Lauren Odes, 29, is suing the lingerie company where she worked. She claims that they sacked her for being “too hot”. She has alleged that, within days of being hired, her supervisor at Native Intimates lingerie told her she was “just too hot for this office.”

Lauren Odes, a resident of New Jersey, had been hired as a data entry temp in Manhattan, New York, on April 24. She worked for the company for barely a week before she was given the sack.

She said that the management told her that she should wear her boyfriend’s T-shirt and sweat pants. However, even her change of attire was apparently not enough for the management, when her supervisor told her, “Lauren, try taping down your breasts to make them appear smaller.”

Ms Odes told reporters at a press conference, “When I was first told that I was told I was ‘too hot’ and that my breasts were too large, I was shocked, I thought I was dressed appropriately for my job.” She further alleged that the management made her wear a bright red bathrobe to conceal her figure.

Odes says, she wore the red bathrobe robe, but when her co-workers started laughing at her, she burst into tears and left the workplace to buy a new outfit.

Odes also said that she had inquired if there was an office dress code, but she was never told if there was one. However, an undisclosed male employee said, “The women here, they dress nicely but covered up. Most are Orthodox. There are a lot of married men here, and it’s not OK to have a woman dress like that.”

Ms Odes has hired celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred to represent her case. 70 year old Ms Allred, is known to be a feisty protector of women’s rights, and first came into the limelight when she successfully sued the all-male Friars Club in Beverly Hills. She is known to take up case that guarantee media attention and make headlines.

Other noteworthy cases that won her celebrity status, was when she represented high-status clients  like Nicole Brown Simpson’s family during the O.J. Simpson murder trial and Debrahlee Lorenzana, who like Odes, had asked her to represent her, after being fired by Citi Bank, for being too sexy to work.

Lawyer Gloria Allred, after filing a workplace gender and religious discrimination complaint against Native Intimates said, “She was simply fired for being attractive and for not conforming to the religious structures imposed by top management.”

“We should not be judged by the size of our breasts or the shape of our body,” she said.

Ms Odes said that she was employed at the warehouse on a week-long temporary contract. But what prompted her to take drastic legal action, and file a complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, was that even during the brief period she was over-and-over again asked to cover up.

Moreover, even though she agreed to wear a sweater during work, where she handled data entry and shipping, she was asked to leave.

“This whole experience has been horrifying to me. I love fashion and I always will, but I don’t believe any woman should be treated as I was. I understand that there are Orthodox Jewish men who may have their views about how a woman should dress… but I do not feel that any employer has the right to impose their religious beliefs on me,” she said.

She exposed the company’s double standards and hypocrisy saying that her dress sense was suitable  for a business that sells “thongs with hearts placed in the female genital area and boy shorts for women that say ‘hot’ in the buttocks area.”

Her press conference was well attended and photographers, atop chairs, crashed into each other as Ms Allred displayed a series of purple, black and brown outfits she said led to her client’s dismissal.

The company, Native Intimates, declined to make any comment.