‘Your Labubu’s Labubu needs a Labubu.’ These 4 items show we might be at peak accessory

Lip balm on your phone case. A backpack on a Stanley. A Labubu for your Labubu. 

Cute branded accessories are nothing new. For decades, consumers have been enticed by the prospect of collecting aesthetically pleasing knickknacks, from Troll dolls to Tamagotchis. Recently, though, the accessory craze has taken a meta turn: Every accessory now needs to have its own accessory.

Consider the recent excitement around Labubu dolls as a prime example. These bug-eyed elves, designed for the sole purpose of being attached to a bag or clothing, helped their parent company, Pop Mart, triple its profits in 2024 to a total of $920 million. The fever is still raging, with fans clambering to buy new colors and styles—and even potentially dangerous knockoffs.

As quirky bag charms like the Labubu have taken off, the accessory’s accessory has become part of the mainstream. It’s been legitimized by major brands like Prada, which sells a $1,350 robot bag charm; Louis Vuitton, which offers a beaded phone strap that can only be purchased by contacting the company; and, most recently, Kendall Jenner’s 818 tequila brand, which turned its mini shooters into a keychain. 

“Accessory-ception” appears to be a new way for brands across a diverse range of categories to tap into the demand for collectibles—and a sure sign that accessory culture has gone too far. Here are four of the wildest accessories for accessories we’ve seen so far.

Rhode phone case

Rhode’s $35 lip gloss phone cases, which debuted in February 2024, are exactly what they sound like: two custom phone cases with purpose-built slots for carrying (Rhode-branded) lip gloss. Before they even launched, both cases already had a waitlist. After they sold out and relaunched two months later, those waitlists numbered in the hundreds of thousands. 

The lip case inspired hundreds of TikTok reviews, DIY tutorials, and even a parody from Heinz ketchup—and its success showed other brands that the meta accessory could serve as both a popular collectible and a wearable marketing opportunity. 

Stanley backpacks

The Stanley tumbler, which absolutely dominated the internet—and cupholders nationwide—in late 2023 and early 2024, has become perhaps the most famous canvas for the endless accessorization cycle. Stanley itself sells a backpack of sorts for its famous tumbler, as well as a keychain for said tumbler that’s also shaped like, you guessed it, a tumbler. 

But the Stanley accessorization gets even stranger in the world of TikTok Stanley packers. Within this subgenre, social media creators have found a shocking number of ways to further accessorize their Stanleys until they’re almost unrecognizable. In one TikTok with 270,000 views, creator @missyysparks shows herself packing her Stanley for Christmas shopping, a task that involves clipping a lip gloss, a container of Tylenol, and a tumbler keychain full of cough drops to the water bottle. 

In another video with 279,000 views, creator @nicolepamelaaa preps for a “hot girl walk” by affixing an entire snack platter of cheese and grapes to the top of her cup, as well as tucking a tiny tumbler with a single shot of energy drink into her Stanley’s backpack. “Is the walk the Oregon Trail by any chance?” one commenter wrote. “Why does your Stanley have a Stanley?” another asked. Our question exactly.

Owala bottle charm

In light of this dystopian Stanley accessorization spiral, other water bottle companies have attempted to put their own spin on the trend. This June, Owala collaborated with the jewelry company Made by Mary to create a necklace with a tiny Owala-shaped charm, accompanied by a sparkly Owala bottle with a mini version of itself attached as a charm. The bundle cost $99.99 and sold out—giving Owala superfans a meta-accessory to flex on less deep-pocketed water bottle enthusiasts.

Labubu for your Labubu

Generally, Labubus are the epitome of the meta-accessory trend: They serve no purpose other than to look aesthetically pleasing (debatable), and they can be dressed up in a variety of tiny outfits, which has led third-party sellers to create such necessities as Labubu wigs, jerseys, hats, and car seats. 

Thus, it was only a matter of time before someone found a way to give a Labubu its own Labubu. One Redditor in the subreddit r/labubu did just that by sourcing a mini version of the doll and affixing it to the original keychain-style. 

“A Labubu for my Labubu,” the post’s caption reads. “It’s a Lalabububu or a Labulabububu,” one commenter responded. Another added, “Your Labubu’s Labubu needs a Labubu.”