Audible is fashionable

by Rowan Newman

Forget the fedora, cloche and beanie, there is only one fashion accessory on everyone’s heads at the moment and it is already making an awful lot of noise as a style statement.

As headphones become a product that generate billions of pounds, it is no longer the understated white iPod earbud on everyone’s minds.

The market has snowballed, welcoming a fleet of new and exciting options, primed for the fashion conscious listener.

High street music chain, HMV, take the escalating trend so seriously that their chief executive, Simon Fox, announced that more than 25 per cent of the store’s floor space would be devoted to the flourishing electronic devices by the end of 2012. 

This is unsurprising considering that they already boast 146 different styles in a market cited as being worth around £150 million.

Celebrity market

With a figure like that turning many a head, or should we say ear, celebrities have been quick to get a slice of the audio pie.  The big beast here is Dr Dre, who released his own range of high-performance headphones, Beats, back in 2008. Under the flourishing new line a
handful of recording artists have since added their own designs, including P Diddy with his chunky pimped-out fleet of  ‘Diddy Beats’, Justin Beiber’s weirdly collapsible ‘Just Beats’ and finally pop-princess, Lady Gaga’s collection of ‘Heartbeats’.

New York Fashion Week was also not immune to the soaring phonic craze. Consumer audio giants, Monster unveiled its new line of trend-inspired headphones during the Samantha Sleeper, Zoe Twitt and Melissa Bolin show. In a stylistic nod to the ever-changing face of fashion, the range
features interchangeable headbands in all sorts of different colours and fabrics that can be switched to match your look.

Former London College of Fashion student, Hayleigh Magor is a fashion blogger and
creative assistant at Topshop, she explains: “Big, bold headphones that used to be confined to DJ booths across the country have now become a popular runway accessory that has caught on incredibly quickly on the high street. 

“One of the biggest trends has been to wear them unplugged proving they are as much a stylish accessory as they are a functional audio device.”

The fashion world’s latest addition to the auditory trend came last month from award-winning dressmaker, Oscar De La Renta with his oversized, faux fur, earmuffs that contain audio emitters – meaning that for a cool £450 you really can have en vogue ears while looking like a post-dub DJ from the North Pole.

Style

Hefty price tags aside, whether you are blaring out Beyonce or immersing yourself in Nirvana, headphones are the staple style statement this season and the great news for students is that they are a practical purchase too.

Pricier headphones usually ensure a better quality sound and also reduce audio leakage, which proves a great aid if you battle to hear your tunes over the roar of the tube – even more of a bonus if you happen to be listening to anything by One Direction.

Figures released by Apple reported a $4 billion global spend on iTunes downloads during 2010. Surely it is a false economy to accompany these high quality sounding tracks and efficient audio devices with cheap, crackling headphones?

HMV’s head of technology, Ewan Pinder explains: “Many consumers are becoming increasingly aware that to fully appreciate and enjoy their music you need to be able to listen to it in the sound quality intended by the studios.”

So which should you go for? There is only one rule: Think big.