Wired Headphones Are the New “It” Accessory — and We Should Have Seen It Coming

All the hotties wear wired headphones, or so argues the fast-growing Instagram account Wired It Girls. 

Launched in October, Wired It Girls is a carefully curated grid featuring women from all over the world (plus a lone Jake Gyllenhaal) proudly sporting wired headphones. In some pics the subjects are looking right at the camera, others are candid pics, or paparazzi shots, taken while they are out and about. Regardless, the point the account is making is crystal clear: Forget wireless, retro-tech is all the rage. 

It seemed everyone was lusting over AirPods just a few years ago, but if you've spent some time on the internet in the past few months, you probably noticed that trend starting to decline. Instead of acquiring new AirPods cases, people are reverting to the basics and opting out of the wireless life, whether for practicality, aesthetics, or maybe both. 

The wired headphones trend might seem new to the untrained eye, but Shelby Hull, the creator of Wired It Girls, tells Teen Vogue that she’s actually been following this resurgence for some time. “I read Liana Satenstein's Vogue article in 2019 about Bella Hadid 'bringing back the humble wired headphone.' She captured exactly what I had been seeing in blurry IG stories and Twitter selfies from hot girls on the internet," Hull recalls. "After that, I couldn't help but notice all the hot girls who were still committed to the wire." 

Satenstein’s article was polarizing, to say the least. Some criticized it, some even laughed at it. But it was just the start. In a short time, the article inspired countless memes and much discourse, and it has not died down over a year later.

“Committed to the wire” is a wonderful phrase for the slew of It girls (deemed so by the internet and high-fashion Twitter) who have traded any up-to-date listening devices for something with a wire. Hull says that when she read Satenstein's article, she was immediately reminded of multiple paparazzi shots of Lily-Rose Depp, Zoë Kravitz, and even old pictures of the Olsen twins sporting their wired headphones. When Satenstein tweeted “some idiot/genius please start a hot girls with wired headphones page,” Hull instantly jumped on the idea, and Wired It Girls was born. 

At barely a month old, the account continues to grow as more and more people catch onto the trend, sharing their selfies and tagging the account to be featured on the Wired It Girls' IG stories. “I didn't think it would gain so much attention," Hull says now. "I thought it would remain a niche corner of the internet, but people really love knowing which It girls are wired."

It might have surprised Hull, but, according to fashion historian Rachel Weingarten, this trend has been a long time coming. There’s a well-known fashion philosophy that says what’s old will become new again. The Y2K revival over the past few years is arguably one of the strongest fashion has seen recently. Relics from the early aughts (low-rise jeans, trucker hats… you know the vibe) and once-forgotten brands (think Juicy Couture and Abercrombie & Fitch) suddenly became must-haves again. Fashion's cyclical nature is well explored, but where do we draw the line between fashion accessories and technology in our ever-so-connected world? Well, it looks like we don't. That's how, somewhere in between the two, wired headphones found their place in the zeitgeist.

Weingarten argues that COVID-19, which essentially disrupted life as we knew it, also aided the wired headphones renaissance in a way. “The pandemic had most of us home and yearning for more comforting things, ranging from home-baked bread and crafts to less-futuristic tech," Weingarten tells Teen Vogue. "For some reason, even though we spent most of the past year on Zoom, there was this tremendous sense of nostalgia in spending time listening to each other's voices." 

Wireless technology has been around for a while, but it became especially commonplace after Apple got rid of the jack port in 2016. A lot of us jumped on the wireless trend because we had to, not because we wanted to. Sure, maybe there's a bit of peer pressure in there too. But there's also something to be said for how nostalgia presents itself as we long for times when everything seemed easier. “In many ways it's like the resurgence of Lisa Frank designs on Orly nail stickers,” Weingarten explains. "It's somehow familiar and simultaneously new. Earphones with wires have that same effect. It's almost trendy in a recent-retro way, sort of like how millennials rejected voicemails but Gen Z thinks it's cool to send voice recordings. The same, but it’s different." This is also what's happening with flip phones right now.

As the lines blur between tech and fashion, it only takes one leader to make a trend gain momentum — as with all fashion movements. For the wired resurgence we’re seeing now, Hull knows exactly who should get credit: “Bella Hadid is the It girl of all It girls, in my opinion. She is the blueprint,” she says confidently. "Miss Hadid was wearing wired headphones back in 2019. That made the wires hot, simply because they had her co-sign. But the Wired It Girl to make the trend go viral was Lily-Rose Depp. A TikTok from @thedigifairy forecasting the trend said there are a lot of ‘girls wearing wired headphones instead of AirPods in an aesthetic, Lily-Rose Depp way.’ I think that says it all.”

Of course, even in the realm of Wired It Girls, there’s the mainstream aesthetic and the alternative aesthetic. For example, Depp favors typical corded Apple buds, while Kravitz — who has partaken in the trend since before it became one — has been seen wearing the classic Koss Porta Pros. Ringing in at just under $50, her go-tos, arguably a much more niche option, have also been growing in popularity on TikTok. 

Few social media platforms have the viral power of TikTok. Content creators on the app, knowingly or not, determine what’s in and what's out. Recently, user @toxicthotsyndrome went viral for wearing Kravitz's beloved Porta Pros, prompting the brand to send her its entire catalog. By extension, the brand itself has ventured into its own category of wired chic. (The #kossportapros tag has over 6.5M views at the time of writing.) 

Though those two styles seem to reign supreme, there are plenty of more affordable options at retailers such as Target, Best Buy, and Walmart that have also been gaining momentum across socials. If it has a wire, it qualifies. 

“The wire is the perfect indicator for identifying the It girl. It exudes an effortless kind of energy,” Hull explains. “The wired headphones are a lo-fi, chic signal that they don't want to be spoken to. It keeps them looking and staying unbothered, adding a layer of mystery to their already alluring, laid-back exterior. Usually, the makings of an It girl seem unattainable and luxurious, whereas a simple wired headphone... anyone can have." Hull continues, "I think that's why we're seeing such a big resurgence. And there's been this romanticization of the 2014 Tumblr era, and younger people are looking at music as a whole aesthetic experience rather than for practical consumption — hence, the wired headphones and vinyl comeback.”

Practical or not, the wired headphone trend has caught on. The Wired It Girl's account’s quick growth is proof enough of that. In an extreme twist, South Korean star JAY B took the trend to a new level by using a full-on Discman in place of headphones. Vinyl EPs were once a thing of the past and are now coveted again. The same thing happened to cassettes, though on a much tamer scale. It's no surprise that after wired headphones, interest in the Discman and Walkman would also pique, whether to add to the aesthetic or for other reasons is another story.

“I'm personally obsessed with it," says Hull. “I love that we're looking to the It girls of pop culture to decide how we should listen to music and talk to our moms during our hot girl walks. It's ridiculous and niche and that's what intrigued me about the whole debate to begin with. But,” she adds, "I really think the wire is the perfect accessory. Even if there's nothing coming through the headphones, having them in indicates that you can't be bothered — that's the true luxury.”

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