A former employee of lingerie wholesaler Native Intimates says she was terminated by her supervisors simply for being too busty and attractive. Lauren Odes, 29, has filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against the company, alleging that her bosses asked her to tape her breasts down and wear her boyfriend’s oversize sweats to the showroom office. "When I was first told that I was too hot and that my breasts were too large, I was shocked," Odes said at a press conference yesterday. "After I was told to tape down my breasts, I cried."
Native Intimates, a Fifth Avenue lingerie company owned by Orthodox Jews, has thus far declined to comment. Odes has retained high-profile attorney Gloria Allred, whom you may recall from previous buxom lawsuits such as Sexy Banker Sues Citigroup. (The "sexy banker" in question now claims that Allred stopped helping her after the media attention died down, which Allred denies.) Yesterday Allred told reporters that her new client's supervisors "warned her that the company’s Orthodox Jewish owners saw what she was wearing and disapproved."
Odes claims that the situation got so humiliating that a supervisor yanked a bright red robe out of a closet and made her wear it in order to cover up her body. After her coworkers laughed at her, a teary-eyed Odes told her supervisor she'd prefer to just leave the office to go find something else to wear. But while she was out shopping, she says her boss called and fired her.
Odes, who is featured on a website for aspiring reality TV performers looking for work, told reporters yesterday, "I was working in a business that is not a synagogue but is instead selling thongs with hearts that are placed in the female genitalia area and boy shorts for women that say ‘Hot’ in the buttocks area."
After Odes was terminated, the company sent out an email reminding employees to dress conservatively. But it looks like the company's blog didn't get the message—the most recent post reveals: "I like to put on a charming dress with a startling low cut neckline and show off more than a little of my bra, it’s more than enough to entice half the male population of any given bar or club to give me casual smiles and less than casual drink offers."
