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The Zip-Off-Sleeve Uniforms Issey Miyake Designed for Sony in the Early 1980s
Sony, in a 2021 Instagram post, regarding the uniforms that so infatuated Steve Jobs that he commissioned Miyake to design prototype vests for Apple employees to wear:
The history of the relationship between the two companies dates back to the 1980s. It was Issey Miyake whom Akio Morita, chairman of the board at that time, requested for a uniform design which employees take pride in with comfort year-round.
That’s the light nylon fabric uniform, created by the first collaboration of Sony and ISSEY MIYAKE.
Featuring removable sleeves, it’s perfect for summer.
The second photo shows Akio Morita trying one on. See also: this Instagram post from SPOT Closet.
What a find it would be for someone to uncover one of Miyake’s prototype vests for Apple.
I Guess They’re Down to 999 No’s for Every Yes
From Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs, chapter 28, “CEO: Still Crazy After All These Years”, p. 361:
On a trip to Japan in the early 1980s, Jobs asked Sony’s chairman, Akio Morita, why everyone in his company’s factories wore uniforms. “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 recalled. Over the years the uniforms developed their own signature style, especially at companies such as Sony, and it became a way of bonding workers to the company. “I decided that I wanted that type of bonding for Apple,” Jobs recalled.
Sony, with its appreciation for style, had gotten the famous designer Issey Miyake to create one of its uniforms. It was a jacket made of ripstop nylon with sleeves that could unzip to make it a vest. “So I called Issey and asked him to design a vest for Apple,” Jobs recalled. “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.”
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, because of both 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 gestured to them stacked up in the closet. “That’s what I wear,” he said. “I have enough to last for the rest of my life.”
As my review of the book noted, Isaacson’s biography is profoundly flawed, at times grossly factually wrong, when it comes to documenting Jobs’s work. But it’s still a valuable book overall, and a unique resource regarding the personal aspects of Jobs’s life. (Purchase links: Amazon (which somehow has the hardcover edition for just $12), Bookshop.org, and Apple Books.)
Bonus excerpt, from chapter 20, “A Regular Guy: Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word”, regarding Jobs’s biological sister, the novelist Mona Simpson:
One of the few things they would argue about was her clothes. She dressed like a struggling novelist, and he would berate her for not wearing clothes that were “fetching enough.” At one point his comments so annoyed her that she wrote him a letter: “I am a young writer, and this is my life, and I’m not trying to be a model anyway.” He didn’t answer. But shortly after, a box arrived from the store of Issey Miyake, the Japanese fashion designer whose stark and technology-influenced style made him one of Jobs’s favorites. “He’d gone shopping for me,” she later said, “and he’d picked out great things, exactly my size, in flattering colors.” There was one pantsuit that he had particularly liked, and the shipment included three of them, all identical. “I still remember those first suits I sent Mona,” he said. “They were linen pants and tops in a pale grayish green that looked beautiful with her reddish hair.”
Issey Miyake, the man, died in 2022 at 84.
iPod Socks vs. iPhone Pocket
Craig Grannell, writing for Stuff:
This collaboration with Issey Miyake was, we’re told, inspired by the concept of “a piece of cloth”. The result of all that R&D? A crossbody sock. It’s as if someone raided a warehouse of iPod Socks, stretched them out and fashioned them up.
When Steve Jobs introduced the originals, he called them a “revolutionary new product for iPod … socks”. Clearly enjoying himself, he joked that case makers were making more money than Apple did on the iPod, and so Apple thought it’d offer something too. “And our design team came up with socks,” he said. You got six colours for $29 — about $50 in today’s money — and they were a warm expression of Apple’s playful side (and, as Jobs quipped, would “keep your iPod warm on cold days”).
When Jobs announced iPod Socks in 2004, a lot of people thought he was pulling a gag. Some people didn’t believe they were real until they went on sale. My wife and I bought a pack and we both enjoyed them. (I took the gray one, natch.) It was a nice way to protect your iPod before throwing it in a bag, and getting six for $30 felt like a lark.
No one seems worried that iPhone Pocket is a gag. Make of that what you will.
iPhone Pocket
Apple Newsroom:
ISSEY MIYAKE and Apple today unveiled iPhone Pocket. Inspired by the concept of “a piece of cloth,” its singular 3D-knitted construction is designed to fit any iPhone as well as all pocketable items. [...]
Crafted in Japan, iPhone Pocket features a singular 3D-knitted construction that is the result of research and development carried out at ISSEY MIYAKE. The design drew inspiration from the concept of “a piece of cloth” and reinterpreted the everyday utility of the brand’s iconic pleated clothing. The development and design of iPhone Pocket unfolded in close collaboration with the Apple Design Studio, which provided insight into design and production throughout.
I don’t object to the price ($150 for the short strap, $230 for the long strap). I do object to Apple going along with Issey Miyake’s preference to style their name in all-caps.
(This, despite the fact that the brand label on the Pockets is styled in all-lowercase.)
