This July, Nana & Friends café at Suntec City hatches a playful new collaboration with local artist Berry Winkle, bringing the lovable chaos of the Bird Bois, with Duck Boi, Crow Boi, Pigeon Boi, and newcomer Chicken Boi, into a full café takeover. Beyond its bingsu, taiyaki and photo spots, this collaboration signals something deeper: the cultural and commercial evolution of “softness” as cultural capital.
From mystery plushie keychains bundled with desserts to limited-edition Bird Bois merchandise, Nana & Friends is tapping into the same emotional-turned-economic current that made rare Labubu editions flip for thousands and sent its parent company Pop Mart soaring. The launch of Nana & Friends Series 2 – Planet Primelis, is not just another cute storyline. It is a strategic move into toy building, where emotion, narrative and nostalgia are crafted not just to connect, but to collect.
In today’s culture, cuteness is capital. Softness, once symbolic of innocence and unguarded joy, is now a monetizable asset class. Just as Labubu became the plush proxy for subcultural cool, speculative value and inner-child flex, Nana & Friends is localising that model with a unique Singaporean flavour.
The café collab isn’t just experiential marketing, it is speculative participation. A blind box plushie isn’t just merch, it is a cultural share, a moment of belonging, or a potential collector’s flip.
The signals are clear, we are no longer in the age of just luxury.
We are in the age of soft luxury. One where cultural fluency trumps price tags, and insider knowledge – the ability to decode fandom, irony, and aesthetic signalling, becomes the new social currency. A Birkin says wealth. A Labubu says wealth, humour, fandom and meme-literate edge. The same logic applies here, those in the know will read Chicken Boi’s “cup corn dreams” as not just comedy, but canon.
Nana & Friends is part of a broader shift where plushies, cartoons, and collectibles are being reimagined not as childish, but as culturally sophisticated. A Gen Z Hello Kitty, rebooted for the financialisation era. For example, sneakers once morphed from sportswear to liquid assets, plush culture now blurs the line between emotional keepsake and speculative token.
Yet in the midst of this hype economy, one question remains: what happens when every soft thing carries weight? When even joy is shaped by resale value? Perhaps that’s why this Nana & Friends collaboration still matters. Because even if the plushie is blind-boxed, the feeling it sparks doesn’t have to be. It’s still possible to flock together, to peep a new world, and to hold something just because it makes you smile – not because it might make you rich. And maybe, just maybe, that would be the softest flex of all.
Featured Image Credit: Nana & Friends, Brand Cellar
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