Born in Hiroshima in 1938 and survived the city bombing in 1945, the famous Japanese fashion designer passed away on Friday, August 5, from liver cancer.

AceShowbiz -Japanese fashion designer icon Issey Miyake has died aged 84. Known for producing Steve Jobs’ trademark turtlenecks, he passed away from liver cancer last Friday, the Kyodo news agency reported.

He was said to have wanted to become either a dancer or an athlete, but reading his sister’s fashion magazines inspired him to choose fashion. He was propelled to fame with his designs incorporating cutting-edge silhouettes and pleated fabrics in a career spanning more than half a century.

Born in Hiroshima in 1938, Miyake was seven years old when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the city in August 1945, during the Second World War. He was in a school classroom at the time and survived the bombing, but stayed reluctant to speak of the event until later in life.

In a July 2009 New York Times piece, he said, “When I close my eyes, I still see things no one should ever experience: a bright red light, the black cloud soon after, people running in every direction trying desperately to escape – I remember it all. Within three years, my mother died from radiation exposure.”

The article was written to try and persuade then-US president Barack Obama to visit the city. Miyake said he preferred to “think of things that can be created, not destroyed, and that bring beauty and joy.” He added, “I gravitated toward the field of clothing design, partly because it is a creative format that is modern and optimistic” – and insisted he did not want to be labelled as the designer “who survived the atomic bomb.”

After studying graphic design at a Tokyo art university he went on to learn clothing design in Paris, where he worked with famed fashion designers Guy Laroche and Hubert de Givenchy, before heading to New York. He returned to Tokyo in 1970 and founded the Miyake Design Studio, with his creations expanding to include bags, watches and fragrances before he essentially retired in 1997.

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