Peaking now · Bags · Not seasonal · Mrs Accessories analysis by Maggi Ferguson

Bag charms outlasted everyone’s prediction

Written off as a passing joke two years ago. Still here, and now the cheapest way to change a bag you already own.

The bag charm is the most-mocked accessory of the decade and it has outlasted almost everything that was fashionable at the same time. Worth understanding why, because the reason is structural rather than aesthetic: it is the only way to change a bag without buying a bag. If you own one good handbag and use it daily, a charm is the entire customisation budget.

The direction now is texture and craft rather than novelty. Fur, woven raffia, tassels, crochet flowers — things with a surface — have displaced the moulded plastic characters that defined the first wave. That is a meaningful upgrade, because texture reads as considered at any price point while a plastic figure reads as exactly what it cost.

Match the charm's material to the bag's, which is the single rule that separates this from clutter. A raffia flower on a straw tote is coherent. The same flower on a structured black leather satchel is a sticker on a filing cabinet. Leather charm on leather bag, woven on woven, fur on suede or wool.

Two practical notes. Weight matters more than people expect — a heavy charm on a thin leather strap or a light chain will distort the hardware over months, and on an inexpensive bag it can tear the attachment ring clean out. And the clasp is the failure point: a spring-ring or lobster clasp opens against a coat all day, while a screw-gate or a proper bolt snap does not. Charms get lost far more often than they break.

The restraint version of this trend, if the maximal one is not for you: one charm, in the same colour family as the bag, with no face on it.

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