Fashion

Anna Made Flip Phones Trendy Once Again

by Erin Mayer

While many people have been freaking out over such technological developments as the Apple watch and pants that charge your devices for you, others are content to kick it old school. Flip phones are trending again, perhaps due to the fact that Vogue editrix Anna Wintour still uses one. Time to charge up that Nokia you used back in middle school!

According to The Telegraph, the fashion set has embraced vintage flip phones ever since Ms. Wintour was spotted squinting at her very old fashioned cell in September (right before New York Fashion Week no less). Even Rihanna has been known to eschew a flashy smartphone for a decidedly retro model. If BadGalRiRi and Anna Wintour both approve, I think we can officially call it a trend. Author Jane Shilling writes:

For the red-carpet crowd, the charm of the retro phone resides in its stalwart uncommunicativeness. A phone that does nothing except text and call is a phone that can’t be hacked for naked pictures that you sent to your boyfriend (now your embittered and impoverished ex-boyfriend) in a skittish moment. They offer nothing to excite TMZ or the tabloids. They are resolutely unable to produce anything that might go viral. They do not tweet or engage with the cloud. They are, in short, as impenetrably discreet as old-fashioned courtiers.

I would declare this the return of the "mom" phone, but my mom has an iPhone 6 (as do most mothers these days, I assume). Perhaps grown-up millennials will excitedly embrace the retro flip phone due to nostalgic longing for their awkward, torturous tween years, but probably not because, let's face it, those years sucked. And, cute as the pink Razr was back in the day, having email on your cell phone is really, really convenient.

Since I doubt TMZ wants anything to do with my text messages in which I call my boyfriend "panda" and my collection of failed selfie drafts, I think I can comfortably continue to use my smartphone, even if it isn't very retro.