US-based clothes retailer Abercrombie and Fitch is once again in the media spotlight after putting up posters outside a UK store it is opening which invite “cool and good-looking people” to come to represent its brands.

Audrey Williams, employment law partner at Eversheds, told Personnel Today: “The advertisement carries risk and opens up the organisation to legal complaints. ‘Cool’ is a very subjective measure, but it can stereotypically describe someone who’s younger. ‘Good-looking’ could become an issue if someone with facial disfigurement applied for the job and was subsequently rejected.”

Abercrombie and Fitch was recently ordered by an employment tribunal to pay £9,000 to an employee with a prosthetic arm after she was harassed over her disability and dismissed without good reason.