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Across fashion, there is a growing shift away from overt luxury and towards objects that communicate inner life. The post-pandemic years have sharpened people’s desire for comfort
Mirumi has built its reputation on small, whimsical robots designed to ease everyday anxieties. (Image:
For the past few years, fashion’s most visible signals of individuality have not always come from tailoring or logos, but from objects that feel oddly personal, playful and sometimes deliberately impractical. Designer toys clipped to Birkin handles. Jelly sandals worn to black-tie events. Plush charms dangling from serious coats. In that lineage arrives Mirumi, a fuzzy, wide-eyed robot that clings to handbags and belt loops, quietly blinking, turning its head, and occasionally retreating as if shy.
Many in fashion and tech circles are already calling it the “new Labubu”. But the comparison only goes so far. Where Labubu, the cult designer toy from Chinese brand Pop Mart, was static and symbolic, Mirumi moves, senses and reacts. It marks a subtle but significant evolution: from collectible charm to emotional companion.
What Is A Mirumi?
Pronounced ‘mai-a-mee’ and created by Tokyo-based Yukai Engineering, Mirumi is a palm-sized robot covered in soft fur, designed to hang from bags using its elongated arms. It does not speak, does not connect to an app, and does not attempt to be useful in any conventional sense. Instead, it responds to sound and movement by turning its head, shifting its gaze or gently recoiling. The effect is oddly affecting. It feels less like an accessory and more like a presence.
From Status Symbol to Emotional Signal
Luxury fashion has long flirted with childlike and absurd objects, often as a way of rejecting rigid definitions of taste. Think of Marc Jacobs’ stuffed animal bags, Loewe’s cartoonish leather charms, or Balenciaga’s deliberate embrace of irony. In recent seasons, bag charms have become an extension of this impulse. They soften luxury, personalise it, and signal a wearer’s refusal to be read too literally.
Labubu fit neatly into that world. The mischievous vinyl creature became a visual shorthand for playful luxury, spotted dangling from Hermès bags and appearing in street-style photographs from Paris to Seoul. It was about taste, access and cultural fluency.
Rather than broadcasting status, it invites interaction. It does not pose. It reacts. In doing so, it taps into a growing appetite for what designers and technologists increasingly describe as emotional tech — devices that are not built for efficiency or productivity, but for companionship, comfort and momentary connection.
How Mirumi Is Less Fashionable and More Emotional Tech?
Yukai Engineering has built its reputation on small, whimsical robots designed to ease everyday anxieties. Its earlier creations include a robot that nudges users to stop scrolling before bed, and another that gently encourages mindful breathing. Mirumi fits squarely into this philosophy. It does not demand attention, but rewards it.
Unlike smart devices that constantly ask to be optimised or updated, Mirumi’s appeal lies in its refusal to be clever. Its movements are intentionally minimal. Its responses feel almost accidental. It behaves less like a gadget and more like a timid creature sharing your space.
There is also something deeply contemporary about Mirumi’s portability. Clipped to a bag, it becomes part of the wearer’s public life, visible but not performative. It does not flash or buzz. It simply exists, reacting softly to the world as its owner moves through it.
Why Are Fluffy Bag Charms So Popular?
Across fashion, there is a growing shift away from overt luxury signals and towards objects that communicate inner life. The post-pandemic years have sharpened people’s desire for comfort, tactility and emotional reassurance, even in public-facing choices.
Bag charms, once dismissed as frivolous, have become sites of meaning. They allow wearers to insert something intimate into otherwise polished looks. They disrupt uniformity. They tell stories.
Mirumi’s Kickstarter campaign, which launched to strong interest, reflects this appetite. Backers are not just buying a robot. They are buying into a feeling: the idea that even in crowded, overstimulating cities, something small and gentle can accompany you.
The timing of Mirumi’s arrival is not accidental. Across fashion, there is a growing shift away from overt luxury signals and towards objects that communicate inner life. The post-pandemic years have sharpened people’s desire for comfort, tactility and emotional reassurance, even in public-facing choices.
Bag charms, once dismissed as frivolous, have become sites of meaning. They allow wearers to insert something intimate into otherwise polished looks. They disrupt uniformity. They tell stories.
Mirumi’s Kickstarter campaign, which launched to strong interest, reflects this appetite. Backers are not just buying a robot. They are buying into a feeling: the idea that even in crowded, overstimulating cities, something small and gentle can accompany you.
Is The Future of Fashion In Tech?
What Mirumi suggests is a future where accessories are no longer purely decorative. This does not mean fashion will become technological in a utilitarian sense. If anything, Mirumi points in the opposite direction: towards tech that deliberately resists usefulness.
In a world obsessed with optimisation, emotional tech offers permission to linger, to notice, to feel. Mirumi does not improve your day in measurable ways. It simply changes how it feels.
Whether it becomes as ubiquitous as Labubu remains to be seen. But its presence already signals something important. Fashion is no longer just about how we look to others. It is increasingly about how objects accompany us through our inner lives.
January 03, 2026, 13:45 IST
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