T-shirts, sweatshirts, ties
Wearing one shirt over another can mean nothing or it can mean something important, very important. Certainly for those who wear it, but also for those who observe it. Our Salvini has built a political fortune on sweatshirts, worn in all circumstances as a primary communication tool, which even precedes social media, of which he is the superman.
The Greek political force Syriza, which has ruled the Hellenic country for 5 years and is heading into twilight, forbids its members to wear a tie, symbol of the political elite. He recommends an unbuttoned shirt. A gesture of informality that in itself irritates the Germans.
In the unbridled world of technology there is the prime example of Steve Jobs, that is a success story, perhaps, unparalleled. His black turtleneck shirts have become a myth, they almost symbolize it. If there were no ISIS flag among the boxes, it could be hoisted on every innovator's flagpole. There was Zuckeberg sweatshirt, but Mark has now taken to wearing Jobs-style T-shirts.
Then there was Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, one of the most sinister and repulsive scams in the history of technological innovation in the medical and biological fields. Elizabeth was wearing her uniform: a black turtleneck T-shirt and she was rarely seen around dressed differently from her. Holmes has now taken Cruella's place in the pantheon of villains. And the black T-shirt has become the uniform of the bad guys, with the contribution of the Islamic army pick-ups.
A special story
Hbo has just released the documentary film, The Inventor: Out For Blood In Silicon Valley, which reconstructs in a documented way the story of Theranos, a biotechnology startup in Silicon Valley and its fascinating and magnetic founder, Elizabeth Holmes. After hitting a $10 billion valuation, Theranos brutally imploded to the point of escalating into a scandal that could rival Enron's.
It is a story that seems to have it all, better crafted than a fiction created by Vince Gilligan. There is ambition, deceit, a secret love, the complacency of politicians and media and information tycoons, there are celebrities, there is a young, attractive and daring blonde, a suicide, the rise and the fall of finance, hundreds of millions of dollars burned, the health of thousands of people at risk and the prospect of a long prison sentence for the protagonist.
In the public imagination Elizabeth Holmes is synonymous with scandal, deceit, fraud, bullying and… Steve Jobs. Yes, because Holmes, at one point, had been portrayed as the reincarnation of the real Steve Jobs, not only for her managerial style, for her fanatical admiration for Apple and its iconic founder, but also for the black T-shirts turtleneck (with turtle neck) that Holmes, like Jobs, used as a real uniform.
The Jobs model
Jonathan Kim in an article on Medium, Elizabeth Holmes and the Ghost of Steve Jobs, draws a parallel between the "new Steve Jobs" and the "authentic Steve Jobs", showing the fundamental difference between the two experiences, albeit united by many features, especially for Holmes' mimetic approach to the leadership and vision of the Apple co-founder. Starting with the t-shirts.
Holmes' T-shirts weren't just any turtleneck, but came from the same Japanese designer, Issey Miyake, who used Steve Jobs for bulk orders. Each model with a Miyake crewneck can cost more than 250 euros. In Jobs' time it was worth $175.
Who is Issey Miyake?
Miyake, born in Hiroshima in 1938 and survived the atomic holocaust, is the Japanese designer who has been able, more than others, to mix Eastern and Western traditions in his activity as an innovative fashion designer. He is undoubtedly one of the most famous Japanese fashion designers in the world.
He began his career in the late 60s, working with couturiers such as Hubert de Givenchy and Guy Laroche. He founded his own company in 1970 and in 1973 showed his collection in a fashion show at Paris Fashion Days.
In the 80s Miyake achieved international fame, entering the group of the most popular stylists together with other Japanese designers such as Rei Kawakubo (of Comme des Garçons) and Yohji Yamamoto.
In 2005 and 2006 Miyake was awarded the Praemium Imperiale by the Japan Arts Association and became the first fashion designer to receive the Kyoto Prize in Art and Philosophy for Lifetime Achievement awarded by the Inamori Foundation. In 2014 Miyake also received important recognition in Italy with the coveted Compasso d'Oro award assigned to him by the Industrial Design Association. He won it for the creation of the IN-EI Issey Miyake family of lamps, produced by Artemide.
Miyake is also known for his Pleats Please line and his A-POC (A Piece of Clothing) garment, made by an industrial machine programmed to weave a huge piece of continuous fabric.
After Jobs' death in 2011, sales of turtlenecks soared. In the same year, however, Miyake decided to withdraw the garment from his clothing line. It was only reintroduced there in 2017 at a higher price.
Steve Jobs and Miyake
The fame acquired by Miyake is also due to Jobs. According to biographer Walter Isaacson, Jobs' interest in Miyake was born when the then president of Sony, Akio Morita, told Jobs that he had asked the stylist to design the uniforms of the employees. Jobs had an extraordinary admiration for the Japanese company which he often cited as a model at the intersection of art and technology. The work uniforms had helped create a bond between Sony employees and the company. Jobs wanted the same thing for Apple.
He then commissioned Miyake to create a jacket for Apple employees. But when Jobs showed him some samples of the Miyake-designed garment, he knew no one wanted a uniform. The work culture of Californians was different from that of the Japanese. But this did not interrupt Jobs' relationship with the designer. Isaacson writes: «Thanks to that operation, however, Jobs became friends with Miyake, whom he began to visit regularly. He also had the idea of getting a personal uniform, both for convenience in daily use (the rationality he so much invoked) and for the ability to convey a sign of distinctive style. “I asked Issey to make me one of his black turtlenecks that I liked so much. He made me a hundred." Noticing my surprise at this story, Jobs showed me them, stacked in his closet. "Here's what I'm wearing," he said. "I have enough for the rest of my life." Jobs paid $175 a piece for each shirt. A price not even negotiated a bit, for a "bully" of business negotiations like Jobs.
Elizabeth Holmes and Miyake
Holmes has repeatedly publicly stated that she was inspired by Jobs' aesthetic figure, even in the choice of things to wear.
According to the ABC News podcast The Dropout, which chronicles Holmes' rise and fall, turtlenecks haven't always been Holmes' signature style. It seems that Ana Arriola, a former Apple employee (where Holmes was shopping for human resources), directed her towards that choice in telling her the story of Jobs, Sony, uniforms and the relationship between Jobs and Issey Miyake. After that, continues Arriola, Holmes followed in the footsteps of the Japanese designer and the rest of the story is known. “He thus changed his clothing – concludes Arriola – and it was for the better”.
Not quite the same version of Holmes. In a 2015 interview with Glamor she said that she has been wearing black turtlenecks since childhood.
“My mom made me a black turtleneck when I was eight. Now I'm 150. It's my uniform,” Holmes said. Make life easier. Every day you put on the same stuff and you don't have to think about it, one less thing to do. All my attention is on work. I take it very seriously; I'm sure this is also reflected in the way I dress».
Holmes reaffirmed this version in the HBO documentary The Inventor. In fact, he said "I have to reveal that I've been wearing black turtlenecks since I was 7 years old".
Whether Holmes really wore turtlenecks from childhood or simply adopted them as an adult to emulate a certain CEO is therefore unclear. But if people believe them, then, asks Vanessa Friedman — the fashion critic of the New York Times: “Will people still be able to look at black crew-neck T-shirts with the same benign gaze?”
