Sacai x Beats By Dre Beaded Collaboration

We all know and recognise Beats by Dre as possibly one of the craziest trends about, and most of us will either be at one end of the spectrum: there are loads of us who will agree that such an electronic powerhouse deserves its place at the top of headphone popularity, and there are those who are perhaps much less enthusiastic in ever wearing such a mainstream brand, likely opting for 'alternative' brands such as Bang & Olufsen, Bowers & Wilkins, and so on.

Working in collaboration, Japanese fashion label sacai has partnered with Beats by Dre (or Apple, for all intents and purposes) and the results are these colourful, embellished variations of the popular music-making objects, almost jewellery-like you might say. Whilst the electronics brand may be renown for its brightly coloured (sometimes garish) styles as much as their monochromatic (more preferred) options, Chitose Abe of sacai has opted for - in our opinion - nicer colour patterns and matching. With the trusty headphone essentially a piece of jewellery anyway with its place in the accessory world, such a collaboration cements such a thought.

First released to the public at 2019's Paris Fashion Week, the choice of headphones for such collaboration was the BeatsX wireless earphones. Blurring the lines of technology and fashionable accessories in a way which makes total sense, but simultaneously, is rather peculiar, the end-product is somewhat similar to Japan's equal craze of adding charms and beads to phones for personalisation, whether you're a child or adult.

With three colours available, named 'True Black', 'Deep White' and 'Burned Red', none of these are a single colour, each with a nicely considered array of coloured beads to adorn the wires of the BeatsX wireless earphones. Whilst headphones are often worn to help people escape the busy lives that we each lead, the decorative nature of these makes SATORI & SCOUT wonder what is the core function behind such products; is it the music-playing, or the jewellery-like accessorisation? Complete with all the exact specifications that normal BeatsX wireless earphones possess, such a collaboration goes on commercial sale on March 4th 2019, retailing for a cool 150USD. Not bad actually, especially given the nature of the fashion brand with which Apple has collaborated with. Discover more about the designers online at: www.sacai.jp.

Photography credit : sacai