Avashnee Moodley, Head of Marketing, OPPO South Africa
September’s Heritage Month invites South Africans to reflect on their identity, how they carry it, wear it, and present it to the world. For generations, clothes, jewellery, and hairstyles have been the primary signals of who we are and what we value. Today, there’s a new layer to that language. Our devices, especially smartphones, have entered the style conversation as visible, daily companions that sit on tables, appear in selfies, and accompany us into every room. In a culture mediated by screens, the smartphone has become an aesthetic object in its own right, designed, customised, and constantly on display.
This shift is the natural consequence of a life that unfolds simultaneously in physical and digital spaces. We curate outfits for the world we walk through, and we curate images for the world we post to. As those worlds increasingly overlap, fashion has evolved beyond fabric to encompass the tools that shape our experiences. The case we choose, the finish we favour, even the way a device catches light in a photograph, all of it contributes to an evolving portrait of personal style.
From wardrobe to worldview
Style has always been a form of semiotics, colours, cuts, and textures speak to belonging and aspiration. In South Africa, that language carries extraordinary depth. A bold shweshwe print, Zulu beadwork geometry, a modern isiXhosa silhouette, and a pair of fresh sneakers for an amapiano night out, each item can be a love letter to a place and community. When those choices meet the camera, the device becomes both mirror and stage. It records, refracts, and remixes our aesthetic preferences, shaping how they travel across timelines and into conversations.
This is where design-led smartphones matter. A slim silhouette that slips into an evening jacket without dragging a line. A matte finish that resists fingerprints and photographs elegantly under café lighting. A lightweight form that makes one-handed framing feel effortless. These are not trivial details; they affect how the object appears and behaves in public, and therefore how it contributes to our style.
AI imaging and the new beauty toolkit
If clothing is the first canvas, imaging is the second. AI tools now do for photography what tailoring does for fabric: nipping and tucking light, tone, and texture to reveal intention. Portrait modes soften backgrounds the way silk softens movement. Low-light optimisation opens night scenes like a well-cut tux sharpens a silhouette. Generative features create playful, editorial moments that once required a
studio. In capable hands, AI imaging becomes less about filters and more about authorship, another way to say, “This is my eye. This is my mood.”
Crucially, this does not erase authenticity, it edits for clarity. South African creators already treat smartphones as creative partners, documenting street style in Maboneng, family gatherings in Umlazi, and design markets in Woodstock. The best tools keep up with that energy, letting people translate real textures, such as dust on a sneaker or light on a beaded collar, into images that feel immediate and alive.
Colourways, customisation, and cultural cues
Colour has always been code. The tones we choose carry cues about season, taste, and tribe. Devices now offer finishes inspired by fashion—subtle pastels, mineral sheens, refined neutrals, that pair with wardrobes rather than clashing with them. Cases and straps extend that palette, much like accessories. For many, the device becomes a daily mood board: elegant for the boardroom, expressive for the weekend, joyful for Heritage Day braais where family stories take centre stage.
Personalisation deepens the effect. Wallpapers and widgets echo brand colours, favourite art, or heritage motifs. Lock-screen typography becomes a micro-signature. Even display quality alters perception, a crisp, high-brightness screen turns casual sharing into a small exhibition, where a cousin’s graduation photo or a designer’s lookbook reads with punch and fidelity.
The OPPO Reno14 series lives in this realm. It presents a slim, lightweight profile with fashion-forward finishes that sit comfortably next to a leather tote or a tailored blazer. Its imaging tools, especially AI-driven portrait and low-light features, support the kind of spontaneous creativity that defines street culture and everyday celebration.
Style today is both worn and captured. We design for that intersection, where a beautiful device doesn’t just look the part, it helps you tell the story.
Heritage, but make it future
Heritage Month reminds us that style is both a reflection of continuity and a catalyst for change. We inherit patterns and pass them forward, adapting them for new contexts, and technology is now one of those contexts. The challenge, and the opportunity, is to use it in a way that honours what we carry while opening space for how we’re becoming.
If the smartphone is now the most visible everyday accessory, it deserves the same intentionality we give to shoes or a bag. Choose the silhouette that suits your hand and your pocket lines. Choose a finish that complements your palette. Select imaging tools that reflect the kind of beauty you want to convey. In doing so, you don’t just buy a phone; you assemble a vocabulary for self-presentation across the two spaces you live in, the street and the screen.
September asks us to look back and look forward. The future of style is tech-centric, not because technology replaces heritage, but because it lets heritage travel, faithfully, beautifully, and at the speed of our lives.
