In 2024 and into 2025, bag charms entered the zeitgeist and fast became a handbag staple. In 2025, people took things up a notch, fastening Labubus

As superfandom balloons in 2026, there’s opportunity for these moments to help build up the year’s big moments of cultural spectacle.

“Merch is having a moment, and it’s bigger, broader and more culturally potent than ever,”

Though nobody’s asking to go and chase Pokémon around the city in 2026, there are lessons to be learned about the value of big, flashy moments for cultivating communal experiences. “Fashion can learn from 2016’s embrace of spectacle as a uniting force,” Cummins says.