Without the Apple co-founder, would it have occurred to anyone that technology could be an aspirational accessory?

... just as Jobs made consumers see technology differently – as a friendly, fun thing to interact with that could also look nice while sitting out on public view, hence identifying its owner as a hip individual who cared about style – he made the fashion world see it differently: not just in terms of desirability but in terms of how it could be used to fashion’s own ends. He made them understand that they had something to bring to the table, because he used their language.

Jobs effectively co-opted the rules of fashion and applied them to product design, insisting on clean lines and tactile attraction for his offerings, and updating them with a seasonal slant, not to mention a trend-driven vernacular – the next generation of whatever was always sold as being thinner, sleeker, brighter; the newest model, the prettiest computer in the room – thus allowing fashion to look at what he was doing and co-opt it in return. If he could use a style stratagem to transform technology, why couldn’t style use technology to extend its own influence on the world?

In this way Jobs’ famed “reality distortion field” distorted not just Apple but fashion’s relationship with all technology. It’s hard to think of a style brand now that doesn’t include phone/ tablet/computer cases as a core part of its accessories collections, along with keychains, wallets and handbags. You dress up your technology the way you dress up yourself, depending on emotion and what you are doing every day. A new iPad holder or phone case is a holiday gift item, just like a new pair of shoes or a nice woolly scarf. That transformation didn’t happen because consumers suddenly woke up and demanded it but because fashion realised it could make them want it.

Follow this to its natural conclusion and it’s possible to posit such realisation as the first step down the slippery slope that has led to so many other fashion collaborations and brand extensions: this understanding, which began small but has grown exponentially larger, that style has a part to play in every industry. Hotels, restaurants, condominiums, yachts – fashion is now claiming part ownership of all, eroding the boundaries between disciplines. Like Joshua at the battle of Jericho, Jobs loosed the first brick and the walls came a-tumblin’ down.

vanessa.friedman@ft.com

More columns at www.ft.com/friedman