By james, Design Development

In this interesting extract from the forthcoming biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson tells how he came to wear his signature black turtleneck. Years ago he visited Japan and spoke with the CEO of Japan. He learned that many years previous to that in Japan when people were hired, often they were poor and didn’t have clothing they were given a uniform to wear that often included a black jacket with zip off arms that could also be worn as a vest. Jobs loved this idea and actually brought it back to Cupertino, CA and tried to convince the Apple employees to participate — but they laughed at him.

Undeterred, Jobs stuck with the idea and had Issey Miyake make him some turtlenecks based on the designers own personal uniform. It stuck and Jobs wore it the rest of his life.