Mark Zuckerberg Is Trying Something On

When I meet Mark Zuckerberg, currently one of the poster boys for evil tech billionaires, a man whose products are used by about 46 percent of all living people in the world and whose company has a market cap of more than a trillion dollars, he is wearing sky-blue, cable-knit shorts that look an awful lot like bloomers.That was just over a month ago, before what is turning out to be a style-centric period for Meta.It started this week at Connect, the company’s annual new products reveal, where Zuckerberg took to the stage wearing a T-shirt with the words “Building is my love language.”He waxed enthusiastic about the future, including the many new styles of smart glasses, and the company’s personal A.I.

assistant, Muse, which looks a lot like a customizable stuffed animal in a onesie.This was just after Vogue World kicked off Milan Fashion Week with Meta glasses as a sponsor, and around the same time W magazine produced an entire stand-alone advertorial zine devoted to a new glasses collaboration with the K-pop star Lisa.Ahead of all of that, I had come to the compound in Lake Tahoe to try to understand the role style has come to play in the Zuckerberg saga, including the very public rebrand of 2024, when he went from robotic coder in a gray hoodie to fashion-conscious bro next door.

That the latest version of Zuckerberg coincides with Meta’s push into wearables, as well as with Silicon Valley’s obsession with the idea of taste and how important a role it will play in the future, may explain why he was finally willing to talk about it.“I want to make sure that we really immerse ourselves in what people care about,” Zuckerberg told me.It turned out he had started with himself, his own preferences, and where they took him.Zuckerberg knows that what he does reflects on Meta.

“I care about that,” he said.“I think the company is an instantiation of my values.” And, he said, he wants to “be intentional about how I program that.”We are having...