Are You Listening?

When it comes to commutes we all have our ways of getting through them. Perhaps a book? If it's small enough, or partially gripping so as to not miss your stop. Maybe Wordle or Duolingo? If you don’t get travel sickness. Or if you're like us, it's listening to your Spotify Daylist (mine today is titled “boss fight bubblegum pop friday morning’ a true insight perhaps). However I am not an airpod girl and I am not a wired girl either, I am a headphone girl through and through. A blessing and a curse one may say. As once I reach my final destination, I take them off and.. well where on earth do I put them? Around my neck?? No chance. Wrap around my bag strap, made that mistake before. I either have to compromise on my bag choice and bring a tote or attempt to stuff the pair of oversized headphones into a handbag (spoiler: it never ends well). Well Sony and Chopova Lowena have just given us a new reason to exhale and never let our accessories compromise our audio needs again. Enter the Alto Bag, a hybrid of tech, fashion, and pure cultural synergy.

The collaboration sees Chopova Lowena founders Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena reimagine their cult Sofia silhouette into something purpose-built to house Sony’s latest flagship WH-1000XM6 headphones. Inspired by the designers’ summer soundtracks (which makes me wonder what their Spotify Daylists are called!) The bag lands in Dover Street Market as an £800 bundle, complete with headphones in sleek black. The Alto also does what Chopova Lowena do best: merging folklore, nostalgia, and subculture with a sharp, knowing wink. Drawing from their Sofia Bag’s vintage-travel-case interiors and the spikier Pow Pow silhouette of AW23, the result is a bag that feels like the perfect playlist remix. As Chopova and Lowena themselves put it: “Music and fashion go hand in hand - two strong forms of expression that fully submerge you into a world.” And with the WH-1000XM6’s studio-level sound, adaptive noise cancellation, and vegan leather headband, it’s a ticket into that world without interruption. 

Of course, Chopova Lowena aren’t new to an iconic collab. Cast your mind back to SS25, the Margaret Bag, a perfectly sized carrier for your jar of Heinz Mayonnaise - proof that the duo can make a cult object out of just about anything. With Sony, the stakes are a little higher (less condiment, more functional need), but the result is the same: a useful accessory turned icon-in-waiting. Sony, for its part, has been leaning into the cultural cachet of its WH-1000X line for a decade. What started as a design-forward pair of headphones has now become, in the words of Lorraine Hawkins, Head of Personal Entertainment, of Sony UK & IE, “fashion statements” in their own right. With the WH-1000XM6, that statement just got a matching handbag.

So, whether you’re queuing at Dover Street Market or eyeing the release online, this collab is a reminder: the future of accessories might just hum with basslines and bleed with folklore prints. After all, who said your headphones couldn’t have their own wardrobe? Or, to borrow from Addison Rae - maybe it really is time to put your headphones on.