Ralph Lauren, Models

Photoshopped Ralph Lauren Model Fired for Being Too Fat?

Photoshopped Ralph Lauren Model Fired for Being Too Fat?
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Ralph Lauren's Photoshop of Horrors saga, wherein an ad escaped with a severely distorted Picasso of a bobble head on top of a shrunken, crooked body, has taken another ugly twist.  This morning on the TODAY Show, the photoshopped model, Filippa Hamilton revealed that she was, in fact, fired for being too fat. 

 

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It's the fashion industry version of he said, she said.  The size-four Hamilton (forget that, we don't need to provide the girl's measurements to convince you she's not actually fat) was dismissed from Ralph Lauren after eight years of service for, according to the brand's statement, "an inability to meet the obligations of her contract." Hamilton and her legal team, on the other hand, claim that Lauren told her agency she was being let go because she couldn't fit into the sample-sized clothing (which Hamilton denied on the show).  Legally speaking, and keep in mind, we're no lawyers, nor have we seen said contract, but these could sort of mean the same thing.

Before you slap us, don't be mistaken, we agree with the model: this is very sad and very wrong.  If an eight-year veteran and, supposedly, an integral part of their brand, no longer meets standards at five-foot-ten and 120 pounds, well, then that's a brand that's overzealously pursuing an impossible standard of thinness, if you ask us. 

On the flip side, Hamilton should take this opportunity and run with it - also on the TODAY Show was Cosmopolitan Editor-in-Chief Kate White, who offered her eight pages on the spot! 

BY Kelly O'Reilly // Tuesday, Jan 12, 2010 at 07:18 EST

  • 69% furious 94
  • 10% bored 14
  • 9% sad 12
  • 7% intrigued 10
  • 4% laughing 6
  • 1% thrilled 1
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      Laurel Pinson, senior fashion & shopping editor

      Laurel has worked at Vogue, Stylelist, and Lucky, devours style news, has a dangerous addiction to platforms, and won't back down in a sample sale fight.

      Laura Neilson, contributing editor

      A zealous follower of fashion since pre-school, Laura picked up her first copy of Vogue at age four (mesmerized, she mispronounced it as Vog-way).

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      Kelly is a reformed sorority girl, aspiring yogini and closet magazine junkie, who also might be the only writer in New York who prefers Manhattan over Brooklyn.

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      Blair is a Brooklyn-based writer, eBay scavenger, and apple pie baker who'd rather be on two wheels in stilettos than stuck in a taxi -- unless the cabbie's listening to Prince.

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