Was Ralph Lauren Model Fired for Being Overweight?

Here we go again!

Ralph Lauren came under fire for a re-touch of their advertisement of 23-year-old Filippa Hamilton.  Hamilton is 5′10″ and weighs 120 pounds.   In a statement, they admitted, “poor imaging and retouching errors” and said that they had addressed the problem.

Today

They addressed the problem all right. They fired Hamilton.

Ralph Lauren let Hamilton go after six years with the company “as a result of her inability to meet the obligations under her contract with us.”

What does that mean?

Wait, there’s more.

Hamilton told NBC Today Show Host, Anne Curry that she was let go because she’d become too fat to model for the company.  Hamilton said that Lauren wrote a letter to her agent saying, “We’re terminating your services because you don’t fit into the sample clothes that you need to wear.”  Read Lauren’s full statement here.

So, what’s the deal?

Kate White, the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine who was also interviewed on the Today show with Hamilton said,

“I think women have to protest, and back it up, because sometimes women say they want real girls in stories, but often those stories don’t rate as well, and if you put a heavy celebrity on the cover, it may not sell as well,” White said. “Women have to complain and then back it up with their actions — with their pocketbooks.”

Let’s keep telling the fashion industry because they are not getting it!

It’s time.  For ourselves and for our daughters.  It’s time.

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