We’re baristas & the government said our outfits were inappropriate – but we sued & won our right to dress how we like
WHEN a "bikini barista" coffee shop was forced to change its dress code due to a local ordinance, the company fought back.
Now, a federal court has ruled it's a constitutional right for staff to sling coffee in skimpy lingerie.
The trouble began brewing alongside the coffee at Hillbilly Espresso in Everett, Washington, back in 2017.
That's when the local government tried to establish a city ordinance preventing the cafe staff from wearing their "uniforms," which include bikinis, harnesses, and frilly bra tops.
Reporting from HeraldNet confirms the "Hillbilly Hotties" wanted to keep their skimpy uniforms, and a US District Court affirmed the right.
Judge Ricardo S Martinez said the ordinance encouraged a "humiliating, intrusive, and demoralizing search on women, disempowering them and stripping them of their freedom."
Now, the hotties of Hillbilly Espresso and other bikini barista stands are rejoicing and showing up to work as the best-dressed (and least-dressed) baristas in town.
One barista, who uses the name Emma Dilemma while at work, told HeraldNet that she feels safer thanks to the ruling.
Under the ordinance, she said, her body could have been under scrutiny from law enforcement at work.
“Who’s approving my outfit? Is it my female boss or some random dude cop that I don’t know?" she asked. "I don’t want them having to stick a ruler next to my body."
Most read in Fabulous
The barista is making reference to a lewd conduct ordinance that was used to try and limit the baristas' workwear.
It included very specific definitions of a "lewd act," requiring measurements for exposure.
Under the stricken-down ordinance, baristas couldn't expose "more than one-half of the part of the female breast located below the top of the areola."
Their shorts would also have to completely cover the "bottom one-half of the anal cleft or any portion of the areola or nipple of the female breast."
Customers are happy about the ruling, too. One man, Alexander Hubbard, told Fox 13 Seattle the city ordinance had been "unacceptable and unconstitutional."
"There's nothing wrong with what the baristas are wearing," he insisted. "They can wear whatever they want, it's a bikini stand."
Another barista, who just provided the name Ivy, said the original ordinance was an unfair judgment against the female employees.
"We all have lives outside of this," she said. "Wome of us are mothers, some of us go to college besides this, we're all just working and hustling like everybody else."
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Read More on The US Sun
Jovanna Edge, owner of XO Espresso, another bikini barista stand, swore that the companies will challenge the City of Everett if the local government appeals.
"If they do, what am I going to do about it? Fight again," Edge told Fox 13. "Our attorneys are in for the long haul."
