Silicon Valley fashion might sound like an oxymoron, but Lauren Sánchez and Ivanka Trump helped refresh that image at this weekend’s Allen & Co. tech-centric conference in Sun Valley.

Known as “billionaire summer camp,” the exclusive annual event attracts moneyed power players from the tech, media, financial and political sectors to the Sun Valley Resort. This year’s heavy hitters include Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, OpenAI’s chief executive officer Sam Altman, Reel Genius founder Victoria Grazer and Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei. Along with the more expected vests, jeans and buttoned-down shirts, there have been flickers of fashion.

Fresh from a trip to Fiji, which included some time for snorkeling in a white high-cut swimsuit, Sánchez kept the summery vibe going in Sun Valley. She opted for a pale pink buttoned-down shirt that was knotted above the waist to pair with a pale pink and black skirt and stilettos. For another outing, Sánchez wore what appeared to be a Chanel miniskirt and bouclé jacket with a nude-colored top.

As a Silicon Valley employee and author of the book “Valley Verified,” Kyla Zhao said the tech industry is trying to make more inroads with the fashion industry, citing examples such as Amazon’s sponsorship of the Met Gala or Meta’s collaborating with Kylie Jenner on their new smart glasses. The boundaries that existed in the past between tech and fashion, which Zhao tackled in her 2024 book, are collapsing, she said. 

“A lot of people in tech were almost not seeing the value in fashion and creative industries. But now tech companies are realizing there is a lot of cultural capital in fashion,” Zhao said.

Trump turned up a in seafoam blue short-sleeved collared top with coordinating wide-legged pants from the New York City-based designer Matthew Bruch. The first daughter often prioritizes American designers and brands that are based in her hometown including Monse, Carolina Herrera and Oscar de la Renta. Her choices for the high-powered Allen & Co. Sun Valley Conference included a look from Reformation and a jean jacket from the Gap x Victoria Beckham collection. In step with Idaho’s rustic heritage, Trump also packed and wore boots from Liberty Black.

Several of Trump’s Sun Valley looks were believed to be pieces from her closet, according to a source. There were a few non-American choices, too, like an ensemble from Trump’s friend Géraldine Guyot-Arnault’s Destree label, as well items from Reiss and Zara.

Elsewhere in Sun Valley, Karlie Kloss and her husband Joshua Kushner looked stylistically aligned, with each wearing a crewneck T-shirt beneath an unbuttoned oversized shirt. His pairing was black and hers was a gray T-shirt with a grid-like plaid buttoned-down shirt. The model, who walked in Monday’s Schiaparelli show in Paris, polished off her look with Maison Margiela x Gentle Monster sunglasses.

For another event during the conference, Kloss sported a body-hugging, black-and-white sleeveless knit dress. In what could have been interpreted as a more casual take on the liquid-gold strapless Tove dress that she wore to Taylor Swift’s wedding on July 3, Kloss selected a white tank top and a metallic slip skirt for one of the conference events.

Miranda Kerr added some glamour, wearing a black cutout top and black pants with a long white coat draped over her shoulders after a Sun Valley coffee run with her husband Evan Spiegel, the CEO of Snap. Even the fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg adhered to the dressed-down style that many attendees embraced, by wearing jeans with a black short-sleeved T-shirt. Meanwhile, Away’s CEO turned out in a brown floral belted dress.

Wendi Murdoch also kept things casual with a white tank top, jeans and what appeared to be a Chanel jacket folded over one arm. Grazer was unmissable in a black and white dotted long-sleeved minidress that was accessorized with a white baseball cap and sunglasses. Eventbrite’s founder Julia Hartz also kept things casual with a lilac-colored T-shirt, an off-white jean jacket and tortoise-shell framed sunglasses. 

Like Bezos, whose Sun Valley uniform has included jeans with T-shirts and polo shirts, many of the male tech executives are dressing down. Zuckerberg chose a brown polo shirt with crazily-striped shorts for one walkabout. And Warner Bros’ Discovery’s CEO and president David Zaslav went with the Canadian tuxedo — a denim jacket with a pair of jeans.

Describing Silicon Valley style as “very practical,” Zhao said many people wear hoodies and other clothes that have the logo of the Silicon Valley companies that they work for as a status symbol, she said. “It’s almost like [saying] ‘oh, hey, I’m working at this Silcon Valey company or this Fortune 500 one.” 

Zhao said, “The tech industry almost takes a certain sense of pride in not dressing up and dressing simply.”

The Paris-based designer Paul Billot, who has examined the influence of tech on fashion in his signature collections, saw things differently. When studying tech workers in research, he was struck by the prevalence of neutrals like beige and black in their wardrobes, and how that relates to the human body and embodiment. “The clothes are quite casual and I have to say — shapeless. Often they will not chose the right size for themselves,” he said. “It’s more a matter of the clothes they wear, for them, do not convey much information about who they are.”

The shapeless dressing, Billot said, is more about tech executives “dismissing” the importance of the body to show the importance of the mind. “But there is a contradiction with this, because they optimize their bodies by working out, eating more protein, watching carbs intake and measuring everything with their smart devices,” he said. 

Billot speculated about whether the tech industry is driving the trend where some designers are hyper-focused on creating a newly shaped product instead of a full story.

Auger’s cofounder and president of fashion and beauty Leigh Anne Clark offered another take. “Despite Silicon Valley’s heavy hand in shaping the future, it’s never been a capital of trend production,” she said. “It tends to adopt great taste rather than invent it.”