Macrida Patterson (right) with attorney Jason Buccat

It may be a bit early to add intimate clothing to the list of health hazards for women, but a rash of product liability lawsuits has hit Victoria's Secret, with plaintiffs alleging they were injured by defectively designed underwear.

At least four cases, including a proposed class action, have been filed over the past six months and one plaintiff, Macrida Patterson, appeared on national TV this week to describe her harrowing encounter with a Victoria's Secret thong –- a Sexy Little Thing low-rise v-string, to be precise.

Patterson's barebones complaint, filed June 9 in Los Angeles Superior Court, provides few details. But the L.A. traffic cop told the "Today Show" that a decorative metallic piece flew off the thong and struck her in the eye while she was changing in the locker room at work after her shift.

“I was putting on my underwear from Victoria’s Secret, and the metal popped into my eye,” she said. “It happened really quickly. I was in excruciating pain. I screamed. That’s what happened.”

Patterson attorney Jason J. Buccat said she suffered “three actual cuts to her cornea” and denied the case was one of those “crazy lawsuits” that tort reformers like to complain about.

"Victoria’s Secret does have its angels, but as we say, the devil is in the details," he said. "And the details here will definitely show there is a defective product, both in its design and its manufacture."

In Greenville, S.C., meanwhile, aspiring model Jessica Lang alleged in a state court complaint filed Jan. 25 that her Victoria's Secret bra was, in effect, a “booby trap.”

After feeling “discomfort in her breast,” she tried to take the bra off, but it “malfunctioned, lacerating Plaintiff's chest and left breast, nearly 6 inches wide and 6 inches deep.”

The case is now in federal court, with Lang correcting the extent of her alleged injury. The wound, she said in an amended complaint, was “3 inches x 1/4 inch deep, resulting in scarring.”

In the other recent cases,

• A Parma, Ohio, woman is seeking to represent a class of plaintiffs who have suffered “adverse physical effects” from Victoria's Secret undergarments and intimate apparel including “allergic reactions, contact dermatitis, blistering, itching, hives, rashes, scarring, systemic reactions and other health concerns.” Ritter v. Victoria's Secret Stores.

• A Bronx, N.Y., woman alleges that while wearing a Victoria's Secret bra, she “suffered severe personal injuries” attributable to the “defective nature” of the product. Ramos v. Victoria's Secret Stores.

By Matthew Heller
6/21/08