October 5, 2026, marks 15 years since Steve Jobs died in 2011, at the age of 56.He is one of the few names in the world that have not only left an inspirational legacy behind but also an indelible mark on the world, setting a benchmark for his perspective on things and outstanding technology.Jobs co-founded Apple, left, and returned in 1997, and under him the company became known for products that felt friendly, clean, and easy to use. He believed technology should not scare people. Buttons, menus and thick manuals were things to trim away, not show off. That love of simplicity became Apple’s signature, from the first Mac to the iPod and beyond.Interestingly, his own look and fashion sense told the same story. In photos, keynotes, and magazine covers, he almost always wore the same outfit: a black turtleneck, blue jeans, and sneakers. It was so consistent that people began to see it as part of the Apple brand itself. For Jobs, style meant removing choices rather than adding them.Surprisingly, the story behind that outfit is more interesting than it looks, as it was not only limited to Jobs but also influenced Apple products’ designs.
How Steve Jobs’ simple clothing choices influenced Apple product designs
When Steve Jobs passed away in October 5, 2011, the world quickly started talking about one thing he left behind, his most iconic black turtleneck.According to Forbes, a clothing brand called St. Croix rushed to take credit for the shirt, and its owner, Bernhard Brenner, claimed Jobs bought two dozen of them every year and even phoned the company to say how much he liked them.That story did not last long.According to an excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs mentioned in Forbes, the shirts were actually the work of Japanese designer Issey Miyake, Jobs’s own account was that Miyake produced his turtlenecks in bulk, not St. Croix. Forbes adds that St. Croix backed away from the claim, and Miyake quietly took his turtleneck off the market in 2011 in honour of his late friend.
So what exactly is the back story and where did his idea of signature outfit come from?
According to his biography, written by Isaacson, Jobs visited Sony in Japan in the 1980s and saw that factory workers wore matching uniforms. When asked by Jobs, Sony’s chairman, Akio Morita, explained that after the war people had no clothes, so companies gave workers something to wear, and over time the uniform became a way to bond staff to the company. Jobs wanted that spirit at Apple. Since Miyake had designed Sony’s uniform, Jobs asked Miyake to make a vest for Apple.It was a flop. As Jobs recalled in the biography, “Everybody hated the idea.” So, Jobs asked Miyake for the black turtlenecks he already liked, and Miyake made “like a hundred of them.” Isaacson writes that Jobs wanted the ease of not choosing an outfit each day, plus a signature style, and that he kept the shirts stacked in his closet.
The same thinking shaped Apple’s products
According to Isaacson, writing in Smithsonian magazine, Jobs’s interest in design began with the Eichler-style home he grew up in, one of the clean, modern houses built cheaply in California suburbs in the 1950s. Apart from this, it all began when he headed to India for a spiritual trip.After leaving college, he travelled through India in search of enlightenment, but it was Japanese Zen Buddhism that spoke to him most. Daniel Kottke, a college friend who went on the trip with him, said, “Zen was a deep influence.” He added, “You see it in his whole approach of stark, minimalist aesthetics, intense focus.” Jobs felt the same way. He told Walter Isaacson, “I have always found Buddhism, Japanese Zen Buddhism in particular, to be aesthetically sublime,” and added, “The most sublime thing I’ve ever seen are the gardens around Kyoto.“According to Isaacson, he also appreciated ‘simple interfaces when he returned from India’ to a job on the night shift at Atari, where he worked with his friend Steve Wozniak designing video games.
From simple fashion choices to simple and minimal product designs that helped Apple be a exception
Under Jobs, Apple’s products became known for a look that was clean, friendly, and fun. At a time when great industrial designers were hard to find, Jobs worked together with Hartmut Esslinger in the 1980s and then with Jony Ive from 1997.Together they gave Apple a style that made it stand out from other tech companies, and it later became the most valuable company in the world at the time. The idea behind it all was simplicity. But this wasn’t just about a tidy surface or an uncluttered screen. It was a deeper kind of simplicity that comes from truly understanding what a product is, how it works inside, and what every single part is meant to do.So putting it together, the turtleneck and the iPhone answer the same question: what can you take away? Remove the choice of clothes, and mornings get easier. Remove the clutter from a product, and anyone can use it.