Jensen Huang's leather jacket went from cool to desperate red flag energy. Fair?

Is a leather jacket a sign of an unfaithful man? That is, at least, what the internet seems to believe after former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's affairs with multiple women came to light.Jensen Huang stepped down as Nvidia CEO amid affair scandal. (Photo: Getty Images)There was a time when a man in a black leather jacket automatically had a certain cinematic appeal. Think Marlon Brando on a motorcycle, Steve McQueen looking effortlessly cool or a young rockstar walking into a room without appearing to care who was watching. The leather jacket was a mark of rebellion, confidence and a little bit of trouble stitched together.For years, Jensen Huang, the 63-year-old Nvidia founder, seemed to have understood that assignment rather well. His black leather jackets were as recognisable as Steve Jobs' black turtleneck or Mark Zuckerberg's grey T-shirt and hoodie. They gave the otherwise predictable Silicon Valley wardrobe a little attitude. But in the wake of the controversy surrounding his personal life and his resignation as Nvidia CEO, that same signature look has acquired a rather different reputation. The internet, as it often does, has had a field day.Business Insider recently captured the changing mood rather neatly, describing how Huang's jackets went from a "cool quirky affectation" to a "desperate, horny, divorced-guy-energy look". The Washington Post, too, called the look a textbook midlife-crisis uniform. Suddenly, the very thing that once made him stand out was being read as a man trying a little too hard.Ladies: never, ever trust a middle-aged man in a leather jacket— Guy Adams (@guyadams) November 12, 2026Sales of black tees and leather jackets about to skyrocket— Supra | (@supurasensei) November 12, 2026Leather jackets WORK!— aaron, a hate crime doer (@theyshootactors) November 12, 2026It’s the leather jacket! I knew it.— Sabeer Bhatia (@sabeer) November 12, 2026But why does the leather jacket carry so much baggage? Its cultural association with rebellious masculinity goes back decades. Marlon Brando's appearance in The Wild One (1953), dressed in a black biker jacket, helped cement the garment as a symbol of the outsider. It was followed by generations of rock musicians, bikers and punk subcultures who made leather synonymous with defiance. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has also traced the biker jacket's journey from Brando's rebellious screen persona to the punk and heavy-metal scenes of the 1970s.Huang's version was considerably more polished. He favoured sleek, minimalist motorcycle and cafe-racer styles rather than the heavily studded, full-biker look. Huang reportedly owns between 30 and 40 leather jackets, many from luxury labels such as Tom Ford. One of his Tom Ford jackets, signed and put up for charity, fetched $960,000 at a Sotheby's auction earlier this year. The leather jacket was sold for $960,000 (Rs 90,460,128 approx). There was also a practical explanation behind the uniform. Huang has said that his wife and daughter pick out his clothes and that wearing a familiar combination saves him the trouble of making another decision every morning. In an earlier interview, he even joked about his ability to wear leather in hot weather: “I’m always cool.”But does a leather jacket on a man in his 60s really qualify as a red flag? And, more importantly, can a man's wardrobe tell us anything about how he behaves in a relationship? Not really. A leather jacket can project rebellion, confidence, machismo or even a desire to appear younger, but it cannot tell us whether the person wearing it is faithful to his partner. Clothes can shape our first impressions, but they are hardly a reliable character reference.In fact, research published in Social Psychological and Personality Science in 2023 examined how clothing influences the way we form impressions of people. It found that what someone wears can shape perceptions of their social identity, mental state, status and aesthetic preferences. But there is a difference between what an outfit communicates and what a person actually is. A man in a biker jacket may want to project a certain kind of masculinity; that does not automatically make him reckless, commitment-phobic or unfaithful.Huang's case is particularly interesting because the jacket became a punchline only after his personal life came under scrutiny. The same clothes that once helped build his recognisable public image were suddenly being viewed through the lens of his reported infidelity. In other words, the scandal changed how people saw the jacket, not the other way around. The leather didn't reveal his personal life; the revelations about his personal life changed the way people interpreted the leather.So, that brings us back to the same question, can clothes really decide a person’s ulterior motives?- Ends