New York banker claims she was fired for being attractive

Debrahlee Lorenzana likes to dress sharp when she goes to work – she is a fan of Burberry and Hermes and has five closets full of well-fitting dresses and skirt suits. What the New York banker hadn't anticipated was that in some workplaces looking good can earn you the sack.

Lorenzana claims in a sex discrimination lawsuit filed with the Manhattan supreme court that her employer, Citibank, dismissed her, in part because her figure and her clothes were "too distracting" for her male colleagues and supervisors to bear. She claims that soon after she joined as a banking adviser in September 2008 she was subjected to a stream of comments about her appearance.

Documents lodged with the court complain that two of her immediate bosses told her to stop wearing turtleneck tops, pencil skirts fitted business suits or any other form of tailored attire. When she protested that other women in the office wore the same kind of clothes as her, they allegedly replied that those other women could "wear what they like, as their general unattractiveness rendered moot their sartorial choices, unlike [Lorenzana] whose shapeliness could not be heightened by beautifully tailored clothing."

Further humiliation followed, her lawyers contest, because she was relatively tall (5ft 6), and had a "curvaceous figure". She was told not to wear high-heeled business shoes, as this purportedly "drew attention to her body in a manner that was upsetting to her easily distracted male managers".

"I couldn't believe what I was hearing," Lorenzana told the Village Voice . "I said, 'You gotta be kidding me!' I was like, 'Too distracting? For who? For you? My clients don't seem to have any problem.'"

From April 2009 she made a series of complaints of sexism to the bank's human resources department. In July she was transferred to a different Citibank branch which she claims was a retaliatory action as the new job held less prospects for her, and a month later she was dismissed, less than a year after she joined the firm.

Citibank had given her a number of formal warnings based it said on her performance, including failure to meet a quota for the number of new business accounts. But in her lawsuit, Lorenzana accuses the bank of taking revenge on her for complaining about her sexist treatment.

In a statement, the bank said: "Ms Lorenzana has chosen to make numerous unfounded accusations and inaccurate statements against Citibank and several of our employees. While we will not discuss the details of her case, we can say that her termination was solely performance-based and not at all related to her appearance or attire. We are confident that when all of the facts and documentation are presented, the claim will be dismissed."

The lawsuit will be decided by an arbitrator.

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