It’s not a coincidence that Mark Zuckerberg sat front row at Prada’s latest show

• This post originally appeared in the BI Today newsletter.
• You can sign up for Business Insider’s daily newsletter here.

Zuck’s latest moment

It was the question on everyone’s mind: Why is Mark Zuckerberg sitting front row at Prada’s fashion show?

He and his wife, Priscilla Chan, attended the fall 2026 womenswear show during Milan Fashion Week, surrounded by a gaggle of security, sitting next to Miuccia Prada’s son, Lorenzo Bertelli, while being an arm’s length away from Anna Wintour and Instagram’s director of fashion partnerships, Eva Chen.

This wasn’t random.

Despite becoming iconic for wearing the Silicon Valley uniform of dark jeans, boring gray tees, and hoodies, Zuckerberg has been — as most elder millennials are — quietly stepping up his fashion game since 2014, when we found out he looks good in a suit.

Still, his attendance at fashion week felt less about sartorial matters and more about business. It’s no secret he’s trying to make wearable tech happen, and Meta announced last year that it’s partnering with Prada to create a luxury version of its AI glasses.

Despite the real reason, it angered some fashion purists — if social media comments are a reliable indicator — and raised eyebrows for others. Was it a pure business play or an example of a billionaire attempting to buy his way into cultural fluency?

Either way, Zuck clearly had a good time. He shared a carousel of photos to, of course, Instagram with the caption, “Thanks to Prada for having us in Milan!”

The fact remains that fashion can bring a different sort of cool factor that technology just can’t reach. And tech leaders’ new platforms perhaps won’t just be smart, they’ll be stylish.