Apple has recently hired Angela Ahrendts, former CEO of Burberry, the British luxury clothing company. Her role in Apple is to fill to role of retail chief, which has been empty for over a year. In her time at Burberry she was able to bring the company out of a slump and bring consistent growth for about seven years. She was able to reinvent the trademark look of Burberry, as the traditional plaid was growing old. Apple’s hopes is that she can bring a fresh new design to their products. Their fear is that their electronics are losing their competitive edge in their clean design and small size. As many other phones and electronics have similar looks. Its as if Apple is trying to fill the void of revolutionary looks and ideas  for products that Steve Jobs had.

Angela Ahrendts was no doubt impressive at Burberry and very capable. However this begs the question, can Angela’s knowledge of luxury clothing apply to a remodel of Apple? It seems an odd fit, clothing to electronics. The only obvious match is that both products are somewhat luxury goods, however Apple’s trademark has always been, simple, and monochromatic. Clothing tends not to be monochromatic for the most part, it will be interesting to see if Apple changes their looks in attempts to change popular design again.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304561004579136642448489128