Zuckerberg is so defriended

Originally I had a different topic in mind, but this story on the Huffington Post made me change the matter at hand.

Yesterday Facebook CEO/President Mark Zuckerberg had the pleasure of interviewing President Obama for a town hall meeting in Palo Alto, California. As a sign of respect for the 44^th president, Zuckerberg donned a sport coat, shirt and tie (shirt being necessary to denote because normally Zuckerberg wears a crew neck t-shirt). Though Zuckerberg had a decent enough interview with President Obama, the Facebook founder’s wardrobe choice was completely lacking.

Zuckerberg has built his image around that of a geeky wunderkind from college who started one of the world’s most important networking websites. That image, casually completed with jeans and his already mentioned crew neck t-shirt, seems well crafted—perhaps not unlike Steve Jobs from Apple Computers. However, the look Zuckerberg was going for yesterday was wholly lacking in this contrived insouciance.

Where did he go wrong?

Painting in broad strokes, Zuckerberg tried to dress up while looking casual and ended up failing on both counts spectacularly.

First, the tie: too wide. Zuckerberg has a narrow face, and the tie looked about the same width. A skinnier tie would have helped to balance out his face. A skinnier tie would have also balanced better with the lapels of the coat, which were far narrower than the tie. The width of a tie and the lapels on a coat should be in relative harmony, and Zuckerberg’s were not.

Then there’s the shirt. The brightness of the white shirt along with the dark jacket accentuated the already jaundiced look of Zuckerberg’s skin. A blue shirt—the fall back of really any white guy—would have looked far better on him. If not that, there are plenty of other softer colors Zuckerberg could have gone with. Because he failed in this respect, Zuckerberg looked very clammy compared to the always impeccably dressed Obama.

But perhaps I spoke too soon on Obama, because Zuckerberg, from looking at the lower half of his body, stole one fashion choice from Obama: the mom jeans with the tennis shoes. The black dress belt is a terrible match with it as well, because it’s too narrow for the belt loops. Makes me think of the Jets from West Side Story.

I don’t know what Zuckerberg was trying to do. Dress a little better as a sign of respect? Considering how poorly he did it, he probably would have been better off sticking to his habitual choice of clothes. Really, he reminds me of a cross between a meathead from college forced to show up to court and a high schooler going on his first date who went through his father’s closet trying to look put together. Zuckerberg threw on whatever he had lying around his office, perhaps because Facebook reminded him the president was coming that day.

I would like to think of Zuckerberg as being like his creation. Great achievements but full of flaws. And at the end, I would say Facebook has been a tool for good. Zuckerberg, though, is just a tool. And not a very well dressed one at that.