04 May 2018

Hearing aids and high fashion

French designers have won an international award for their collection of hearing aid jewellery. Kate Fichard, Flora Fixy and Julia Dessirier won the Swarovski Fashion Accessories Prize at the Hyères Festival. The story was picked up by the international press, including the Financial Times and Vogue. Commenting in Vogue the designers said that they “wanted to décomplexer the audible device, giving it an appealing design and the same accessory status of a pair of sunglasses”.

Journalists reporting on the award acknowledged the stigma associated with hearing aid use and how fashion might change this, in the same way it had transformed the use of glasses; something the New York Times reported on back in 2017.

This year’s prize winners set out to tackle the stigma associated with wearing hearing aids and to challenge the concept that hearing aids have to be invisible, they were interviewed by the Fashion Network and you can watch a short video here.

[Image courtesy of fanddstudio.]