For 25 years the company, built by two publicity-shy British brothers, has turned everything from bears to burgers into ‘plushies’. Avid fans explain their appeal

It started with a boiled egg. Last year, Chloe Day, 25, kept seeing it all over social media. She was intrigued. It wasn’t the kind of egg you’d have for breakfast. There was a smiley face on the bright yellow yolk and little legs descending from the egg white. At 14cm tall, it was adorable – the egg part soft and fluffy and the legs made out of brown corduroy.

What Day was seeing, on social media and in shops, was an “amuseable” boiled egg by Jellycat, a brand that specialises in cute soft toys with smiley faces. “I remember it so clearly,” she says. “It kept cropping up. I thought: I have to have one of those.” Eventually, she bought one.