Power Dressing: Silicon Valley’s Macho Makeover Is a Warning, Not a Trend

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a jiu-jitsu-practising , Richard Mille -wearing, power-lifting tycoon whose aesthetic suggests something between Bond villain and UFC champion.

Jeff Bezos , once a dorky, fleece-vested book salesman, has undergone a biceps- first metamorphosis into a Vin Diesel -adjacent yacht lord.

Bezos can now be seen at D&G fashion shows in impeccably tailored trousers and a leather bomber jacket.

The New York Times has gone as far as to label him a style icon.

Tech billionaires have long been aligning themselves with mythmaking, macho masculinity narratives.

In 2018 , Elon Musk began working with designer Emily Dawn Long on his new look, supposedly looking to channel macho male icons such as Harrison Ford , Paul Newman and Ernest Shackleton .

Zuckerberg ’s wardrobe now includes custom t-shirts emblazoned with historical mottos: “Pathei Mathos” ( Greek for “learning through suffering”), “Carthago delenda est’ ( Latin for Carthage must be destroyed”) and “ Aut Zuck aut nihil”.

Zuckerberg ’s custom t-shirts emblazoned with historical mottos suggest a new, more aggressive self-styling that asserts power.

Mark Zuckerberg's style shift says something about a specific group of American billionaires who are aligning themselves with what looks to be a new political order within the U.S ..