Zuckerberg: *The Social Network* Nailed My Style, Not My Story

Mark Zuckerberg has acknowledged that the 2010 film The Social Network accurately captured his signature wardrobe, admitting that every shirt and fleece jacket featured in the Oscar-winning biographical drama was one he actually owned. Speaking at Stanford University's Startup School in 2010, shortly after the film's release, the Meta CEO praised the filmmakers' meticulous attention to detail in replicating his Harvard-era style, which included casual T-shirts, fleece jackets from brands like The North Face, and Adidas slides worn by actor Jesse Eisenberg in pivotal scenes.

The film's costume designer, Jacqueline West, and director David Fincher reportedly enlisted a Harvard student contemporary of Zuckerberg to ensure authenticity, according to AOL.

While lauding the wardrobe accuracy, Zuckerberg has repeatedly criticized the film's narrative framing, which he argues misrepresents his motivations for founding Facebook. The movie, written by Aaron Sorkin, depicts Zuckerberg as driven by a desire for social validation and romantic rejection, including a fabricated subplot involving a breakup with a girlfriend named Erica Albright. In a 2010 interview, Zuckerberg clarified that he had been dating his wife, Priscilla Chan, since before launching Facebook, rendering the romantic arc a dramatic invention. "The whole narrative arc around my motivations and all this stuff were completely wrong," he reiterated in a March 2025 podcast appearance, the AOL article noted.

Zuckerberg's critique extends to the broader Hollywood portrayal of Silicon Valley, where he believes filmmakers struggle to grasp the intrinsic appeal of building technology for its own sake. "They just can't wrap their head around the idea that someone might build something because they like building things," he said, emphasizing the disconnect between cinematic storytelling and real-world tech entrepreneurship, the AOL article added.

In a nod to his appreciation for the film's sartorial accuracy, Zuckerberg recently acquired one of the movie's iconic pieces of clothing: a blue "Ardsley Athletic" T-shirt worn by Eisenberg in the film. Purchased at auction for $4,095, the shirt became part of his personal wardrobe during the podcast appearance. Zuckerberg also revealed that he had taken his entire Facebook team to see the film's premiere despite his reservations about its narrative liberties, though he has only watched it once, the AOL article reported.

The Social Network remains a cultural touchstone, with its blend of fact and fiction sparking ongoing debates about the intersection of tech and entertainment. While Zuckerberg's wardrobe may have been spot-on, his insistence on the film's mischaracterization of his ambitions underscores the enduring tension between Hollywood dramatization and real-world innovation.