The Meta-morphosis of Mark Zuckerberg

(Admittedly, it was a luxury version of a grey T-shirt from Brunello Cucinelli, but it was still a T-shirt.)

But after multiple trips by chief executives to Washington DC to testify about the controversies about anxiety and depression caused by social media pressures; after the convictions of Elizabeth Holmes (she of the Jobs-like black turtleneck) and Sam Bankman-Fried; after the cesspool of conspiracy theories and anger that has emerged on X; after all that, the story – and its heroes’ journeys and its heroes’ costumes – suddenly doesn’t look so convincing. Behold the new, looser Zuckerberg.

He has become, says Joseph Rosenfeld, an image consultant and stylist who works with executives in New York and California, “a more democratised figure”.

Arguably the seeds were planted in 2021 when Facebook turned into Meta, and Zuckerberg’s first avatar – dressed, as he generally was in real life, in a T-shirt and jeans – turned out to have a closet of alternative outfits, including a skeleton unitard and an astronaut’s suit.

The transformation picked up steam as he discovered the joys of mixed martial arts and started posting photographs of himself shirtless, sweaty and with various bumps and bruises. It then reached a tipping point with the introduction of the text sharing platform Threads.

Not long after, Zuckerberg unveiled his “open and friendly public space for conversation”, and also unveiled his own new, friendlier look – one that focused less on an automated uniform and more on experimentation (everything being relative), as recorded via his own Instagram posts. Suddenly, it seemed as if he was having fun with fashion.

He cheerfully shared photographs of himself looking Yellowstone-ready in a chunky shearling coat by Overland. Next came snaps of himself and his wife, Priscilla Chan, at Anant Ambani’s three-day pre-wedding celebration in Gujarat, in various forms of Indian-inspired finery: a gold silk Sunderbans Tigress shirt from Rahul Mishra; a black Alexander McQueen suit embroidered with silver dragonflies; and a pastel floral kurta.

And then Zuckerberg added a pic titled “jersey swap” in which he and Jensen Huang of Nvidia traded outerwear, with Zuckerberg donning one of Huang’s trademark leather jackets and Huang his shearling. By the time of his last jaunt to the capital, he had let his tightly controlled Julius Caesar haircut grow into looser curls.

He has even started sharing shopping tips. When Jen Wieczner, of New York Magazine wrote an article identifying a sweater Zuckerberg wore as from the stealth wealth brand Loro Piana, he popped into the comments under the magazine’s Instagram post to note that the garment was actually a crew neck from Buck Mason – a Los Angeles brand that focuses on American classics – not one from an Italian luxury house owned by LVMH.

Then, when one of Zuckerberg’s followers complimented a ribbed knit cardigan he wore in a date night pick on his feed, he jumped in with a tag: “It’s @johnelliottco – I’m loving their stuff recently.”

Other brands he favours now include Todd Snyder and Vuori.

“They are kind of trendy names,” says Derek Guy, who blogs about menswear at Die, Workwear! “Everything has a different silhouette, like the sweatshirt with overly long sleeves or the T-shirt with dropped shoulder seams.”

Guy, and Ganesan, of Menlo Ventures, say they are convinced that Zuckerberg has enlisted professional help (which is to say, a stylist) to help him develop his look. But a spokeswoman for Meta said that was not the case – at least for his day-to-day life. “Mark mostly buys clothes he finds on Instagram,” she said. “Though he does get input … for formal events and occasions.”

Either way, Zuckerberg’s pivot from the luxury labels made famous by the morally bankrupt billionaires of Succession to more contemporary brands means that “he now has a stable of clothing that makes him an accessible figure for the world and his audience,” Rosenfeld says.

His new wardrobe also distinguishes him from rivals such as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos – who has transformed himself into a real life version of Iron Man, with his bulging muscles, leather jackets and yachts – and Elon Musk, who seems to be channelling a sort of Top Gun meets Goldfinger vibe.

By contrast, Ganesan says, Zuckerberg now looks like “the buddy you want to call if you’re doing backyard construction”. Think of him as the tech dude next door. All of which matters because, as Ganesan adds, “mainstream America can relate to that, and he is offering a mainstream product”.

And that is just “very good for business”.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.