Opinion: How Steve Jobs made gadgets fashionable and stylish

Apple's Steve Jobs who died Wednesday October 5th. He did more than any other person to make technology stylish and sexy

If you’d told us forty years ago that technology would be stylish and a fashion must-have then we would have laughed.

After all, us ladies were far more interested in the latest dress than we were the geeky cassette player or computer. Even when the mobile phone hit in the 80s and became a must have for yuppies, we still weren’t convinced.

Yes it was a sign that you had hit your work peak but come on, not only was it ugly it wouldn’t have fit into that handbag. And putting it in our trouser pockets- if they were the size of sacks- would have probably left us flashing a little bit more than we wanted to thanks to the sheer weight of the thing.

Technology was geeky and clunky and something we wouldn’t even consider lusting over. Then something began to change.

Suddenly the boring clunky PC, which back in the 70s was for hobbyists, had a rival in the shape of a rainbow Apple logo bearing device. Yes it was still a geeky machine but there was something about the sleeker design that made us take notice and think that if we had to use a computer it was this one we wanted.

Not only did it look good but it was easier to use. And it wasn’t just us who had fallen for the tempting Apple with the logo becoming synonymous and a regular resident in popular chic arty and creative offices.

The brainchild behind this new stylish company was of course Steve Jobs, a man who made technology, not to fit in with our current needs, but to make us want what he made.
And make us want, he did. With the help of Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Jonathan Ives, the pair got to work making portable technology that we had to keep out of our handbags and this time it wasn’t because they were too big and clunky but because we wanted the world to see we had an Apple product.

In came the iPod and suddenly our personal cassette players and that mix tape from that special person went out the window.We didn’t care that our other halves had sweated over picking those songs, and suddenly forgot how we sworn we’d never lose that cassette, all we could think about was how to get our new love – the shiny iPod that everyone who was anyone had. In fact we’d go so far as saying we would have swapped that other half just to ensure we had that new gadget in our handbags.

And so it had begun. The more products Steve Jobs and co bought out the more we wanted, after all you weren’t a fashion gal without the latest iPod. And then came the shiny iPhone, a product right up there with, dare we say it, the Mulberry bag, sleek, touchscreen and the with the opportunity of an app store, it was every fashionistas’ dream.

The need to have one of these was more than when we wanted that Nokia phone with the interchangeable covers when we were 12. And finally, after the celebrities and cool people had received theirs, we were able to get ours. Yes the hideously expensive monthly phone plan meant we wouldn’t be able to go out, but hey who needed to see their friends when we could call them with our new phone.

And of course businesses knew we were hooked, so hooked in fact that we’d buy that floral case, diamante number and anything that really made our phone stand out.

As for the iPad – yes, we did forgo those Christian Louboutins to get our hands on one of these….

Steve Jobs you succeeded in making the fashion world stand up and take note of technology. You made it stylish and sleek and for that you’ll always be remembered. RIP.

See the gallery below for pictures of all the beautiful people with their Apple gadgets.

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