Deadly Ponies has announced it’s collaborating with popular kids toyline, TV show and film franchise My Little Pony (and no, this is not an April Fool’s joke).
Making the announcement on Wednesday on social media, the cult handbag brand is set to release a collection of luxe accessories based on the colourful pony figurines. In its post on Facebook and Instagram, it says it will be the business’s most “significant” and “unique” project to date.
The collection, which will be available to customers from 3 August, includes a number of different handbag styles made from rainbow patterned leather, referencing My Little Pony character Rainbow Dash. The character also serves as inspiration for the title of the collection, ‘Dash’ (on an unrelated note, Dash is also the name of Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian’s famous fashion boutique).
In addition to handbags, the collection will also feature scarves, wallets, coin purses and ‘pony puffs’, which are large key chains shaped like a pony’s head.
“It’s been fun but also scary,” says Deadly Ponies’ founder Liam Bowden in an interview with Viva. “My Little Pony is such a cult icon.”
“The challenge was, how do we not make it too overwhelming for ourselves? And how do we turn something mass-produced and really childish into something that our customers would desire — and that would have qualities of craftsmanship?”
While the collaboration might just be the strangest we’ve seen in New Zealand this year, the bags, scarves and wallets themselves appear to have a more subtle reference to the franchise than one would expect. Although the same can’t be said of its coin purses and pony puffs, with the former adorned with rainbows and butterflies and the latter feeling strangely reminiscent of a certain iconic—think The Godfather when Jack Woltz wakes up to a horse’s head in the bed.
This isn’t the first time My Little Pony has collaborated with high-end fashion brands, with designers such as Roberto Cavalli, Fendi and Kenzo partnering with Hasbro on a line of custom made toys to reconnect older consumers with childhood characters.
My Little Pony, which launched in the 1980s, has had a resurgence in popularity in recent years with its Friendship Is Magic line. The success of the toyline’s spinoff TV series has particularly helped generate a fandom among grown-ups, most notably adult male fans who refer to themselves as ‘bronies’.
