Parisian audiences appeared to visibly recoil when Bryan Johnson, the billionaire bio-hacker who tracks his erections in order to attain immortality, walked the Matières Fécales show yesterday. The show was aptly titled “The One Percent” and it boldly satirized the savagery of power, extreme wealth, and resource-hoarding.

But Johnson was far from the first of his ilk to appear at a fashion week this season. It started during couture week in January, when Jeff Bezos showed up at the Schiaparelli and Christian Dior shows alongside his wife Lauren Sanchez-Bezos. Later, at NYFW, the “looksmaxxer” himself, Braden Peters, or “Clavicular,” walked the Elena Velez show. Come Milan Fashion week, the anticipated Prada show was reported to have been slightly stalled in order to allow entrance to a group of VIP’s which included Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan.

Why are all these billionaires, biohackers, and manosphere chads invading the fashion world? And why are we inviting them? It’s not as if we’re welcoming them with open arms: Johnson walked on a runway where the joke appeared to be on Johnson, Peters’ Velez look appeared to be “drenched in c*m” perhaps nodding to the fact that he is regarded as an incel, Zuckerberg’s and Bezos’ front row presences were followed by a slew of confounded think-pieces. 

But on the other hand, these guys’ involvement in fashion isn’t relegated to just fashion show invitations: Peters enjoyed a glossy profile in GQ, The Bezos’ are sponsoring the upcoming Met Gala, and Zuckerberg’s Meta is reportedly partnering with Prada (who has long embraced high-tech) on a pair of AI-powered glasses.

With regard to Bezos and Zuck, it’s possible that the fashion industry actually needs them; Every industry is being shaken up by AI, and economies are being disrupted worldwide. Luxury is in a tricky position in particular, and could use some help from tech billionaires in becoming more, for want of a better word, futuristic. 

But as for the bros, it’s harder to tell what they’re getting out of it. Could it be that they just really, really want us to think they’re cool? Even when we’re openly laughing at them?

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