Elizabeth Holmes.Photo: HBO
It’s been a bad few weeks — make that a bad year — for formerTheranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, the one-time Silicon Valley superstar who was charged in 2018 with fraud for lying to investors about her company’s technology.
One of the (frankly, many) questions people are wondering about this story is why did Holmes wear the exact same thing everyday while working as CEO to her company? Why the black turtlenecks? (Along with black pants, black shoes, and black jackets?)
According to a 2015Glamourmagazineinterview with Holmes, whichraved about Holmes and her biotech company at the time (which was then valued at $9 billion), she says she’d simply always favored the simple look.
“My mom had me in black turtlenecks when I was like eight,” she told the magazine. She then went on to explain it was also useful when it came to spending mental energy on her company as opposed to thinking about what to wear.
“I probably have 150 of them. It’s my uniform,” she toldGlamour.“It makes it easy because every day you put on the same thing and don’t have to think about it—one less thing in your life. All my focus is on the work. I take it so seriously. I’m sure the translates into how I dress.”
Elizabeth Holmes.David Orrell/CNBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
But according to former Theranos employeeAna Arriolawho was interviewed forThe Dropout, when Holmes first started Theranos she wasn’t such a sleek dresser — claiming she instead preferred “frumpy Christmas sweaters.” Arriola says she told Holmes that Apple founder Steve Jobs’ wore a black turtleneck (with Levis jeans) every day of his life, leading Holmes to adopt the same signature style.
(InThe Inventor, former Theranos employee-turned whistleblower Tyler Schultz says of Holmes’ early days: “Everyone worshipped her. She could do no wrong. She was the next Steve Jobs.”)
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The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valleyis now streaming on HBO.
source: people.com
