Why Steve Jobs Always Wore a Black Turtleneck
Steve Jobs has always been known to wear nothing more than regular sneakers, regular jeans, and a black turtleneck shirt. But why he did that was never fully understood. Until now.An excerpt from Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs, due out this month, reveals that the late Apple co-founder had initially wanted to create a uniform for his entire staff.
After visiting Sony’s headquarters in Japan in the early 1980s, Jobs had realized that uniforms would not only develop a signature style for the company, they would also bond workers to their work environment.
However, that didn't quite pan out as Steve had planned:
“Sony, with its appreciation for style, had gotten the famous designer Issey Miyake to create its uniform,” writes Isaacson. “It was a jacket made of rip-stop nylon with sleeves that could unzip to make it a vest. So Jobs called Issey Miyake and asked him to design a vest for Apple, Jobs recalled, ‘I came back with some samples and told everyone it would great if we would all wear these vests. Oh man, did I get booed off the stage. Everybody hated the idea’.”
So Jobs put to rest his plans to have everyone dressed the same at Apple.
But he didn’t give up his plans to develop a signature style for the company. So what he did was he created the uniform for himself. Isaacson continues:
(As noted by Gawker media, the ending line has an evocative ring to it with Jobs now passed away).
“In the process, however, he became friends with Miyake and would visit him regularly. He also came to like the idea of having a uniform for himself, both because of its daily convenience (the rationale he claimed) and its ability to convey a signature style. ‘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 noticed my surprise when he told this story, so he showed them stacked up in the closet. ‘That's what I wear’, he said. "I have enough to last for the rest of my life’.”
