Hard Times for Urban Outfitters

With its tawdry fashions and edgy home products, Urban Outfitters seems to invite attention through controversy. Lately, however, the company’s products have stirred more attention than it probably desires.

Just last month, ten members of Congress sent a letter to the company's CEO, Tedford Marlow, criticizing a line of Irish-themed clothing and accessories. According to the letter, which was composed by legislators of the Congressional Ad Hoc Committee on Irish Affairs, the St. Patrick's Day Clothing line serves to promote “severe and negative stereotypes of Irish-American people” and may even encourage ‘binge drinking.” Urban Outfitters has not responded to the letter and continues to offer t-shirts and other products with offensive wording such as, “Irish I Were Drunk” and “Kiss Me I'm Drunk, Or Irish, Or Whatever.”


Late last month, the Navajo Nation filed a lawsuit against Urban Outfitters over the sale of clothing and accessories with the ‘Navajo' and ‘Navaho' names and marks. The lawsuit follows an ongoing battle that began in October of 2011 when Sasha Houston Brown complained that Urban Outfitters was distributing a line of “cheap, vulgar and culturally offensive” “Navajo” products including “plastic dreamcatchers wrapped in pleather hung next to an indistinguishable mass of artificial feather jewelry and hyper sexualized clothing featuring an abundance of suede, fringe and inauthentic tribal patterns.” Following complaints, the word “Navajo” was removed from certain products on the company's website, however, stores and sales receipts continued to use the word “Navajo.”

The company was presented with more bad news last week, when a New York federal judge rejected the company's motion to dismiss a case involving the use of “blatantly salacious” photos of 17-year-old model Hailey Clauson. According the Clauson's parents, Urban Outfitters and two boutiques used her photos on t-shirts without obtaining permission. The $28 million lawsuit was initially filed against Urban Outfitters, Blood is the New Black boutique, Brandy & Melville boutique and photographer Jason Lee Parry, last August but was challenged on the grounds that the lawsuit was procedurally defective.

However, the case will now move forward because Clauson never gave permission to the defendants, to use the images. According to the deciding judge, the photos were used “to create false endorsement or false designation of origin, as well as claims for false representation of the characteristics or qualities of plaintiff's modeling services.”

The photos in question were taken when the model was only 15. She is shown carrying a six-pack of beer in one and sitting in a provocative position on the back of a motorcycle in another. The shirts with Clauson's image were sold in retail stores around the country and in the two boutiques named on the lawsuit.

While the lawsuit alleges that Parry assured Ford Models that the photos would not be released, Parry and his team disagree. According to Parry, Clauson's parents saw the photos and granted permission for their release.

The lawsuit further states that the images have damaged the model's reputation. That, however, will be difficult to prove since the model made headlines last month after participating in a controversial photo shoot for Pop magazine in which she was being “strangled.”