Apple Has Been Hiring Fashion Execs — Why?

Photo: WENN 

Tech giant Apple has been pouring out a bunch of new, innovative products. From the Apple Watch to Apple Pay to Beats One to the iPhone 6, Apple has championed slick aesthetics and stylistic value, which has differentiated itself from its competition.

Now, in a new report, Apple is embracing the luxe life of fashion more overtly by making a slew of major hires from the fashion and luxury sector. With the big driver of this move tied to Apple’s Watch, which marks the company’s first foray into wearable tech, it is being predicted that many of Apple’s fashion and luxury hires have already worked on the next big thing in consumer electronics.

Apple, which has been packing fashion and luxury executives like Paul Deneve and Patrick Pruniaux, was profiled in a New Yorker piece that highlighted just who Apple was working with. The company’s design chief Jony Ive said he was working with Angela Ahrendts, formerly of Burberry, who serves as Apple’s senior vice president of retail and online sales. Her goal of revamping Apple’s retail stores to make it better suited to selling the Apple Watch is in play as we speak.

Deneve, the former CEO of Yves Saint Laurent, and Pruniaux, former vice president of global sales and retail at Tag Heuer, are both known to be working on Watch as well. Underlying these hires is a deeper question: what kind of company does Apple want to be? Yes, we know that wearable tech is the next and current wave that is sparking a mini gold rush, but can Apple even be called a consumer technology company anymore?

With Ahrendts, Pruniaux, and Deneve all taking their fashion and luxury experience to infuse “retail entertainment,” “omni-channel innovation,” and a next-gen customer experience to Apple consumers — these moves are much more than the sum of its parts. Apple has become the world’s largest corporation. In order to supply the increasing demand, yet remain fresh and innovative, the major league brand must pool resources from an outside source. This being the fashion and luxury executives aforementioned and you have the makings of a formidable enterprise looking to create its own way for the 22nd Century.

As some of the best in the world at staging original, highly sharable and relatable customer experiences, the focus isn’t as much on the product and more on the steps Apple takes in its transition. We are witnessing Apple going from a tech company into a lifestyle experience brand — which means these souls who are ushering in this next era of tech and luxe life are more important than the iPhones, computers or tablets being sold at the stores.

Keep an eye out for what’s next from this company, as it has only grown to major proportions since jumping into the first decade of the 21st Century.

[via Gigaom]

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