At Apple's much-discussed keynote announcement this week, the Silicon Valley giant appeared to take on the worlds of Hollywood, entertainment and personal finance in one swoop. It says something about the wealth and dominance of the company that none of it came as a particular shock.
What was more surprising, however, was that the whole event looked... cool? Quality tailoring, sharp streetwear and celebrity culture are hardly de rigeur in the normcorridors of Zuckerberg's kingdom, and yet here were the likes of Jason Momoa and Ewan McGregor looking as good as they would at any industry event outside the Oscars.
What gives? While menswear in general has taken a turn for the experimental, the pharaohs of Big Tech have generally stuck to their own tired uniform of ultra comfort. And yet this was not the short-sleeved, lanyard-swinging, air-fists-set-to-questionable-rock-music we've come to associate with Apple's software launches. This was a serious, star-studded event on par with any red carpet or major runway show.
The new Apple TV+ original programming service has seen the recruitment of leading Tinseltown names: alongside Momoa and McGregor there was Joel Kinnaman, Steve Carrell, Jennifer Aniston and even Oprah Winfrey. Photographers were on hand to document their arrival on the all-white walkway of the Cupertino HQ. This was a place to be seen. You couldn't exactly say the same about the 'you betcha' 2001 unveiling of the iPod.
Of course, the incentive for the A-listers is obvious: Apple is worth an estimated $1 trillion. But even the men on the stage appeared to have evolved. In-house designer Wyatt Mitchell wore a white boiler suit and Converse x Off-White Chuck 70s - a far cry from the Steve Jobs school of boring turtlenecks. Either Virgil Abloh is pandering to the once clinical garb of programmers (unlikely), or the programmers themselves are taking cue from high fashion.
All of which suggests the revenge of the nerds is entering a new and perhaps final phase: actually dressing well, and rubbing shoulders with the stars. The pioneers of Big Tech have always had the cash to stage such an event. Now, they're outperforming those who once did it best.
