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Issey Miyake, fashion designer and founder of the Miyake Design Studio, passed away on 5 August 2022 according to news reports. Miyake, who set his stamp on the fashion world in the 1980s was battling liver cancer.

The Hiroshima native studied graphic design at an art university in Tokyo and went on to study clothing design in Paris. In the French capital, Miyake worked alongside French designers Guy Laroche and Hubert de Givenchy before moving to New York. He returned to Tokyo in 1970 and started the Miyake Design Studio.

In the late ‘80s, Miyake reinvented and perfected the Fortuny pleating technique that became synonymous with his designs, birthing his Pleats, Please collection. Since then, the Issey Miyake brand has expanded to include fashion lines for both men and women, as well as watches, bags, and fragrances.

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If you didn’t already know, Miyake is the man behind Steve Jobs’ iconic signature black turtleneck. The former Apple CEO said, “So I asked Issey to make me some of his black turtlenecks that I liked, and he made me like a hundred of them.”

Miyake was once quoted in an international publication as saying “Design is not for philosophy – it’s for life.”