A Turtleneck Shortage Isn't Stopping People From Dressing as Elizabeth Holmes for Halloween

Black turtlenecks are apparently selling out across Silicon Valley, thanks to Halloween revelers who want to dress up as disgraced tech founder Elizabeth Holmes.

An intrepid reporter at Quartz discovered the shortage by accident. He simply wanted to dress as a bee for Halloween, but Holmes’ fashion sense has stymied his attempt to pull together a black-and-yellow insect costume.

Holmes, of course, is the notorious former CEO of failed blood-testing start-up Theranos, who gained attention not just for her historic scam, but for her signature outfit: a black turtleneck that mimics the style of the late Apple visionary Steve Jobs. The blonde, blue-eyed executive quickly became a tech industry darling before she was discovered to be a fraud. She falsely claimed to have developed a blood testing device that would revolutionize medicine, and scammed prominent investors out of billions in the process.

Throughout the entire scheme, Holmes stuck to her uniform of a black turtleneck.

But Bay Area party-goers may be out of luck if they want to pose as high-brow grifters this Halloween. A screenshot in the Quartz article shows that at least five Uniqlo stores in the area are sold out of long sleeved black turtlenecks. According to Business Insider, other retail outlets in the region are running out of their black turtleneck inventory, too.

There's plenty of Holmes inspiration on social media if you need to get creative, though. There are almost 3,000 posts tagged #elizabethholmes on Instagram, and a cursory Twitter search will fill your feed with blonde wigs, red lipstick and — yes, black turtles galore.

Holmes may have made it harder to dress as some insects this Halloween, but questionable tech founder seems to be a rapidly growing species. If you’re looking for a male version of a notorious founder costume, We (get it?) have you covered.