With white-wired headphones endorsed by celebrities including Lily-Rose Depp, Paul Mescal, Bella Hadid and Apple Martin, a growing number of people are breaking away from wireless listening.
For inspiration, there is the Instagram account @wireditgirls, or a Balenciaga campaign featuring the model Mona Tougaard reclining bed, wired headphones in place.
Daniel Rodgers, the fashion news editor at British Vogue, is familiar with the trend. “[It says] ‘I’m very effortless. I’m very nonchalant,” he says. “It’s become a real styleable accessory.”
But in a culture where the forward march of technology is often treated as compulsory, wired headphones represent more than aesthetics. “It’s an analogue way of opting out – of both tech but also life,” says Rodgers. “They’re visible in a way that AirPods aren’t. There is a sense of ‘do not disturb’.”
That symbolism is on full display on the cover of New York magazine’s latest issue, which features celebrities riding the subway: Debbie Harry with the Geese frontman Cameron Winter, Ben Stiller with the Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns and Macaulay Culkin with the SubwayTakes presenter Kareem Rahma. The real story, however, is not the star power but the shared accessory in each image: wired headphones.
The pictures were taken by Hannah La Follette Ryan, the Brooklyn-based photographer behind the Instagram account @SubwayTakes, which documents New Yorkers on public transport. She says: “I see the revival as an extension of digital fatigue. Who wants another glitchy expensive gadget to charge?”
Price is clearly part of the appeal of wired headphones – Apple’s EarPods cost £17 compared with £99 for AirPods – but nostalgia is also a factor.
“We’re seeing retro tech come back,” says Tom Morgan-Freelander, the deputy editor of the technology magazine Stuff. “And as part of that, brands are starting to bring back wired headphones.”
He says some younger consumers are switching to wired for sound quality, which is typically better with cables. “Bluetooth became the norm, and there was an acceptance that, for wireless convenience, you’re going to lose a bit of quality,” he adds.
Then there is the issue of tangles. While wireless headphones are stored neatly in a case, wired varieties are often found in a knot at the bottom of a bag.
La Follette Ryan suggests this is part of the appeal. “The tangle is inevitable,” she says. “Think of a headphone knot as a more user-friendly Rubik’s Cube. Relish the opportunity to slow down and solve a little puzzle.”
If wired headphones have become the choice of the fashion-conscious despite these inconveniences, that could change soon. AirPods remain the bestseller at Currys but the retailer reports sales of Beats Solo 4 over-ear headphones have risen by 193% since last year.
Morgan-Freelander also points to the £20 FiiO Snowsky Wind, a design that looks like the earphones worn with a Sony Walkman in the 1980s.
Rodgers still believes wired headphones have the edge. “Even though we are constantly being [sold upgrades], there’s a sort of disengagement [with wired headphones], which is always really hot, right?” he says. “You never want to look like you’re too into anything.”
La Follette Ryan, however, thinks there is room for every option. “I just bought a Discman and Sony headphones,” she says, “but I will always keep my wired headphones for sharing an earbud with a friend.”
