As Meta’s first-quarter earnings report approached this week, a video image of Mark Zuckerberg suddenly started going viral.
Not because of the artificial intelligence assistant he was touting or because of the expected growth in advertising revenue, but because of the silver chain he wore around his neck.
“Mark Zuckerberg made an announcement about something Meta is doing with the AI, but I couldn’t listen or remember a second of it because when I watch the Reel of him talking, all I see is is a necklace,” wrote Amy Odell in her Substack, Back Row.
Later, a doctored version of the same photo with Mr. Zuckerberg sporting scruffy facial hair made people even more excited. The more than 4,000 mostly sloppy comments under an Instagram post from the celebrity news account The shadow room including that of Gwyneth Paltrow, who compared Mr. Zuckerberg to her ex-husband, Chris Martin.
All of a sudden, it seems like people care a lot about 39-year-old Mark Zuckerberg’s looks. In an age where the bright promises of technology have been cast in a darker and more suspect light, the guy whose unrelenting allegiance to the gray T-shirt has become synonymous with the nerd commitment to “move fast and break it things” somehow became the nicest. , softer face of technology.
“The story of Silicon Valley has always been based on a carefully constructed image and narrative used to reinforce its myths,” said Venky Ganesan, a partner at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures. But, he continued, “the playbook is changing.”
And Mr. Zuckerberg has emerged as the most visible sign yet that, in the phenomenology of Silicon Valley, we are entering a post-Jobsian era.
Once upon a time, back when Steve Jobs was the prophet of a better future thanks to computing, the virtues of his approach to life seemed obvious, notably the adoption of a immutable daily uniform as an ideal form of dress. It freed the mind from the trivial concerns of everyday choices such as what color shirt goes with which socks. (So boring!) So did Mr. Zuckerberg, who went so far as to announce in a 2014 press release Facebook forum that he wore the same T-shirt every day because “I really want to clarify my life so that I have to make as few decisions as possible other than how to best serve this community.”
(It was certainly a luxury version of a gray Brunello Cucinelli T-shirt, but it was still a T-shirt.)
But after multiple trips by leaders to Washington DC, to bear witness to the controversies over anxiety and depression caused by the pressures of social media; after the convictions of Elizabeth Holmes (she of the black turtleneck à la Jobs) and Sam Bankman-Fried; after the cesspool of conspiracy theories and anger that emerged on X; after all that, the story—and the journeys and costumes of its heroes—suddenly doesn’t seem so compelling. Here is the new, more cowardly Mr. Zuckerberg.
He has become, according to Joseph Rosenfeld, an image consultant and stylist who works with executives in New York and California, “a more democratized figure.”
Arguably the seeds were planted in 2021, when Facebook morphed into Meta, and Mr. Zuckerberg’s project first avatar — dressed, as he usually was IRL, in a T-shirt and jeans — turned out to have a closet of alternate outfits, including a skeleton suit and an astronaut suit. The transformation accelerated when Mr. Zuckerberg discovered the joys of mixed martial arts and began posting photos of himself. shirtless, sweaty and with various bumps and bruises. It then reached a turning point with the introduction of the Threads platform.
Shortly after Mr. Zuckerberg revealed its “open, friendly public space for conversation,” it also unveiled its own new, friendlier look – less focused on an automated uniform and more on experimentation (all being relative), as recorded via its own posts on Instagram. Suddenly it seemed to him that he was having fun with fashion.
He happily shared photos of himself ready for “Yellowstone” in a chunky shearling coat by Overland. (It seems to be the Nonconformist Breeder coat, which is the kind of subconscious narrative that “Saturday Night Live” might adopt.) Next are shots of him and his wife, Priscilla Chan, at Anant Ambani’s three-day pre-wedding celebration in Gujarat , in various forms of Indian inspiration. adornment: golden silk Sunderbans Tigress Shirt by Rahul Mishra, a black Alexander McQueen Costume embroidered with silver dragonflies and a pastel floral kurta.
And then Mr. Zuckerberg added a photo titled “jersey exchange” in which he and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang swapped outerwear, with Mr. Zuckerberg donning one of Mr. Huang’s designer leather jackets and Mr. Huang his sheepskin. By the time of his final jaunt to the capital, he had let his tightly controlled Julius Caesar haircut fade into looser curls.
He even started sharing shopping tips. When Jen Wieczner of New York magazine wrote an article Identifying a sweater Mr. Zuckerberg was wearing as being from the stealth wealth brand Loro Piana, he jumped into the comments under the magazine’s Instagram post to note that the garment was actually a crewneck from Buck Mason – a brand from Los Angeles that focuses on American classics – not one from an Italian luxury house owned by LVMH.
Then, when one of Mr. Zuckerberg’s followers complimented a ribbed knit cardigan he wore on a date on his feed, he jumped in with a label: “This is @johnelliottco – I’m loving their stuff recently.
Other brands he now favors include Whites by Thirteen Studios (he wore his white T-shirt during an Ultimate Fighting Champion match), Todd Snyder and Vuori.
“They’re pretty trendy names,” said Derek Guy, who blogs about men’s clothing at Die, work clothes! “Everything has a different silhouette, like the sweatshirt with sleeves that are too long or the t-shirt with dropped shoulder seams.”
Mr. Guy and Mr. Ganesan, of Menlo Ventures, said they were convinced that Mr. Zuckerberg had enlisted professional help (i.e., a stylist) to help him develop his look. But a spokeswoman for Meta said that wasn’t the case — at least for her everyday life. “Mark mainly buys clothes he finds on Instagram,” she said. “Although it does get comments from time to time for events and formal occasions.”
Regardless, Mr. Zuckerberg’s move from the luxury brands made famous by the morally bankrupt billionaires of “Succession” to more contemporary brands means that “he now has a clothing line that makes him a figure accessible to the world and to his audience.” » said Mr. Rosenfeld.
His new wardrobe also sets him apart from rivals like Jeff Bezos — who has transformed into a real-life version of Iron Man, complete with bulging muscles, leather jackets and yachts — and Elon Musk, who seems to be channeling a sort of “Top Gun” and “Goldfinger” vibe.
By contrast, Mr. Ganesan said, Mr. Zuckerberg now looks like “the buddy you want to call if you’re doing construction in your backyard.” Think of him as the technician next door. All of this is important because, Mr. Ganesan continued, “mainstream America can relate to this, and it offers a mainstream product.”
And that, he says, is simply “very good for business.”
