THE RETURN OF THE HEADPHONE AESTHETIC

Many people worldwide use headphones for one purpose: listening to music. But recently in the past year, I have noticed more people use them as accessories to elevate their outfits. I first started seeing this trend revival during COVID Quarantine but now it's become more prevalent as more people began commuting outside. Led by fashionable women, this has now become an aesthetic throughout social media for many headphone owners.

Like many other fashion trends, Kanye played a pivotal role in pushing the revival of this aesthetic. Amid his divorce from Kim Kardashian and release of his much-anticipated album Donda, Kanye was sighted outside multiple times wearing the Air pods max. With his face hidden behind a mask and wearing Balenciaga head to toe, this sparked many news outlets and fashion-forward social media accounts to report on his outfits. The AirPods Max & Kanye played a large role in the initial revival of this aesthetic but recently the Sony XM5 has been popping up a lot more with many posts/unboxings going viral on Tiktok & Instagram.

I’ve been using the word revival because this is nothing new. In my early teenage years, headphones like Beats Studios & Skullcandy were outfit essentials during the “swag era”. The ultimate outfit usually consisted of a snapback, flannel, Cargo shorts, or skinny jeans with some Vans (I was living in SoCal at the time). If someone owned any Beats headphones, they could not step outside without having them around their neck. Especially if you owned a pair of the Studios! Unfortunately, after this era, the headphone aesthetic slowly died out with the introduction of new tech (wireless earbuds) and style trends.

So, have you found yourself purposely or subconsciously styling your headphones? If not, next time you feel like your outfit is missing something you might just need to add a pair of headphones!