While not as audibly terrinble as they used to be, Beats headphones are still the opposite of understated refinement. The brand is all about ostentatious consumption, so it actually makes perfect sense that Beats, Kylie Jenner, and a French fasion house are teaming up to produce the worst special edition of the year.
Balmain is a French fasion house/bandwagon merchant that’s managed to chain its name together with the Kardashian spawn. The latest collaboration is a “special edition” pair of Beats Powerbeats 3 Wireless earbuds and Beats Studio Wireless over-ear headphones, two of Beats’ most popular and most expensive pairs of headphones.
As far as I can work out, the specialness mostly comes from the gold color and the price: $600 for the Studio Wireless and $250 for the earbuds, nearly double the regular price.
Luckily, you don’t have to pay any money to look at the Jenner-infused landing page for the headphones, which features plenty of rather spectacular quotes. “NO MATTER WHAT YOU’RE GOING THROUGH, WHEN YOU PUT ON A SONG THAT YOU LOVE, AND THAT YOU JUST CONNECT WITH, IT CAN CHANGE YOUR WHOLE MOOD AND JUST LIFT YOU UP. EVEN IF IT’S JUST FOR A FEW MINUTES…I LOVE THAT ESCAPE MUSIC GIVES US,” Jenner writes in ALL CAPS.
Olivier Rousteing, Balmain’s Creative Director, feels equally passionate about the gold-colored headphones. “Seeing music and fashion as completely intertwined simply reflects how my generation grew up-we simply cannot conceive of one without a full helping of the other,” he writes.
Both pairs are available now online, and will be in Apple stores nationwide on Monday.
