Woah, hold your horses. What with world domination of the consumer electronics sector pretty much bagged with a pretty and colourful bow, it is reckoned that its only a matter of time until Apple, maker of ‘couture computers’ makes the small step and giant leap into the world of luxury apparel and accessories Scott Galloway, founder of L2, said during the digital thing tank’s Ted Talk style conference in NYC last week.
Expecting Apple to expand into product categories such as apparel, handbags, jewellery, watches and even luggage, the clinical professor of marketing at the NYU Stern School of Business is strongly linking the reason behind the recent press release regarding the high profile move of Angela Ahrendts, formerly CEO of Burberry and her move to Senior Vice President of Retail and e-commerce last month, as a ‘giant head fake’ he told Forbes.
Despite Apple saying differently Galloway maintains that ‘There’s abosultely no way a women running the most iconic brand in fashion is going to leave {Burberry, simply] to run Apple’s stores. Ahrendts Burberry direction was, in a nutshell, a huge success making $26m with the fashion house tripling revenues after undergoing a massive brand revival.
When Apple started prowling, Galloway insists “my guess is that the following conversation happened: ‘We’re planning on being the most formidable prestige brand, and we want you to lead that effort,’” which, suitably differs from “the ‘come run our stores’ conversation doesn’t get a second call.” he added.
That Apple want to continue their global domination makes perfect sense and with Ahrendts on board alongside former Yves St. Laurent CEO Paul Deneve as Vice President working on unnamed ‘special projects’ prestige fashion brands should watch this space with baited breath as to the next step of application and fusing of fashion and technology.
Full article here