Fashion Is the Future of Technology: How V of BTS, Navy Blue, Kelela and Nothing Are Bridging Tech and Culture — ‘Find Joy in the Little Things’
Categoria: Musica
As technology becomes an extension of personal style, Nothing, Navy Blue and Kelela explore the intersection of design, self-expression and the future of music.
Por Billboard | 23/10/2026
Technology and fashion have always been intertwined, but as more of the devices we use become things we wear, the line between the two is getting harder to distinguish. Headphones are an obvious example. Once primarily functional accessories, they’ve become part of how people present themselves in public. Whether worn over the ears, resting around the neck, or sitting on a purse or a hat, they can complement an outfit, communicate personal taste and signal an affinity for a particular brand or community. Like sneakers, jewelry, socks or a favorite bag, they’re increasingly part of the visual language through which people express themselves and story tell. And it makes sense. When technology becomes something you physically wear, its design becomes part of your appearance. You’re not just choosing a device for what it can do. You’re choosing something that will exist on your body, in public, alongside everything else you use to communicate who you are and what you’re about. And now you’re thinking, “Will these headphones match most of my looks? Will these headphones bring my fits together or take away from them?” We’re at a point where so many headphones have amazing noise-canceling, transparency mode, great audio quality and mics. Some may be better than others in some categories but the differences — no matter if the brands like it or not — are becoming few and far between. That raises a bigger question about the future of technology: As products become increasingly capable, will their cultural significance matter as much as their technical capabilities? At Nothing’s New Noise event in New York, that question extended beyond the products on display. The event brought together technology, fashion and music, with conversations featuring Kelela and Navy Blue — two artists whose approaches to music and fashion offer different perspectives on where culture is heading. The connection isn’t simply that musicians are wearing headphones or that technology companies are borrowing from fashion. It’s that technology, fashion and music are increasingly intertwined forms of self-expression. The products we carry, the clothes we wear and the music we listen to all contribute to how we construct our identities and how people construct identities for us. And as technology becomes more visible in our everyday lives, the way it looks, feels and fits into our personal worlds becomes harder to separate from its function. For Nothing’s chief brand officer, Charlie Smith, that relationship is already apparent in the way people wear headphones. “Headphones are like wearing a scarf or a necklace,” he says. “I think it says something about who you are as a person, in the same way that the brands of clothes you choose to wear do.” Smith, who previously worked at fashion house Loewe, sees an opportunity for technology to develop the same kind of recognizable identity that fashion brands have cultivated