The charms of the bags sold for $ 1,000 are retail's next small luxury

Years after Jane Birkin decorated her Hermès homonymous bag with clusters of baratijas and accounts, the charges of bags have returned.

Plush Labubu Keychains helped to relive the trend of accessories of GEN Z-FUuleled-Your-Accessory and catapulted it to the mainstream. Now the charms are appearing on the elite fashion clues and hanging from the celebrity portfolios.

Manufacturers of designer bags, anxious for growth during a recession, are especially eager to participate in the phenomenon. If rich buyers cannot be persuaded to drop thousands of dollars in a new bag, they may be attracted to spending a few hundred dollars in a brand charm for a bag they already have.

Ethan Díaz, 24, used to waste regularly in bags and high -price street clothes that he would barely use. Now, the charms of bags allow you to quickly change the appearance of your portfolios without blowing your budget. Recently, he dressed in his Royall Coach Soft Empire bag of $ 695 with a handful of eclectic charms, including a croissant $ 120 longchamp keychain.

The New Jersey commercial director began buying the ornaments a year ago and now it has 30, the most expensive is a charm of crab Louis Vuitton of $ 1,010 that works as a small bag. “You can mix and combine and put it in different bags, so that it is not limited to a specific style,” said Díaz.

Sales in luxury brands have fallen for several quarters, and companies are publishing more affordable and smaller accessories to reverse the fall and drive the store trafficking.

Last month, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton reported that the sales of the second quarter fell 9% in their key unity of fashion and leather items as buyers reigned in purchases of wallets and expensive clothes. The rival Kering reported that Gucci sales fell 25% during the same period compared to the previous year, while Prada sales decreased 3.6%.

The shares of the companies are low of two digits in the last 12 months, and the consultant Bain & Co. expects the personal luxury goods industry to reduce between 2% and 5% this year. That would be the worst performance from the 2009 world financial crisis if pandemic is excluded.

Taking advantage of the madness of the viral stock market is “significantly opportunistic” for luxury companies that could also “earn some money from the back,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of the Globaldata analysis firm.

Tapestry Inc., which has surpassed top -level labels thanks to the strong sales in its current luxury brand coach, has expanded its variety of charms there and in Kate Spade. The company plans to significantly increase the number of pieces offered in Kate Spade, where sales have been falling during the vacation season.

The charms of unique bags provide “an accessible form” to both brands, said Alice Yu, Vice President of Tapestry strategy and consumer information.

Ultra luxury brands have sold charms for years, but mainly as thoughts after large ticket articles. Many sold them alone. Now the charms are in front and the center in boutiques and in the fashion parades.

“If we do not enter this and we lean on this, someone else will,” Saunders said about prestigious brands. And as some of their rich customers expect to buy new wallets and clothing, hook them with an elegant charm of the bag helps maintain valuable customer connections during a difficult patch. “The worst for a brand is to lose a consumer completely,” he said.

During the recent visits to Bloomingdale stores, charms of declaration were presented in the bag departments. On the Mangattan's flagship of the retailer, Prada showed his charm of black and gold robot of $ 825 attached to a backpack of $ 2,300. In Los Angeles, the GUCI $ 510 dragonfly -shaped keychain was cut to one of the handle of a $ 1,950 bag, and three dog -shaped charms, $ 450 each, they were aligned in a showcase along with the headlines and wallets of the monogram card.

Although the charms of the bag are booming, industry analysts warn that they can only reinforce luxury brands to some extent.

Ultimately, the charms “will constitute a very small portion” in sales for premium fashion labels, said Bloomberg's intelligence analyst, Deborah Aitken. “Enough to keep active brands in the minds of potential buyers, but with a very limited total value.”

Louis Vuitton and Loewe refused to comment on the charm strategies of their bags or provide sales figures. Gucci and Fendi did not respond to requests for comments.

Klevisa Hendrix, a 27 -year -old content creator from Los Angeles, began buying bag charms this year after seeing them on the trainers and now she has a dozen in her growing collection. It usually spends less than $ 100 on a single charm. “You want to be fashionable,” he said, “but you still want to pay fashion.”