Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
Betabrand, a San Francisco-based clothing startup that deals in a lot of stunt-like merchandise, garnered a lot of press for hosting Silicon Valley's first-ever fashion week. However, Mashable reports that the three-day event ended in incredibly bad taste with a 10-minute show by burlesque dancers—a poor decision considering Silicon Valley's notorious reputation for sexism in the industry.
Betabrand's founder, Chris Lindland, told Mashable that he didn't know of the ending act beforehand. "If I or the event producer had known in advance, we would have asked them to axe that part," Lindland told Mashable. "With that said, I can't offer a wholesale condemnation of their act. They're a popular act in SF and I'm sure the performers are proud of their show."
Mashable noted that this kind of thing has happened before: in 2013, TechCrunch's startup conference kicked off with two guys presenting their idea for an app called Titstare.