Why is Apple hiring fashion giant Yves Saint Laurent's CEO?
For some "special projects," says Cupertino. Um, okay....
Apple CEO Tim Cook may not be as secrecy-obsessed as his famous predecessor, Steve Jobs, but he sure has people guessing with his newest hire, Yves Saint Laurent chief executive Paul Deneve. What would a tech company want with the CEO of a storied French fashion house?
Here's Apple's less-than-helpful explanation: Deneve will be "working on special projects as a vice president reporting directly to Tim Cook."
It's not as odd a hire as it may seem on its surface. Yes, Deneve has worked managing a string of luxury fashion brands since 1997, but he is also an Apple alumnus: From 1990 to 1997 he held a series of marketing and sales jobs in Apple's European operations. "Marketing luxury goods, after all, is what taking the helm of Yves Saint Laurent is all about," says Mike Isaac at All Things D, and it's really "not a far cry to go back to marketing Apple products, the high-design luxury goods of the tech world."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Bloomberg's Adam Satariano is a little more blunt, noting that "the jobs in high fashion give Deneve experience selling products at a premium price." But he quashes the idea, floated first by Apple Insider's Daniel Eran Dilger, that the YSL chief was hired to lead Apple's retail operations, a position that has stubbornly remained vacant since Cook fired John Browett in October 2012.
Dilger also suggests a more intangible motive for hiring Deneve: "Recruiting an established member of the fashion and luxury goods sector could be a move to propel Apple's brand internationally," building on the iPhone's global cachet. Jason D. O'Grady at ZDNet has a more concrete "special project" in mind: "My money's on the iWatch."
Let's expand Deneve's role to all wearable computing, and this hire "is brilliant," says Jeff Weisbein at BestTechie. The iWatch is the product widely rumored to drop next, but "maybe there are other wearable devices in the pipeline or maybe Deneve has some ideas of his own." His main contribution should be figuring out: "How do you make the smartwatch or any wearable device appeal to all types of people?" Weisbein adds.
Casey Chan at Gizmodo just throws up his hands. Deneve may have been hired to boost wearable fashion or to "outfit Jony Ive with tighter fitting T-shirts or something we have no idea what," Chan says. "Probably something we have no idea what." This is still Apple we're talking about, after all.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
80 dead in Colombia amid uptick in guerrilla fighting
Speed Read This was the country's deadliest wave of violence since the peace accords set by President Gustavo Petro in 2016
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Trump starts term with spate of executive orders
Speed Read The president is rolling back many of Joe Biden's climate and immigration policies
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Trump pardons or commutes all charged Jan. 6 rioters
Speed Read The new president pardoned roughly 1,500 criminal defendants charged with crimes related to the Capitol riot
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published