The Social Reckoning designer on Zuckerberg’s post-hoodie style

In an interview with The Guardian, costume designer Susan Lyall explained how she and actor Jeremy Strong approached Mark Zuckerberg’s wardrobe for The Social Reckoning, Aaron Sorkin’s follow-up to The Social Network. The film is set between 2019 and 2021, a period Lyall calls “post-hoodie” and “post-thumbing his nose” at formal dressing. Zuckerberg’s suits and interchangeable long-sleeved shirts, she says, match his restrained composure, even when fury simmers underneath.

Lyall says the costumes were shaped by deep research and by Strong, who is “very into costume.” They had worked together on Sorkin’s Molly’s Game and The Trial of the Chicago 7, and texted often during preparation. Strong, known for method acting, knew where Zuckerberg had worn particular items. He wanted the exact Nike shoe and the exact Brunello Cucinelli T-shirt and sweater. For Lyall, clothing is the first step in the performance, along with the haircut.

The research was granular. Lyall and Strong discussed details such as shoelace colours; she jokes that if acting ever stalls, he could work in her department. She found the shoes—a 2018 Nike Flyknit trainer in black anthracite—on Grailed. Strong worked out how to contact Brunello Cucinelli to buy specific older pieces, because the production wanted clothing from five or six years earlier, not current-season items. The brand was helpful, she says.

Lyall has spent much time thinking about how tech oligarchs dress, including Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. They partly inspired another of her credits, Jesse Armstrong’s 2025 film Mountainhead, about four plutocrats, who also wore plenty of Brunello Cucinelli. The brand sells cashmere cardigans for $16,500 and ribbed sweaters for $4,600. Lyall sees the label as a “safety net” for people like Zuckerberg: paying a lot can make them feel better, a security blanket or an affirmation of success.

In the film’s period, Lyall believes Zuckerberg was trying to be relatable while beginning to understand Silicon Valley’s obsession with taste and cost. He was more muscular, and she interprets his choices as someone who knows an expensive, clingy sweater suits his physique. He was, in her view, newly rich without being gaudy, and not without taste. Since then, she says, his presentation has shifted to outright peacocking. Around 2024, he adopted gold chains, Loewe shorts and Alexander McQueen suits decorated with dragonflies. Lyall argues the makeover is strategic: it distinguishes him from the Zuckerberg who sweated in suits before Congress and gives him a harmless topic—clothing—that distracts from his products and work.

She also notes how he has embedded personal backstory in his jewellery. In 2024, after he began wearing a large gold pendant over his T-shirt, he said it was embossed with a Jewish prayer he sings to his children. This year, as Meta has enlisted Kylie Jenner to promote its smart glasses, Zuckerberg has attended Prada shows and the Met Gala. Last month, he gave the New York Times an interview about clothing, saying he buys nearly all his wardrobe on Instagram himself. He cited labels including Mike Amiri and has commented online to highlight cheaper items he likes.

Lyall suggests the continuing makeover is designed to make Zuckerberg appear friendlier and more human, much as the new personal AI assistant Muse has been styled to look adorable. But she cautions that fashion cannot simply prove someone is not a robot. Reflecting on his remark to the Times that the company is “an instantiation of my values” and that he wants to be intentional about how he “programs” that, she implies the cashmere-clad machine from Sorkin’s film may not have been fully switched off.

Source: The Guardian.