Lee, executive vice president of global marketing of Samsung’s mobile
communications business, was in Paris to co-host a luncheon with editor
Carine Roitfeld, billed as a bridge-building exercise between the
technology and fashion industries.
Samsung has already tapped
footwear designer Nicholas Kirkwood and Milanese fashion house Moschino
to decorate straps for its latest smart watch, the Gear 2, unveiled last
week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Manuel Puig,
Céline’s Marco Gobbetti, Pucci designer Peter Dundas, Diesel founder
Renzo Rosso and Berluti’s Alessandro Sartori were among the fashion folk
who assembled at the Shangri-La Hotel in Paris to gawk at Samsung’s
latest gadgets, including tablets with functionalities like sketching
and simple copying and pasting of images.
In an interview, Lee
said it’s “only a matter of time” before wearable devices, initially
watches and glasses, become integrated into everyday life, just as
smartphones rapidly have.
She noted Samsung has already sold
more than a million units of its first smart watch since it launched
last October, with the U.S. the most successful country, followed by
China and Singapore.
According to Lee, mobile devices are akin
to fashion in that people have an “emotional and aspirational connection
to technology.”
That said, she allowed that fashion could help
make devices more attractive for women, and that she’s “dreaming [of]
the possibility of future collaborations.”
Many members of the fashion quotient present are already keen techies.
“I’m super connected, but I’m not crazy or obsessed,” said Sartori. “I
have three phones — one personal and two for the company. One is
dedicated to files and the other to pictures and Instagram.”
While Samsung was keen to highlight the sketch functionality of its
latest Galaxy Tab, Sartori confessed that old-fashioned pencil and paper
work better for him.
“We sketch everything by hand and then
take photographs,” he said. “Even one millimeter makes a difference to
the final product. That will always be the case for this level of
craftsmanship.”
Eugenie Niarchos mused about bridges with the
world of jewelry. “I think [technologies like these] could absolutely
influence jewelry in the future,” she said, referring to “things like
earpieces with Bluetooth or bracelets that could be made into some sort
of expensive watch.”
While Roitfeld herself admits to not being
a natural techie geek, she did say, while holding up the new Galaxy S5,
also unveiled in Barcelona: “I don’t think technology when I am using
this mobile. It’s like an extension of my arm, and I’m sure I’m just
using a tenth of its possibilities.”