Teen Model Sues Urban Outfitters for $28 Million Over "Salacious" T-Shirt

Hailey Clauson claims reputation is damaged due to sleazy photo taken of her when she was 15; image appears on tees sold in hipster boutiques

By Marianne Garvey Aug 19, 2011 7:30 PMTags
Hailey ClausonJason Lee Parry

This 16-year-old runway diva is suing mad.

Hailey Clauson, a California teen who has strutted her stuff for fashion houses like Donna Karan, Zac Posen, Calvin Klein, Jill Stuart and Oscar de la Renta, is going after Urban Outfitters for "destroying her reputation."

What is she claiming the store did to her?

Clauson filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Federal Court claiming that a picture taken of her when she was just 15, posing with her legs wide open in leather shorts on a motorcycle, wound up on a batch of hipster T-shirts being sold by Urban Outfitters.

So now she's suing the chain, and other retailers who have carried the top, for $28 million.

The strikingly beautiful Clauson claims the "blatantly salacious" shot has damaged her reputation and might possibly violate kiddie-porn laws.

Her filing fingers fashion photog Jason Lee Parry, who snapped the shot, for purposefully making "her crotch area the focal point of the image" causing the shot to be of interest "for the likes of pedophiles."

Parry is described in the lawsuit as a professional photographer whose "unconventional body of work" features "nudity, semi-nudity, sexually suggestive situations involving only women and what appear to be underage girls, many with bloody noses as if incurred as a result of repeated drug use and/or physical violence."

The suit alleges that Parry agreed to never release the shot after her then agency Ford Models complained. She is now represented by Next NY.

But the risqué photo turned up later in the German glossy Qvest. It also popped up on T-shirts sold at boutiques Blood is the New Black in Los Angeles and Brandy & Melville in SoHo.

A manager at the Brandy & Melville store in SoHo was unaware the shop had been named in the lawsuit and did not know if the tees were still being sold. "We don't know anything about it. I hadn't heard," said the employee.

Parry says both Coulson's mom and dad were at the photo shoot in question in March 2010 and gave him permission to publish the shot.

Coulson's mom, Bethany, did not return a request for comment.

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