Underweight supermodel too fat for Ralph Lauren

14th October 2009

Underweight supermodel too fat for Ralph Lauren

Supermodel Filippa Hamilton has reportedly weighed in on the “shrinky-dink” hack job of her by Ralph Lauren. According to the Examiner:

“I was shocked to see that super-skinny girl with my face,” says Hamilton, who’s a size 4. “I think [the Ralph Lauren company] owes American women an apology. I’m very proud of what I look like, and I think a role model should look healthy.”

Hamilton also told the NY Daily News that Ralph Lauren fired her for “being overweight” and not being able to fit into their clothes. The fashion house confirmed that Hamilton was released “as a result of her inability to meet the obligations under her contract with us.”

Uhh.. Ralph Lauren? If a 5-foot-10, 120-pound, size 4 supermodel with a BMI considered to be underweight by WHO standards* is too fat to fit into your clothes… how exactly do you expect to remain in business?

*Hamilton’s BMI is 17.2. The World Health Organization considers any BMI under 18.5 to be underweight.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 1:33 pm and is filed under Fashion, Fat Bias, Rachel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On October 14th, 2009, Diana said:

Jesus Christ. I don’t even know what to say about this whole thing.

posted on October 14th, 2009 at 2:23 pm

2 On October 14th, 2009, JeanC said:

Someone REALLY needs to apply a clue bat to Ralph Lauren and soon. The man is a farking idiot. Tho the more he opens his mouth, the more people are going to see that and hopefully stop buying his clothes.

posted on October 14th, 2009 at 3:10 pm

3 On October 14th, 2009, Living400lbs said:

“I was shocked to see that super-skinny girl with my face,”

I would note that the retouched ad didn’t show a super-skinny girl. It showed a freakishly out of proportion girl. As Boing Boing noted, “her head’s bigger than her pelvis”.

posted on October 14th, 2009 at 3:33 pm

4 On October 14th, 2009, Shannon Russell said:

You know, we should be glad this kind of thing still happens. It draws attention to the unattainable expectations of the fashion industry. Maybe this will be a wake up call for some women. Who knows. Lets make the most of it while we can, though.

Peace,
Shannon

posted on October 14th, 2009 at 3:37 pm

5 On October 14th, 2009, PlusSizedFeminist said:

Uhh.. Ralph Lauren? If a 5-foot-10, 120-pound, size 4 supermodel with a BMI considered to be underweight by WHO standards* is too fat to fit into your clothes… how exactly do you expect to remain in business?

By continuing to sell the illusion that fat people shouldn’t have fashion. If that is too fat, then I must be death fat at 5’5″ and nearly 200. But of course, only fat mummies complain about thin models according to Karl Lagerfeld….

posted on October 14th, 2009 at 4:49 pm

6 On October 14th, 2009, Samantha C said:

pst….I think something went wrong with your HTML at the end – the itallics don’t seem to close at the end of your footnote, the whole rest of the main page is in tiny itallic font.

posted on October 14th, 2009 at 5:28 pm

7 On October 14th, 2009, Rachel said:

Thanks, Samantha. I didn’t see anything wrong in Firefox, but I checked and the tag wasn’t closed properly. Are you using IE by chance?

posted on October 14th, 2009 at 5:51 pm

8 On October 14th, 2009, Bree said:

Just goes to show you that the fashion industry is on its own little planet. If Ralph Lauren thinks a size 4 is fat and Karl Lagerfeld insists nobody wants to see women with any curves on their bodies (I assume he also means not just “truly fat” women like me at a size 26/28, but women who wear smaller double digit sizes) then they deserve not to have stylish large women spend tons of money on their clothing. They don’t want us, we certainly don’t want them.

posted on October 14th, 2009 at 6:31 pm

9 On October 15th, 2009, Raven said:

Ralph Lauren just got busted for photoshopping another woman to Jack Skellington proportions once again (here: http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/2009/10/ralph-lauren-hits-keep-on-coming.html).
I just don’t know how to respond to this. I want to hope that the fashion industry will change, but when they tell a woman with a BMI of 17.5 is too fat, then they just entered wacko land for me. I think the only designer I have any semblance of hope for is Rodarte, and thats only because the designers are plus sized and I’m hoping they will finally start using plus sized women (or “plus” sized models) also on the runway, but I doubt it.

posted on October 15th, 2009 at 1:48 am

10 On October 15th, 2009, Lu said:

Stupidheads! Every time I see that picture it just aggravates me.

posted on October 15th, 2009 at 10:51 am

11 On October 15th, 2009, Forestroad said:

Raven, I was just coming over here to post that. That one to me looks not only like a photoshop disaster, but also simply a girl who is very underweight.

posted on October 15th, 2009 at 11:14 am

12 On October 15th, 2009, Rachel said:

That model’s bottom half looks more like an illustration than a photograph. It’s almost as if they used only her head and upper torso and then painted in the rest. Thanks for the link, Raven.

posted on October 15th, 2009 at 11:34 am

13 On October 15th, 2009, Samantha C said:

Rachel, yeah, i’m still on IE. I’m too lazy to change what my default browser is XD

posted on October 15th, 2009 at 1:46 pm

14 On October 15th, 2009, Fantasha said:

So typical! I am definitely not surprised and am all to aware of the unreal images that are too common in magazines. If only people stopped looking to models and magazines for the “ideal” image of beauty. The masses buy into the whole unhealthy image as reflected in magazine sales about thinness and the nest new diet. We the people need to change before the fashion industry will, they are just giving us more of what we really want to see…sad!

posted on October 15th, 2009 at 10:28 pm

15 On October 16th, 2009, Amy said:

And this is why I have trouble getting out of bed in the morning…Alright. It’s one reason amongst a plethora…I heard rumors this may be a “mistranslation”.

posted on October 16th, 2009 at 9:28 am

16 On October 16th, 2009, Amy said:

Mistranslation, my ass.

17 On October 18th, 2009, Ralph Lauren Jumpers said:

I’m really dissapointed to see Ralph Lauren continue to shoot themselves in the foot! This is the 2nd time they have been caught out in as many weeks and it really is a shame ’cause Ralph Laurens ranges are really nice – it’s just a pity that their marketing sucks ass!

posted on October 18th, 2009 at 9:31 am

18 On October 19th, 2009, Emerald said:

To my husband (a semi-pro photographer), that was the crappiest piece of Photoshopping he’d ever seen. To me it was obvious that, apart from the absurdly small waist, her legs weren’t joined onto her hips properly. What’s scary is that I’ve seen a number of comments in various places on this story in which people not only don’t realize she’s been faked, but find the result attractive. Urrgh.

posted on October 19th, 2009 at 4:00 pm