Image Credit: Jason Lee Parry
Hipsters, avert your eyes: Urban Outfitters is being sued.
Sixteen-year-old model Hailey Clauson is suing the retailer for upwards of $28 million for selling a t-shirt with a “blatantly salacious” picture of her (the very one to your left) on it.
The picture in question (which the suit describes as, “the object of prurient interests and provides wallpaper for the likes of pedophiles” and argues that, “her crotch area [is] the focal point of the image”) was reportedly taken by Jason Lee Parry when Clauson was 15 and then wound up in German magazine Qvest and on t-shirts sold by Urban. The suit claims the photographer “agreed never to release it after Clauson’s then-agent from Ford Models complained.” (Urban Outfitters did not have a comment for EW regarding the lawsuit.)
In addition to Urban, the image of Clauson, as well as another shot of her taken by Parry, wound up on shirts at New York and Los Angeles boutiques Brandy & Melville and Blood Is The New Black, respectively, who are also targeted in the suit. Parry told the The New York Post that Clauson’s parents were on hand for the 2010 photo shoot when the picture was taken and that “the images got [stolen] from me.” (The manager at Brandy was not available for comment, while Blood Is The New Black owner Mitra Khayyam told EW that they — as well as Urban, who they have partnered with for six years — had no knowledge of a “no model release” form.)
While those shirts have since been pulled from Urban, another shirt featuring one of Parry’s scantily clad ladies is still available. (As is this one of Kelly Kapowski. For shame!)
Thoughts, PopWatchers?
Read more:
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Corey Feldman claims pedophilia top danger for child stars
Don’t care, but really, EW? You should know better than to publish a photo of a16 year old who has her legs akimbo.
Legs can’t be akimbo, dolt.
Guys most people here can’t spell ‘akimbo’ let alone know what it means.
most people, period
Doing 5 seconds of research on wikipedia: “Until recent times (the 1980s or thereabouts), the term was almost exclusively arms akimbo, with little involvement of the legs; it seems that it was first creatively used to describe sitting cross-legged. More recently, the term has been adapted still further, giving a second sense of limbs being splayed out rather than merely bent.”
I like a t-shirt that tells what I need to know about the person wearing it. This one says, “I’m a complete loser di__haed and I haven’t had sex with anybody since 2003.”
Kathleen, you stupid b!tch, just google “legs akimbo”, the first result from urban dictionary should tell you what you need to know. And yeah, it’s pretty obvious no man or woman wants to see you with your legs akimbo, so dolt away.
Wasn’t Akimbo the priest on Lost?
Actually legs akimbo is referring to splayed legs…which is very possible, maybe you should do some researching before calling someone a dolt when you look like an actual dolt!
No, that’s Ed Hardy shirts.
how do you know you play too many mmorpgs? You use words like “akimbo” when refering to female legs!!
Its time to move out of your moms basement and for once in the last 34 years thank her for washing your tighty whities.
@ AHmazed : what’s an mmorpgs? Some kind of video game? You seem to know better than me. And akimbo isn’t gender specific, just google it and you’ll see, it’s not even derogatory.
As for the rest of your post, well, a whole lot of projecting there friend. And nobody needed to know that you wear tighty whities. Nobody.
But give your mom a nice present on Mother’s Day.
Maybe the 16 year old should not spread her legs?
She looks older and if it was a guy it wouldn’t be an issue but it does look like teen porn for adults not for the young kids buying the clothing
She is clearly posing for that photograph. so what’s the big deal?
She chose to be a model and she posed for the pictures.
give her a dollar.
I should sue this website for not having a log out.
that should be good for 30 million dollars.
Just because she posed, does not mean she knew this was being taken. She could have been adjusting positions, or perhaps did not realize how she looked. Models shift positions and poses continuously. The photographer and the company should have used better judgement.
That’s crap. She’s a contracted model who is well aware a photographer is shooting her and that the photos may be used for commercial purposes. She was paid, Ford was paid, a release was signed by her parents, and they were on set. So let’s talk about the parental judgement that allowed her to be involved in potentially controversial photo shoots at 14/15.
This reminds me of the Miley controversy what with the parents being there for the shoot and then, after the fact, claiming they were taken advantage of by photographers. Her pose doesn’t look like she was changing positions, nor does her facial expression. I give this to alek.
That’s provocative? I don’t see it? Sure she’s got her legs spread but she is covered, we can’t censor every image that might get some pervert aroused. Are we going to stop taking pictures that show feet? There are foot fetishist around you know.
Pedophiles see things differently.
I think pedophiles generally prefer much younger kids. This girl looks like she could be 21 for pete’s sake.
Some photos you just know will end up on some kid’s cellar wall. This is one of them. I probably wouldn’t appreciate a photo of me quite like that one and wouldn’t want it used.
I must be old…first thing I noticed were the vintage Honda motorcycles!!!
I know, right! Had they just snapped a photo of the bike I would have bought the tee-shirt.
I’m with you Mopower2ya. I miss my old Honda Dream motorcycle.
Yes, you are very, very old.
Me too! I love old bikes.
It’s amazing to me that these companies use this girl solely for her body to make their clothes look as hot and sexy as possible. They put her in provocative positions, make her look as old as possible, put her on motorcycles with men twice her age and the whole world is fine with that but as soon as you say anything about her related to sex, someone pulls the pedophile card. The world is ok with these companies using her to sexually attract customers but call you a pedophile if it works.
She looks amazing. I would so buy that t
You’re a pedophile.
Me too.
No, Im gay
Her mistake was posing for that picture in the first place. I love Urban Outfitters but this isn’t right. It focuses on her crotch and not on her.
she should close her legs, if it’s a big deal, don’t spread!
nice motorcycles……
Skeevy? Yeah. But what about the fact that its a shltty t-shirt? Those square photos look like something they’d apply to a souvenir after goin down splash mountain.
Yeah, that t-shirt is so ugly.
And based on the prices of the other shirts, this thing was at least $24.
The stupidest part of the so-called controversy is that this isn’t even close to the most “salacious” photo Hailey has shot. I started looking her up and ever since she was 14 she’s been posing in promiscuous clothes and dirty poses. But that’s modeling, and if she wants to do it, she can. And calling someone attracted to Hailey a pedophile is beyond ridiculous. I’m 15 and she looks at least 5 years older than me. She’s definitely very developed and no one would know her age by looking at her. Honestly, a total pedophile would have no interest in her.