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For more than 20 years Mark Zuckerberg has made a Macbook grey T-shirt and equally drab-coloured hoodie his trademark. But now the Facebook founder has ditched his signature look in favour of something with a bit more oomph.
His new wardrobe features jazzy embroidered floral shirts, boxy black T-shirts emblazoned with Latin phrases, chain necklaces and a shearling coat that would not look out of place on the set of the western drama Yellowstone. He has even grown out his tightly cropped Caesar cut for looser curls.
This week he cemented his transformation, sharing a series of photos from a 1970s-themed party on Instagram wearing a black silk shirt unbuttoned to his navel and a glittery embellished jacket.
“The timeline changed when zuck stopped wearing that grey T-shirt every day,” read one comment underneath the post. “Zucks glow up needs to be studied in universities,” stated another. Some are even calling it “the Zuckanissance”.
Ash Jones, the founder of Great Influence, a personal branding agency that works with entrepreneurs and CEOs, describes it as a “tactical shift”. When Zuckerberg was called in front of the US Senate in 2018 after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, online chatter centred on how Zuckerberg in his “sorry suit” appeared to be almost robotic in his behaviour. “People were referring to him as an alien,” Jones says. “His advisers realised they had to shift that perception. They wanted to make him more approachable. They needed to humanise him.” In 2021 Facebook was rebranded as Meta. Now three years later, Zuckerberg 2.0 has hatched.
“A lot of the time when you try to rebrand someone, you focus on what they say,” Jones says. “Whereas with Zuckerberg it’s a visual shift. He is still talking about the same subjects but now he is doing so wearing cooler clothing.”
Zuckerberg is not the only tech bro to embrace a recent style shift. But while the former finance nerd Jeff Bezos is leaning into some kind of action man machismo (who can forget the bicep-bursting T-shirt he chose for his Vogue debut) and Elon Musk flits between a Mars coloniser in an aviator jacket and Trump cheerleader in a Maga cap, Zuckerberg is championing a more accessible and friendlier image. It is a real-life version of his Meta avatar he unveiled in 2023 whose wardrobe features digital outfits from Balenciaga and Prada.
“Zuckerberg’s latest look plays on a softer, more individual style,” says Kimberly Gant, a personal stylist who works with Silicon Valley executives. “Approachability, connection and a little bit of youth seem to be a key message in what is being communicated.”
His series of slogan T-shirts, made in partnership with the LA-based designer Mike Amiri, are self-referential, a sort of “if you know, you know” nod. “Aut Zuck aut nihil” is a play on “either a Caesar or nothing”, “Pathei Mathos” is Greek for “learning through suffering” – a favourite Zuckerberg family mantra – while the Latin “Carthago delenda est” translates as “Carthage must be destroyed” a quote Zuckerberg used during staff meetings.
“CEOs don’t want to be known just for being CEOs any more,” says Victoria Hitchcock, a stylist who advises tech heavyweights from Apple to Visa on how to dress. “I’m finding a lot of executives are interested in sharing more about their pastimes and lifestyle through their fashion.”
So after making a hoodie and jeans the default uniform of aspiring tech entrepreneurs, can we expect this new Zuck effect to trickle down on to startup floors? Hitchcock says she is already seeing demand for big glasses, velvet sport coats and cashmere silk polos. White trainers have been swapped for metallic versions from Wales Bonner or suede boots.
Jones compares it to gen Z and the street style scene. “It’s like kids copying what Travis Scott wears. The tech startup founders all follow whatever the most influential one at the top is doing. Zuckerberg has managed to insert himself into culture. Now, other founders are going to think they have a responsibility to be cool too. It’s undeniably going to have a ripple effect in the industry.”
additional reporting by Nyima Jobe