You wouldn’t expect a lingerie store to be the most conservative workplace. The very concept calls to mind images of Gisele Bündchen in her underwear plastered on windows. But one New Jersey woman claims that she was fired from her job at wholesale lingerie store Native Intimates because the Orthodox Jewish owners were offended by her outfits. She is suing the store with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
When she was hired, Lauren Odes says that the store did not have a dress code, but that she should just see what other employees wore and emulate that. “The dress was very casual athletic wear to business attire,” Odes said at a press conference.
Two days after her start date, a supervisor told Odes that the owners found her outfit “distracting.” She claims she tried to compromise, and wore black jeggings, a grey t-shirt and rain boots, but apparently this was still too provocative. Her supervisor allegedly suggested that she tape down her breasts, and when she did not, made her wear a red bathrobe to cover up.
Odes said she felt “humiliated” wearing the bathrobe, and was given the option to go out and purchase a long sweater instead, but while she was shopping for one, she received a phone call saying she was fired.
"I do not feel an employer has the right to impose their religious beliefs on me when I'm working in a business that's not a synagogue, but sells things with hearts on the female genitals and boy shorts for women that say hot in the buttocks area," Odes said.
Read more at Good Morning America.
