LATE-STAGE CAPITALISM, BUT CUTER
Surely you’ve seen them by now - if not IRL then definitely online. Sadly, I didn’t spot a single Labubu in Sydney over the weekend, and believe me when I say my eyes were peeled.
Anyway, I digress.
I’ll admit I’m late to the party on this. People have been talking about Labubu for ages, but I ignored it - assuming it was one of those niche internet micro-trends I didn’t need to emotionally invest in. But then Pop Mart’s founder Wang Ning was announced as the 10th richest person in China, and I (re)commenced the doom scroll, but this time with purpose.
And what I found was…more existentially revealing than expected.
Turns out, they’re not just a toy. They’re a whole thing.
Created by artist Kasing Lung and introduced to the world via Pop Mart, Labubu is equal parts mischievous elf, emotional support creature, and fashion icon-cum-status symbol.
It has no backstory, no dialogue, no moral arc. It just is. Which, of course, is precisely the point.
A Labubu is a blank canvas for the post-ironic, post-pandemic, post-everything Zillennial psyche. The one that craves joy, comfort and identity play; without commitment, judgement or sentimentality (because only our therapist is privy to that kind of vulnerability).
It’s the perfect object for a generation that wants to feel something and be in on the joke.
And Labubu ticks every box:
- Kawaii, but cursed.
- Familiar, but weird.
- Nostalgic, but not cringe.
It’s retail therapy disguised as irony, and powered by a loot-box economy that’s engineered to keep us hooked on intermittent dopamine hits 🎰
You don’t just buy a Labubu. You chase one. You vlog the hunt. You build a parasocial bond with it, and it somehow reflects your entire emotional spectrum to the world (on your behalf, so you don’t have to). It’s identity curation, algorithm engagement and nostalgic childlike escapism all rolled into one weird little doll that hangs off your Birkin (lol, I should be so lucky).
No wonder people are obsessed.
The TLDR; Labubu isn’t just a status object, it’s a mirror that reflects our cultural burnout, our craving for low-stakes comfort, and our need to make meaning out of absurdity.
Is Labubu for me? Still a hard no 🙅🏼
But will I make sweeping unqualified character judgements based on which one you own?
Absolutely. Emphatically yes. With love 😘
This piece first appeared in Excessive Consumption - a weekly dispatch on culture, branding, politics and whatever other modern internet brain rot the algorithm has emotionally assigned me that week.
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