The love story continues
Fashion week is getting ready to move from New York to London and so Apple’s CEO Tim Cook and design chief Jony Ive sat down with US Vogue to talk about the fashion and tech “love story”.
To be honest, the Apple Watch Hermès is a rare example of a high fashion approved wearable that’s now widely available to buy. The three models with hand-stitched leather straps are also the only collaboration so far between a tech company and a fashion house that isn’t focusing on any kind of watchmaking heritage. Here’s how Ive described the collection: “That watch is the result of two temperamentally, philosophically aligned companies’ deciding to make something together.”
And to all those haters out there who are still asking – but why do you need to wear it? Ive is still pretty bullish, despite some disappointment in the industry around the first iteration of the Apple Watch.
“Nine years ago, the iPhone didn’t exist, and the most personal product we had was too big to carry around with you,” he said. “The technology is at last starting to enable something that was the dream of the company from the very beginning – to make technology personal. So personal that you can wear it.”
Woah. That’s pretty strong stuff and it’s close as we’ll get to Steve Jobs’ blessing for the Apple Watch and its future incarnations.
Designer Tom Ford also popped up in the interview to enhance Apple’s status in the fashion hierarchy and remind us that his own $1,490 steampunk-style riff on the Apple Watch last summer. “I view Apple products as fashion accessories. I even created silver and gold pocket chains for the Apple Watch,” he said.
The love story continues. Later this year, Apple is sponsoring a Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute exhibition about fashion and technology titled Manus x Machina and Ive is co-chairing the opening night gala. And at Apple’s rumoured March event, we are now expecting not an entirely new Apple Watch 2 but new accessories and models of the first smartwatch.
