Skinny model fired for being too fat?
That’s the allegation. We’ll come to that. First, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page, definition-wise.
Beautiful:
Sexy:
Beautiful:
Dear God What Is That Thing:
We all together on those?
All four pictures are of the same model: Filippa Hamilton. The last one, you may have read, became a bit of a scandal for the Ralph Lauren label, as it’s so obviously photoshopped to make an already skinny model look…I suppose the right answer is “even skinnier,” but come on. That’s a frickin’ caricature right there. It’s an ugly joke, in more ways than one. That’s everything wrong with the world of high fashion.
Anway. Filippa done got fired now, and she says it’s because she’s too fat:
That’s right: I said too fat.
…”addressing the problem” may have included firing the model, 23-year-old Filippa Hamilton. She is 5’10″ and weighs 120 pounds–clearly more full-bodied than the photoshopped girl we see in the advertisement. Though Hamilton has modeled for Ralph Lauren since she was 15, the company let her go “as a result of her inability to meet the obligations under her contract with us.”
But the story gets worse: Hamilton says she was let go because she’d become too fat to model for them. “They fired me because they said I was overweight and I couldn’t fit in their clothes anymore,” she explained. “I was shocked to see that super skinny girl with my face…It’s very sad, I think, that Ralph Lauren could do something like that.”
We’ll never know if that’s the whole truth or not. Ralph Lauren will dispute, maybe, and the whole thing will become he said/she said. I’d be willing to bet that Filippa is doing a little self-promotion, at least. Wouldn’t be surprised if she’s embellishing. She is, after all, in show business, and currently between jobs.
But that’s not why I’m writing this. I have two points.
One: if you’re 5’10 and weigh only 120 pounds, for God’s sake eat a sandwich.
And two: who in the world was Ralph Lauren trying to attract with that OMG-skinny photoshop? The Bulimics are Beautiful Society?
UPDATE - so I check my blog at a little after 8 this morning (I’m not compulsive or anything), and my traffic has already shot past my all-time one-day high. And why? Instalanche. Thanks, Glenn!
And, holy crap, he only put that post up at 9:03 Eastern – not even an hour ago.
Insert superlative derogatory here. You’ll have to supply your own, because I’m fresh out.
I’m betting I have The Other McCain and The Other Smith to thank for this, dammit, because they put this post in their weekly Rule 5 roundup.
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That photoshop of Filippa is bad. But have you seen THIS?
http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/2009/10/ralph-lauren-hits-keep-on-coming.html
It makes Filippa look like a freakin’ blimp!!
My husband didn’t drool over the last picture.
Bratz Dolls — the new fashion standard!
What is it with these designers that they just cannot stand a woman looking like a woman. One wonders if they are into little boys and the only acceptable woman is one that looks like a boy with long hair.
After I blogged about Fillipa Hamilton I got this great comment about Ralph Lauren:
“But I guess if your a 5’2″ inch designer that looks like a haggard garden gnome, that’s ok.”
It only matters if Ralph Lauren’s sales go down. Or if they need to send their overstocks to TJ Maxx. Then, they’ll go and fire the art director. And, you still will not hear screams or music coming from behind their curtains.
This is so weird I’m really wondering if the ‘men’ in the high fashion world are intimidated by any woman who doesn’t look like a doll.
There’s got to be something creepy and psychological behind that picture.
To be fair there is a possibility that the image was designed to be viewed from below, and modified to correct for the perspective.
A girl who is 5’10″ and 120 pounds doesn’t need a sandwich, she need a Wendy’s Triple Cheeseburger, Large Fries, and a Frosty.
Even “normal” super-models are weird. Who wants to snuggle up with a bag of bones?
I think the problem is that most male fashion designers are gay and they want models to look like their concepts of sexiness, young skinny boys. The whole industry seems to be suffering from anorexia.
AST, are you familiar with the blog that makes that point? I came across it a while ago – cannot for the life of me remember what it’s called. The author laid it out, chapter and verse, comparing high fashion and lingerie models with “low fashion” models (you know, the ones in dept. store circulars and so forth), pointing out the masculine characteristics of the former (broad, square shoulders; nonexistent hips except as compared with ridiculously narrow waists; more pronounced facial bones, including brow ridges!; the fact that Victoria’s Secret models, for instance, have ludicrously fake breasts compared with their obvious total lack of body fat elsewhere) versus the feminine characteristics of the latter (more gracile facial features; curvier contours overall; sloping shoulders).
It was fascinating. Horrifying, but fascinating. Certainly I don’t have any problem with gay men’s liking men; I do have problems with both gay men’s trying to convince me, a woman (or me in my younger incarnation, either), that I need to look like their sexual ideal in order to be fashionable, and with presenting the silhouette of the barely-pubescent boy as ANY kind of appropriate adult ideal. Wha??
it’s too easy to blame gay guys in fashion for the incredible shrinking woman. there are plenty of women in the industry too and i don’t see them selling the zaftig look. women have for some time now been rather catty about how ‘fat’ their friends are, and each generation has been re-defining the definition of fat down to the skin-and-bones look we see represented here. the fashion business isn’t in it to LOSE money. when women stop buying the look, the look will change.
You are hilarious.
the best asset of Rachel Leigh Cook is her big brown eyes which are very very expressive and attractive .