You Can’t Even Tell Who’s Rich Anymore

One of the great disappointments of contemporary life is that in times of hopelessly vast income inequality, society’s arch-capitalists—and many very rich people in general—are boring. The zenith of their boringness? How they dress. Look, for example, at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg. Extremely rich guy. If you saw him on the street, walking around in a Patagonia vest and a quarter-zip pullover paired with chinos, you’d easily mistake him for one of your dad’s friends. Bill Gates dresses more like your friend’s granddad—khakis, long-sleeved rugby shirt, loafers. Elon Musk does that infuriating 2010s tech-guy thing where he pairs an ill-fitting blazer with a T-shirt and jeans. These men, when they wear suits, look like penguins, waddling around galas and red carpets completely ill at ease with themselves. It’s not just tech billionaires, either. If you flip through People, you’ll see ungodly rich actors and actresses being snapped in Nike sweatpants, Starbucks cups in hand.