The legacies of late Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs will forever be linked, thanks to a certain black turtleneck. But the relationship between their respective companies was less about a work uniform and more about a mutual passion for design, innovation and freedom for the end-user.
That shared ethos is being celebrated today with the reveal of the iPhone Pocket, a clever wearable accessory from Apple and Issey Miyake. Made from a single 3D-knit sleeve, the stretchy pleated pouch is a playful way to carry your iPhone, AirPods, keys, chewing gum and other everyday essentials without the need for a bulky bag.
The limited-edition release, available in select markets online and in stores on Friday (14 November 2025), is a stylish new companion to Apple products. Depending on what length you choose, the iPhone Pocket can be worn over the shoulder, looped over a tote or simply hand-carried.
‘The way that people wear their products has been changing,’ Apple’s industrial design leader Molly Anderson tells Wallpaper*. ‘Your choice of phone and choice of accessories is a reflection of your style more and more.’
Anderson and her team had long been admirers of the Issey Miyake brand and had spent time in its Tokyo studio to better understand its philosophy and ways of making. The Issey Miyake team, too, paid visits to Apple Park in Cupertino, California. ‘There wasn't really an intention to make anything at all. We were just interested to speak to each other and see what was inspiring,’ Anderson says.
Invariably, though, a formal collaboration felt right. The iPhone Pocket grew out of a very simple question, according to Yoshiyuki Miyamae, designer of A-POC Able Issey Miyake: How can you wear an iPhone? ‘The iPhone is now present in almost every moment of our everyday life…We thought about how to make its presence more joyful and creative,’ Miyamae wrote in an email.
For its design, Miyamae and his team implemented a continuation of a pioneering concept that Issey Miyake introduced in 1998 – APOC (‘a piece of cloth’), in which garments are produced from a unified piece of 3D-knit fabric. Similarly, the iPhone Pocket relies on the APOC philosophy and resembles a long tube sock, with a slit in its middle. The simple design, though, belies the amount of R&D and experimentation required to get it just right. Everything, from the vibrant colour palette (the iPhone pocket will be available in eight hues) to the elegant translucent paper packaging, was considered.
Still, fun is part and parcel (pun intended) to the new product. As its user fills their iPhone Pocket, it will invariably bulge, like a boa constrictor after lunch. ‘We were really charmed by this idea that it’s not only creating a shape which reveals its content, but it also allows people to peek in and see their phone screen,’ Anderson says.
Miyamae thinks the iPhone Pocket anticipates our relationship with technology in the future. ‘As we move forward, the tools and devices surrounding us will more than likely evolve towards a style that is more personal and sensory, into devices that can be easily worn,’ he said.
It’s also a way to connect both companies’ pasts with the present. ‘If Miyake had known about this project, I think he would have been delighted and said, "here begins a new possibility,”’ Miyamae added.
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