Ralph Lauren Model Fired for Being Too Fat?

Model Filippa Hamilton accused Ralph Lauren's clothing company of firing her because she is too fat, the New York Daily News reports. Hamilton is 5 feet 10 inches tall and 120 pounds.

In recent days, the fashion house has been forced to apologize for an advertisement in Japan for Ralph Lauren Blue Label -- seen at left -- in which Hamilton's body was Photoshopped so extremely that her head was bigger than her hips.

"They fired me because they said I was overweight and I couldn't fit in their clothes anymore," Hamilton, 23, told the Daily News. Hamilton has modeled for Ralph Lauren since 2002, and her contract was terminated in April.

In response, Polo Ralph Lauren said in a statement to the Daily News that Hamilton is a "beautiful and healthy" woman, but she was let go "as a result of her inability to meet the obligations under her contract with us." Of the controversial doctored ad of Hamilton that made her look thinner, Ralph Lauren's first reaction was to blame the blogs for infringing on copyright laws.

But, after media outrage, the company issued an apology: "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 company also denies in the statement that Hamilton's weight in the doctored photo is related to her termination, saying the Japanese ad "has absolutely no connection to our relationship with Filippa Hamilton."

Hamilton, on the other hand, says that her weight was the factor in both the Photoshopping controversy and her firing. "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."

The Ralph Lauren company finally acknowledged that "after further investigation, we have learned that we are responsible for the poor imaging and retouching that resulted in a very distorted image of a woman's body," according to an Oct. 9 statement.

Around the world, the fashion industry has been under more scrutiny in recent years for using models with extremely low weight, with critics saying the practice encourages eating disorders. In response, the fashion industry has taken small steps to ensure young models are not putting their health at risk.

Last week, Germany's most popular women's magazine Brigitte announced it would no longer use professional models, but women who are not models instead. Andreas Lebert, Brigitte's editor-in-chief, said, "For years we've had to use Photoshop to fatten the girls up. Especially their thighs and décolletage. But this is disturbing and perverse and what has it got to do with our real reader?"

"Today's models weigh around 23 percent less than normal women," Lebert also said. "The whole model industry is anorexic."

In 2006, Spain announced that models would have to have a certain height-to-weight ratio to be in Madrid's Fashion Week runway shows. Following Spain's lead, Italy also banned super skinny models from its fashion shows.

But these small steps to normalize women's views of weight have not made much impact on the average American woman.

"I knew it! Big movement to make models more normal sized is all a bunch of crap!" my girlfriend, 38, emailed me this morning after hearing the news of Hamilton being fired. "Anorexia will always be in. I'd better keep eating popcorn for dinner!"

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