Mark Zuckerberg’s birthday outfit is a mystery. I think I solved it.

When the Meta CEO posted photos from the party on his Instagram, people immediately noticed his outfit and how he went all out with his new swag style with his gold chain and shirt. Now generally I don’t like to spend Also many of my precious brain cells are thinking about Mark Zuckerberg’s personal appearance; It’s a bit too much circus and no bread. But it was different.

Something was wrong with these Instagram photos.

In two of the photos, he is wearing a slightly different outfit: the gold chain is missing and his T-shirt is plain black.

Let’s start with the shirt, which says “Carthago delenda is,” Latin for “Carthage must be destroyed.” (My colleague Kieran has more information on the context of the phrase.)

Zuckerberg is known to be a fan of Roman history (his daughters are named after Roman emperors). But is he such a fan of Roman history that he walks around wearing T-shirts with his favorite Latin slogans?

It’s really on trend lately, so maybe the shirt is a fancy designer shirt that costs $200?

Or, another option, which is my theory: He didn’t choose the shirt; the shirt was given to him during celebration.

Looking for clues about Zuck’s party outfit

Let’s look at the evidence.

The first notable thing is that one of the sets of miniature rooms is of Facebook’s office during the 2016 “lockdown” when they were working hard to compete with Google+ (lol). Meanwhile, Zuckerberg tried to inspire his troops by using this phrase from the Roman senator Cato: “Carthage must be destroyed.” According to a former employee’s book, there were posters with this phrase in the office at that time. So we know that this phrase is very connected to one of these miniature rooms, in particular.

Maybe the shirt was given to him inside the miniature room that was a replica of Facebook’s “lockdown” phase, as a nod specifically to that phase of his life.

This would explain why the shirt seems ill-fitting. Note here that it looks bloated and wide. Zuckerberg usually wears a more fitted t-shirt.

And here you can see that the shirt sleeve looks very neat – like it’s a first worn shirt with the fold lines on it.

We’ve all had the experience of showing up to an event – a fun run, company picnic or otherwise – and receiving a shirt with a screen-printed logo to wear over your regular shirt. This has all the pitfalls of that.

So one theory is that Zuck wore a plain black t-shirt to his party – the one you can see in two of the photos – and then, at some point, he received the Carthage t-shirt as a surprise and took it changed for the rest of the evening. to party.

Now, a quick note about the chain necklace: I believe the explanation for the necklace is that it was also given to her during the party along with the Carthage shirt. The chain necklace is something of a meme after digitally altered photos of Zuck wearing a chain with a beard went viral.

We get more details about this party on Priscilla Chan’s Instagram. Chan’s caption reads: “Mark usually doesn’t let me do much for his birthday, but for his 40th birthday I was allowed to throw a party as long as our friends and family roasted him too.”

AHA! So we know it was also a ROAST – which further fuels the theory that the shirt and chain were offered during the feast as a form of light roasting.

Prisicilla’s outfit also gives us a clue. She is usually very stylish, but for this evening she is wearing jeans, white sneakers, a boxy white t-shirt and two gold chains. My theory is that it wasn’t just her usual casual evening outfit – she dressed in a typical Mark outfit as a joke, chain and all.

Other attendees also appeared to be wearing a version of a Zuck costume. For example, Bill Gates wears basketball shorts and a hooded sweatshirt.

Joel Kaplan, Meta’s public policy manager, appears in one of the photos of Chan holding a microphone to potentially roast Zuck. Kaplan appears to be wearing an obnoxious form of athletic gear, likely a tribute to his boss’s interest in MMA.

All this comes with a clear theory:

Mark showed up to her party in a plain black shirt and no chain. During the party, he received a chain and a “Carthage Must Be Destroyed” shirt as pleasant references to his past and present.

There are still some things this theory doesn’t explain, like the fact that the T-shirt appears to have some sort of reversible blue and white striped lining.

The lining suggests that the garment is of higher quality than a simple Gildan or Hanes t-shirt – perhaps it is an expensive designer shirt after all. (A representative for Mark Zuckerberg did not respond to questions about the outfit.)

Between the lined shirt and Bill Gates’ ungodly basketball shorts (I’m pretty sure they’re Nike, by the way), there are some mysteries I can’t seem to solve. But I’m convinced Zuckberg’s outfit was given to him as a joke at his party.

I’m also convinced that I need to find much better things to fill the void in my life than thinking too much about what Mark Zuckerberg wears.