Spotted: Technology’s who’s who wearing the latest threads as they continue to pursue world dominance. Silicon Valley is not well known for its fashion scene. New York and Los Angeles have their own unique trends and styles — you can dress like a New Yorker or an Angelino. But how do you dress like you’re in Silicon Valley?
The answer: it’s complicated, literally.
Silicon Valley’s most successful tech bros have become known for an odd mix of clothing items. It’s not uncommon to see a tech CEO wearing a jacket worth thousands with a $US60 pair of running shoes. Or vice versa, wearing luxurious Brunello Cucinelli sneakers costing $US900 with a hoodie from the Gap on top.
The style can only be described as “high-low,” which refers to mixing high-end garments with informal items. A picture recently went viral of billionaire and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wearing a $US1,000 shearling jacket while eating McDonalds. It’s a perfect encapsulation of Silicon Valley style. It both says, I have taste and am rich, while also saying “I seriously don’t care.”
So here is what Silicon Valley’s tech bros are wearing so far this year, with price tags so you know exactly how much they spent on them.
Elon Musk: Belstaff Black Mustang Jacket ($US1695)
This is the jacket Elon Musk wore to tell advertisers: “go f—k yourselves.” His jacket was almost as eye-catching as his commentary. He looked like a fighter pilot, especially with the dog tags, and came at a time when it really felt like Musk was fighting with the whole world (when isn’t he though).
Imposters are selling a version of this jacket called “Dealbook Summit Elon Musk Shearling Leather Jacket” for just $US138, however, the real version is more than 10x this price. It’s from a historic English brand that does make some good quality jackets.
Mark Zuckerberg: Overland Maverick Sheepskin Rancher Coat ($US995)
Have you ever seen someone so happy to be at McDonald’s? Zuck looks like he was the toy that came out of his Happy Meal. He posted this on Facebook while on a trip to Japan earlier this year.
This one was tough to find. However, due to the unique shearling stripe on the arm, and the more subtle stripes on the torso, I was able to pin these together. This is an expensive, though nice quality, jacket. Zuck probably wears it around his cattle ranch in Hawaii.
Patrik Patrique Monique Arnesson AKA Boob Shirt: Jean Paul Gaultier Bodysuit ($US485)
This person wore the one shirt that could distract a room full of software engineers from Sergey Brin. The conversation took place in the AGI house in San Francisco, where coders and hackers meet up to code and talk AI. Arnesson asked the Google cofounder to explain what happened with Google Gemini’s image generator, but everyone was just looking at their shirt.
The shirt itself is actually a very expensive designer item from Jean Paul Gaultier, first caught by 404 Media. It’s a $US500 bodysuit, and it came from a line of even more outrageous items.
Sergey Brin: The Elder Statesman Wonderland Checkered Jacket ($US2,590)
And let’s not forget Sergey Brin, the main event that day at the AGI house. Sergey’s jacket almost definitely comes from The Elder Statesman, which makes a lot of unique, one-off varieties of this Wonderland jacket. Not all of the colors line up exactly with this model we found, but Sergey is likely wearing this multi-thousand dollar, multi-colored jacket.
Satya Nadella: Scarosso Leonardo Brown Suede Boots ($US370)
Satya Nadella is fairly well-dressed most of the time. He’s a quintessential Silicon Valley tech bro because his clothes look super minimal but are actually very expensive. These shoes look incredibly boring at first glance, but they cost nearly $US400. The boots may as well be Satya’s “conference shoes” because he wears these on stage all the time.
Jensen Huang: Tom Ford Lizard Embossed Leather Biker Jacket ($US8,990)
There’s three people who are synonymous with leather jackets: Fonzie, Tom Cruise in Top Gun, and Jensen Huang. The Nvidia CEO has become well-known for his leather jackets. He did not disappoint when he rocked this lizard print jacket during Nvidia’s latest conference.
The model from Tom Ford was first called out by Tom’s Hardware, which noted that this was a new jacket for Huang. It’s priced at nearly $US9,000, but he does look great in it.
Alex Karp: Mountain Force Hooded Insulation Outdoor Jacket ($US300)
The Palantir CEO pulled up to Davos looking extra cool in this jacket. Frankly, this isn’t even a bad price for a solid down jacket. Honestly, I originally looked it up cause I kind of wanted it myself. Mountain Force is a Swiss brand that makes unique-looking winter gear. This model is out of stock, but you can find similar ones from the brand elsewhere.
Mustafa Suleyman: Issey Miyake Pleated Polyester Sport Coat ($US790)
Suleyman was rocking an Issey Miyake coat at Davos this year. The co-founder of DeepMind, who now leads Microsoft’s AI division, is not the first Silicon Valley bro to wear this brand. Issey Miyake was also the designer behind Steve Jobs’ iconic turtleneck.
The Japanese designer is known for simple, elegant pieces, and it’s always struck a chord with the tech bros. However, for $US790, you likely have to be a tech CEO to afford one of these sport coats.
Tim Cook: Nike Killshot 2 Leather ($US90)
Tim Cook wore some Nike Killshots to see the unveiling of the Apple Vision Pro in New York City. The $US90 sneakers are the least expensive item on this list. However, Cook is also on the board of Nike, so the billionaire was doing a little cross-promotion here.