Lifestyle Fashion Store Bans In-House Model from Wearing Poppy

Unbelievably a leading fashion retailer has banned one of their staff from wearing a poppy whilst at work.

18 year old Harriet Phipps works at Southern California ‘lifestyle’ brand store Hollister, which is part of the Abercrombie & Fitch chain.  Harriet pinned the poppy to her clothes as a mark of respect to the servicemen and women fighting for their country, but, was asked to remove it as the garment was ‘not part of her uniform’.

Miss Phipps, originally from Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, was first told to remove the poppy last Thursday, and then again this week when she disobeyed managers by continuing to wear it.

Harriet works as a 'model' at the Southampton store, which means she wears the shop's latest fashion items in order to give customers an idea of what the clothes look like off the hanger.

Miss Phipps said she was furious over the attitude of her superiors: “I think it's disgusting, I think it's awful.”

She said as the poppy wasn’t a permanent addition to her outfits bosses should be more lenient.  'It is a personal issue and I feel very strongly about it - I have a friend who is serving in Afghanistan and another friend, a girl, who is going out to fight there, as well as my granddad who fought in the war.

''They said that because it's not uniform or company policy, I am not allowed to wear it.”

Many may recall that Abercrombie & Fitch hit the headlines, last year when it paid £9,000 in compensation to a student with a prosthetic left arm who claimed she was banished to the stockroom of one of the firm's flagship shops.

Management at the store declined to comment on Miss Phipps’ case.