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Apple hires former Yves Saint Laurent CEO for 'special projects'
- coryl 13y agoFormer fashion CEO -> wearables? iWatch?
- cjensen 13y agoIn the last few days, Apple has trademarked "iWatch" in many countries around the globe. So it's real. Having someone with experience in "stuff people wear" makes good sense.
- swamp40 13y agoI knew it was real last September, when they discontinued the 6th gen Nano out of the blue, right after some very popular watch bands were designed around it. Textbook "kill your competition before your product is released" move.
- stevewillows 13y agoI'm wondering if this will go beyond just wearables and touch on the overall presentation of the brand. Bring that 'wow' back to unboxing apple products.
- GuiA 13y agoWearables could seem like a logical next step for Apple's long term roadmap, especially when considering early efforts like the Pebble and Google Glass by other companies. Maybe we'll look back and regard those in the same way we regard the Motorola Razr today. I remember my graduate advisor, author to the most cited tangible interaction paper out there, musing on what Apple would be doing 10 years from now. His speculations were on the side of augmented jewelry– wearable, without being as large as a watch or glasses– and smart textiles. The industry examples are scarce, but the research in this field is extremely active (http://www.tei-conf.org/ http://www.tei-conf.org/), with some very interesting prototypes being demo'd and work being published every year. I'm looking forward to chatting about this with you all again in 10 years :)
- sinnerswing 13y agoGreat hire. Google hired a pimple-faced geek to design Google Glass and look what they have. :D
- joeysinatra 13y agoGreat hire. Google hired a pimple-faced geek to design Google Glass and look at the results. :D
- protomyth 13y agoHe is also a former Apple employee, so they probably have a bit more background then some of their other executive hires.
- dantiberian 13y agoThe biggest news from this announcement is that Paul Deneve will be reporting directly to Tim Cook, not to Jony Ive.
- EScott11 13y agoDisagreed. It's natural for the business head of a fashion shop to be at or above the same "level" as the creative director. Deneve's expertise is the strategy, operations, and business of fashion and should therefore report to Apple's head of business, strategy, and operations, Tim Cook.
- eightyone 13y agoI have to say in light of all this PRISM stuff, iWatch takes on a whole new meaning for me.
- informatimago 13y agoIt is just natural, given Apple is in the fashion business since 1984...
- lostlogin 13y agoYou know he was an Apple employee before moving to fashion right?
- 7Figures2Commas 13y agoiDontGetIt... http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/22/42/37/4859884/3/628x471.jpg http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/22/42/37/4859884/3/628x471.jpg http://ww2.hdnux.com/photos/22/42/37/4859881/3/628x471.jpg http://ww2.hdnux.com/photos/22/42/37/4859881/3/628x471.jpg http://ww2.hdnux.com/photos/22/42/37/4859885/3/628x471.jpg http://ww2.hdnux.com/photos/22/42/37/4859885/3/628x471.jpg http://ww3.hdnux.com/photos/22/42/37/4859878/3/628x471.jpg http://ww3.hdnux.com/photos/22/42/37/4859878/3/628x471.jpg No, unfortunately these photos were not manipulated with Aperture... http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Rockabilly-Saint-Laurent-sees-Slimane-more-at-ease-4639401.php http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Rockabilly-Saint-Laure...
- nickbarnwell 13y agoThat's Hedi Slimane's Saint Laurent Paris, essentially a reboot of his earlier work at Dior Homme, and still irrelevant to the discussion at hand either way. The CEO at a fashion house is hardly directly involved in the creative process, at least at one as large as YSL.
- samstave 13y agoApple needs its own version of an internally developed "Vertu" phone, I mean, their margins are too low!! I recall the first time I saw the Vertu phones in Singapore, then I asked about their prices.... There is an old saying: "a fool and his money are soon parted" I have a new saying: "there is no limit to what the elite will spend the fools money on"
- georgespencer 13y agoThis is odd. 1. We know it isn't retail. They'd have just said so. 2. We know he's probably not going to have any design influence: YSL, like Vertu, is so far behind Apple's design that it'd be unthinkable for Ive to cede any control here. 3. I have to believe that the watch Apple is working on is way more of a computer than anything else. I'd be less surprised if they appointed a scientist to run this. Very weird.
- RU_DVS 13y agoCan you say wearables have arrived? IIICTECH has a necklace/keychain/carry device in production now. http://www.prweb.com/releases/WINK/BLINK/prweb10367324.htm http://www.prweb.com/releases/WINK/BLINK/prweb10367324.htm
- canistr 13y agoGiven that he was a former Apple employee and a Stanford graduate, I would hazard a guess that it was more likely that he left Apple and went to Yves Saint Laurent to gain insight into the fashion industry to return the knowledge back to Silicon Valley and Apple. As opposed to everyone claiming he's a fashion executive coming into the tech industry.