Jewellery designers get to grips with the bag charm trend

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When Julia Hackman Chafé acquired a Miu Miu handbag, she accessorised it with two necklaces: one made from opal beads, the other quartz. “I come from a jewellery background so, as much as I would love a gorgeous little leather charm, I wanted to put jewels on [my bag],” explains the jewellery influencer, who is social media manager at New York-based wholesale gem business Intercolor USA.

The idea of decorating a designer bag in such a way is not new.

The late actor and singer Jane Birkin, after whom one of Hermès’ most popular handbags is named, embellished hers with beads and personal trinkets. However, the TikTok trend of “Jane Birkinifying” a bag has encouraged more people to follow in her footsteps, drawing inspiration from catwalk shows of brands such as Miu Miu, Balenciaga and Coach. Popular charms include soft-toy characters and leather designs.

Now, increasingly, jewellers are creating pieces to tap into demand from jewellery lovers wanting to adorn their bags as well as their bodies.

Miami-based Martha Calvo introduced bag charms this summer, following requests from customers at its store and on social media. The brand also released an exclusive selection, including gold-plated designs, on ecommerce platform Net-a-Porter in September.

Martha Calvo, the brand’s founder and creative director, says the company has seen “a huge soar in international sales” through its website because of the bag charms, and that they have helped widened its customer base in the Middle East and Asia. She thinks the trend “is here to stay for the foreseeable future” but has designed the charms so they can be used in other ways once it has passed.

“The customer can basically style them how they want,” she says. “They can even throw the [removable] pendant on their own necklace in the future.” Some designs double as key chains.

The first bag charm from 886 by the Royal Mint featured in Stella McCartney’s show during Paris Fashion Week in September. The 18-carat gold-plated dove was part of a collaboration for summer 2025 between the jewellery brand and British fashion designer on wearable sculptures. Cast at the Royal Mint, the UK’s coin-maker, dove is made from gold and silver extracted from electronic waste and old hospital X-ray film respectively.

Earlier the same month, Pacharee, which produces designs using natural pearls, unveiled its Klom bag charm in the 3.1 Phillip Lim spring 2025 show at New York Fashion Week. The pearl piece, which features a pendant initial, doubles as an anklet and is available in solid 18-carat gold, or 18-carat gold-plated silver. Pacharee is due to release new bag charm designs this month: one with black pearls and one with rainbow sapphires set in and between pearls.

Pacharee Schümers-Rogers, the brand’s Thai-born, Switzerland-based founder and head designer, noticed friends in Asia styling their Hermès Birkin and Kelly bags with toy dolls, a look she says is “too cutesy” for her taste. “I wanted to be one of the first to give them that luxury option for this bag charm trend,” she says.

Dubai-based jewellery designer Ashna Mehta, whose creations graced the star-studded wedding of business dynasty scions Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant in India in July, has introduced “bag bijoux”. These brooches, designed to decorate Birkin and Kelly bags, include the Marquise Evil Eye. Priced at more than $6,000, it is made from 18-carat gold, diamonds and mother-of-pearl.

“There’s a way to personalise your bag in the same way that you tell stories around your neck or your wrist,” says Annoushka Ducas, founder and creative director of UK fine jewellery brand Annoushka. She is starting to style some of her detachable 18-carat gold charm designs — previously shown in marketing imagery being worn as pendants or on bracelets — on bags to tap into the trend.

Ducas advises, however, that there is an art to accessorising a bag with charms, as there is to wearing them. “You don’t want everything to be round because otherwise it’ll clank around,” she says. “So you want some things to be long, some to be short, some to be articulated, some to have colour. All the same rules apply, but it’s almost like using [the bag] as a mannequin.”

Chafé questions how expensive bag charms will get but believes the idea will “move forward” in the jewellery industry. This, she says, is because — depending on the jeweller and their clientele — the pieces are not so costly for jewellers to make. She says the trend allows people to express their individuality while hitting the “societal norm”.

“In a sense, social media has made everyone more homogenous in the way that we dress,” she explains. “But, in another, there are small ways to differentiate yourself. So, while everyone might have the same bag, not everyone has the same bag charms.”