Elon Musks masculine costume - The Washington Post

Sitting on a stage Wednesday at the New York Times DealBook conference, Elon Musk was dressed like a caricature of mid-century rogue masculinity: in a leather flight jacket with a fur-lined collar.

The jacket, which the business executive has worn for previous live interviews, is a take on the G1 and nylon A1 worn by movie stars who posed for black-and-white photographs, with perhaps a cigarette in hand and slight smile on their lips. The image fixed in many minds a male archetype of mischievous strength that persists despite shifts in gender norms, in part due to retrograde figures such as Jordan Peterson who opine on the plight of men.

Most memorably, it was the signature jacket of “Top Gun” hero Maverick, played by Tom Cruise — a naughty boy who breaks the rules and gets in trouble, but only because he knows it’s worth it (and because it’s fun). In one of the most famous images of Cruise in the jacket, his teacher, who becomes his lover, has one hand slipped into it and the other yanking at its collar. Were we ever so young? (Or so … manly?)

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You can see where Musk was going with this get-up; he’s nothing if not obvious, and to underscore it, he wore the look with dog tags, black jeans and shiny leather boots. (Too shiny — they betrayed his fanciness. Clint Eastwood wouldn’t trust a boot he could see his reflection in.)

The necklace appears to be a pendant sold by a 501(c)(3) working on the return of Israeli hostages, and reads “Bring them home now” — a sign that he perhaps takes the accusations of antisemitism on his platform seriously. He received the necklace from the father of an Israeli taken hostage by Hamas while visiting the country this week, vowing on X to wear it “every day until your loved ones are released.” He emphasized that the visit was long in the works and not an “apology tour.”

Musk is a man in crisis, as the ensuing interview underscored. When asked about advertisers who have left X (formerly Twitter) because of concerns that the platform and the leader himself are amplifying antisemitism, Musk said, “If someone’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go f--- yourself.”

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Perhaps that’s how he thinks men who wear such clothes talk. The incredible and even comic synergy of Musk’s behavior and attire is cinematic by design — clothing as entertainment and commentary. (Several people on X compared Musk’s interview to the outrageous dialogue and public embarrassments of “Succession,” and in fact, in the final season that aired this past spring, Jeremy Strong, as the self-pitying heir apparent Kendall Roy, wore a flight jacket that he said was inspired by another piece of Musk outerwear.) Thursday was the official launch of Tesla’s first truck, and one can see how the jacket would be the perfect look of reassurance for anyone worried that the smooth quiet of electric vehicles is at odds with horsepower and big tires. Instead, his behavior made him look fussy, ridiculous. You’re wearing Maverick’s jacket — and you’re arguing about tweets?

There’s a long-held perception that Silicon Valley’s male mavericks (heh) don’t think about their clothes, but in fact they appear to ponder them more than any businessman who puts on the same blue suit or skinny chinos and button-up everyday. Think Jack Dorsey and his philosophical approach to wearing Rick Owens, Mark Zuckerberg and his decision to upgrade his uniform T-shirt and jeans by swapping the tee for a $300 version by Brunello Cucinelli.

But none of these figures is as attached to the power of wearing the right garment as Musk. According to GQ, he called upon designer Emily Dawn Long to style him throughout 2018, including for that year’s Met Gala. Together, they looked to male icons such as Harrison Ford, Paul Newman and Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, who seems to have inspired the acquisition of the jacket, which he wore for a South by Southwest interview that year. (His boots then were more distressed.)

Musk seems to understand that fashion is a powerful tool for mythmaking — that replacing one uniform with another, or better yet, with a costume, will help a public figure who often misspeaks to be seen irrefutably in the way he hopes to be.

The problem is that when your behavior clashes with the source material, your look, instead of making you appear cool and powerful, underscores your weakness.

correction

An earlier version of this article gave the incorrect day for the launch of the Tesla truck. It was Thursday. The article has been corrected.

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