In 1981, when Steve Jobs visited Sony Japan, and saw that all workers in the factories were wearing matching uniforms. Jobs asked Akio Morita, then the chairman of Sony, about it.
“He looked very ashamed and told me that after the war, no one had any clothes, and companies like Sony had to give their workers something to wear each day,” Jobs said.
The uniforms that Jobs saw that day were designed by none other than Issey Miyake.
Miyake had worked with Sony to create a taupe nylon jacket that easily converted into a vest courtesy of removable sleeves. It became part of Sony’s signature style and a way of bonding workers to the company.
“I decided that I wanted that type of bonding for Apple,” Jobs said. “So I called Issey and asked him to design a vest for Apple. I came back with some samples and told everyone it would be great if we would all wear these vests. Oh man, did I get booed off the stage. Everybody hated the idea.”
An Apple uniform from Miyake wasn’t meant to be, but it opened the door to a friendship between Miyake Dressing Steve Jobs himself Miyake’s black turtlenecks and Levi’s 501 classic fit jeans.
“So I asked Issey to make me some of his black turtlenecks that I liked, and he made me like a hundred of them,” Jobs said, adding that it was enough to last him the rest of his life.
