Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

Ralph Lauren's clothing company fired the model whose body looked emaciated in a touched-up ad because she weighed too much, the woman told the Daily News Tuesday.

Filippa Hamilton - whose hips appeared slimmer than her head in the recent altered ad - said her contract was terminated in April because she was too heavy.

"They fired me because they said I was overweight and I couldn't fit in their clothes anymore," she said.

The 5-foot-10, 120-pound stunner was amazed to see her body digitally distorted for Ralph Lauren Blue Label.

"I was shocked to see that super skinny girl with my face," she told the Daily News. "It's very sad, I think, that Ralph Lauren could do something like that."

Hamilton, 23, worked for Ralph Lauren since about 2002 and considered the company like a second family - until she was bounced.

Then out of nowhere last week, the altered ad - which appeared only in Japan - caused a sensation and drew the ire of critics who thought it appeared sickly and unrealistic.

Polo Ralph Lauren said in a statement Tuesday night that Filippa is a "beautiful and healthy" woman but their relationship ended "as a result of her inability to meet the obligations under her contract with us."

"The image in question was mistakenly released and used in a department store in Japan and was not the approved image which ran in the U.S. We take full responsibility," the statement said. "This error has absolutely no connection to our relationship with Filippa Hamilton."

Hamilton's lawyer, Geoffrey Menin, said the image is "gross distortion of how she really looks and which we fear will be extremely damaging to her."

Hamilton is concerned about its impact on the public.

"I think they owe American women an apology, a big apology," she said. "I'm very proud of what I look like, and I think a role model should look healthy."


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Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

I saw the ralph lauren ad and read a big thing on it being photoshopped.

Its so sad that you have to be stick thin to model

I wish young girls could see what models look like IRL and before they walk into a shoot.

I'm thinking of starting a blog about it.

I do a very small amount of modeling, more for fun, then work. I love it, but I don't look like the final product.

no matter what you look like, they ALWAYS photoshop the pictures. so on the blog I want to create, I want to post pics of me with no make up in my sweats BEFORE i walk into a shoot. then take a REAL picture of the 10 pounds of makeup they put on me that you can't see in the pictures because of the airbrushing, and then post a picture of the final product where they have photoshoped and airbrushed me to look beautiful. I'm sure no one would read it but I think about doing this often!

Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

Bad photoshop!!!!!!

It's appailing that anyone would release this pic as an OK pic. If you want to promote to Japan. Promote a girl from Japan with the body of a woman from Japan. Not this farce!

It's a shame that this model is concidered too big. I did not know Ralph Lauren was into stick figure now. They were always promoting the California style girl before. Tall, healthy. So sad and so disconnected from reality!

Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

I think the 2nd picture is disgusting! It would NOT make me want to buy that outfit! Even if I looked like a skeleton like she does in this stupid pic. I think she is beautiful and not fat at all in the first pic

Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

I just saw an awesome video on YouTube about this other day- it shows the model getting all made up & photoshopped- you can find it if you search for "Model Evolution with Makeup and Photoshop"

Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

That's really terrible.

I still think they should take a bigger action with this, even though it will cause protest like years ago when they prevented too-thin models from participating in a fashion show.

It's so bad, they have to make a big impact with something so impressionable young women will understand this is NOT the way to do things or look.

Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

Posted by HeatherRose

I saw the ralph lauren ad and read a big thing on it being photoshopped.

Its so sad that you have to be stick thin to model

I wish young girls could see what models look like IRL and before they walk into a shoot.

I'm thinking of starting a blog about it.

I do a very small amount of modeling, more for fun, then work. I love it, but I don't look like the final product.

no matter what you look like, they ALWAYS photoshop the pictures. so on the blog I want to create, I want to post pics of me with no make up in my sweats BEFORE i walk into a shoot. then take a REAL picture of the 10 pounds of makeup they put on me that you can't see in the pictures because of the airbrushing, and then post a picture of the final product where they have photoshoped and airbrushed me to look beautiful. I'm sure no one would read it but I think about doing this often!

Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

Here is another recent Ralph Lauren ad in Sydney. It really gives me a bad taste in my mouth for this brand that they would put these type of images out there.

Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

Posted by DirtyBlonde

I was about to post this.

Now RL is going after the blogger and his site. Please. Stop photochopping models like this - it's sick.

Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

It is disgusting that the fashion industry publishes images that are so distorted that they are beyond the realm of reality. The picture of the model that is not distorted is sexy and gorgeous! Why has their idea of beauty become a woman with a 10 year old boys hips?

Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

He should really focus on his own image before he critisizes someone else.

I rather be considered overweight then have his ugly mug.

Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

These pictures don't even look like thin people, they look inhuman.

Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

Posted by DirtyBlonde

Posted by TheLorax

Here is another recent Ralph Lauren ad in Sydney. It really gives me a bad taste in my mouth for this brand that they would put these type of images out there.

IMAGE

I was about to post this.

Now RL is going after the blogger and his site. Please. Stop photochopping models like this - it's sick.

Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

This makes me ill. Absolutely ridiculous!

Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

I think it's gross they way the body looks so distorted and unhealthy

Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

Wow, the two photoshopped images are disgusting. Even if they were skeletons they wouldn't look like that, their ribcages and hips would be wider.
I can't believe RL is allowing images like this to be published. I thought we were getting out of the era of superskinny models.

Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

That second photoshopped image is disgusting ... they both are but the 2nd is the worst

Re: Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired because I was too fat!

I work in advertising, and worked on a fashion brand for about 5 years - part of my job is to oversee the retouching of models like this once the photoshoot has happened.
Yes, retouching happens to EVERYTHING, not just models, but to backgrounds, clothing etc.
We would have the skinniest models wearing clothes but if for example, they were shot in a bikini, sitting down - we would have to retouch out the natural wrinkles and folds in her belly that happen when you fold something in 1/2. Sometimes a model would be shot at a certain angle and her butt would look 'big' (relative to the rest of her) and we'd sit there and shave off so much to make her look so skinny. It happens all the time unfortunately - and it will only stop when someone huge makes a stand against it.

i don't buy Ralph Lauren's excuse of this being only intended for Japan (what sort of excuse is that anyway.. like its ok to show distorted images to them and not us?). these images go through a definite process of approval before they make it out anywhere.. so this was not a mistake.

IMO these distorted images are grotesque. Her waist has been made to look extreme and very unnatural.

I have a collection of images of the 'befores' and 'afters' of images from the shoots that would make you laugh. Mariah Carey with really really bad skin, Karolina Kourkova has no belly button, just scar tissue.. things like that.