text: Lululemon said it was pulling its popular black yoga pants from stores after some of them were found to be overly sheer. Shares tumbled. Andria Cheng reports. Photo: Reuters. 
   
   A Taiwanese supplier to Lululemon Athletica Inc. was bent out of shape on Tuesday after the yoga-clothes retailer blamed it for producing a shipment of pants that were unacceptably see-through. 
   
   The supplier, Eclat Textile Co. of Taiwan, hit back at Lululemon, saying the clothes it shipped weren't "problematic." 
   
   "All shipments to Lululemon went through a certification process which Lululemon had approved," Eclat Chief Financial Officer Roger Lo said in an interview. "All the pants were manufactured according to the requirements set out in the contract with Lululemon." 
   
   The Canadian company has built a billion-dollar business selling premium yoga gear at high prices, but the glitch with the recalled pants marks yet another recent stumble with products on its store shelves. The disclosure late Monday about the black Luon pants—one of its core items—followed a string of complaints last year that the colors were bleeding on some of its tops. 
   
   With the black Luon pant recall, Lululemon has now had its fourth quality-control issue in the past year, Credit Suisse analyst Christian Buss said. In addition to the problem with bright colors bleeding, the company had transparency problems with some colors of swimwear shipped for last spring as well as a subset of light colored pants, Mr. Buss said. 
   
   The string of glitches is a setback for a company that has attracted a devoted following for its high-end yoga wear, which faces growing competition. 
   
   Last July, Chief Product Officer Sheree Waterson posted an apology on Facebook for the colorfastness problem, long after complaints started cropping up. Two months later, CEO Christine Day mentioned the issue during an earnings call, acknowledging bleeding issues with colors including "Paris Pink" in "a couple of small, isolated issues." 
   
   This time, the company moved more aggressively, pulling all of the pants from stores and offering refunds, leading it to cut its sales first quarter forecast by around $20 million. 
   
   Some analysts expressed concern about the company's quality control. 
   
   Enlarge Image Close REUTERS A Lululemon Athletic shop in San Francisco. 
   
   Analysts at Sterne Agee said the company doesn't appear to be exercising enough supervision of its supply chain. 
   
   "We are concerned that LULU does not have the appropriate presence in and around its factories," the analysts said. "It appears that there is not appropriate oversight in place." 
   
   Lululemon wouldn't comment on its supervision of suppliers. 
   
   Linda Goldstein, vice president of sourcing, quality and production at Lululemon, said in an interview that the company's sourcing manager for raw materials is currently at Eclat's facilities in Taiwan. Lululemon has yet to determine the cause of the problem, she said. 
   
   Lululemon relies heavily on a limited number of suppliers, a risk it called out in its annual report in March 2012. The Luon fabric at issue in the see-through pants comes from that one supplier. 
   
   Ms. Day has intentionally kept supplies of hot sellers low in order to create scarcity and buzz—and to ensure customers pay full price as often as possible. 
   
   Lululemon's shares were down almost 5% in early trading Tuesday, although they rebounded to finish at $64.08, down 2.3%, on the Nasdaq. 
   
   The company's shares, after rising by about two-thirds last year, are down nearly 18% so far in 2013. 
   
   Write to Aries Poon at aries.poon@dowjones.com and Karen Talley at karen.talley@dowjones.com ||||| After customers complained that a batch of the company's signature yoga pants were too transparent, Lululemon tried to make a scapegoat out of the Taiwanese company that manufactures the pants. Bad idea. Said supplier now says the pants were no different than any other batch. The Eclat Textile Company, whose clients include everyone from Gap to Under Armour, said Tuesday that Lululemon had signed off on the shipment, suggesting that Lululemon made the whole thing up. "All shipments to Lululemon went through a certification process which Lululemon had approved," Eclat's chief executive Roger Lo told The Wall Street Journal. "All the pants were manufactured according to the requirements set out in the contract with Lululemon." Ladies and gentlemen, we have a yoga pants scandal on our hands. 
   
   So which one is it? Did Eclat make a bad batch of $100 yoga pants, or did Lululemon just design transparent $100 yoga pants and milk the market for as long as it could? It's really hard to say. When Lo talked to the press, he said that Lululemon hadn't contacted his company about the recall — which is kind of weird since Lululemon effectively blamed Eclat for screwing up the "level of sheerness" during the manufacturing process. (It's worth pointing out that Lululemon also said it was working closely with the manufacturer "to understand what happened during the period this fabric was made.") It's possible that there's a third party, some company that supplied Eclat with the fabric for the pants, clearing it somewhat from the blame. But at this point, this particular incident really is a frustrating finger-pointing match that's left Lululemon out about $20 million in lost sales and a whole lot yogis out of high-priced pants. 
   
   Let's get real about this stretchy trousers tale, though. It's pretty obvious that the supplier gains nothing by saddling the blame, however the perhaps unexpected media circus that gathered around this see-through yoga pants scandal highlighted a number of questionable incidents in recent Lululemon history. As a Credit Suisse analyst pointed out in a note to clients that this is Lululemon's "fourth quality control issue in the last year." Not counting this latest debacle, two out of the other three issues involved the sheerness of its fabrics. Clearly, something is up. 
   
   Along these lines, other analysts suggested that Lululemon needs to spend more time in Taiwan to make sure the manufacturers' work is up to snuff. No matter whose at fault in the growing list Lululemon's quality control issues, it can't hurt to get to the root of the problem. Then maybe next time, someone will spot the bad batch, before they ship $20 million worth of transparent yoga pants around the world. 
   
   Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire. 
   
   Adam Clark Estes
target: – Lululemon's see-through yoga pants sound scandalous, and a scandal is what the company appears to have on its hands. The Taiwanese supplier of the pants is hitting back after the yogawear chain blamed its massive pants recall on the manufacturer. "All shipments to Lululemon went through a certification process which Lululemon had approved," Eclat's CFO tells the Wall Street Journal. "All the pants were manufactured according to the requirements set out in the contract with Lululemon." Writing for the Atlantic Wire, Adam Clark Estes sums up the drama thusly: "So which one is it? Did Eclat make a bad batch of $100 yoga pants, or did Lululemon just design transparent $100 yoga [pants] and milk the market for as long as it could?" For now, it remains unclear, and Lululemon may have larger problems on its hands than some potentially see-through pants: This is the fourth quality control issue the chain has experienced in the past year, and some analysts are expressing concern that the company "does not have the appropriate presence in and around its factories. It appears that there is not appropriate oversight in place."