investments.
The programme introduces energy efficiency standards, establishes a revolving fund for SME financing, and also aims to attract private investment.
“ADB is honoured to support Cambodia in its ambitious and transformative journey in the energy sector. Through a comprehensive reform package, combining policy support with strategic investments, the Energy Transition Sector Development Programme will support turning the government’s ambitious vision into reality,” said ADB acting country director for Cambodia Anthony Gill. “This includes the goal of achieving 70 per cent renewable energy in the power mix by 2030, along with a strong commitment to advancing energy efficiency, which is essential to ensure that Cambodia’s growth remains both sustainable and affordable.”
Subprogramme 2 will be followed by a third phase in 2027, which will further deepen reforms by expanding the energy efficiency regulatory framework and introducing technical standards for renewable energy, buildings, and industry to further attract private sector investment.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RR)
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