Is Ralph Lauren Addicted to Photoshop?

He's at it again...OK maybe not Ralph Lauren personally, but his minions certainly

Deep Glamour girl Virginia Postrel points out in her Forbes.com article that

Lauren sells dreams of transformation and escape--all those green lawns and polo fields, safari tents and Rocky Mountain ranches. His designs transport the audience out of everyday experience and make the ideal life seem palpable.

Well transformation pretty much sums it up what is going on with the image of this brand as another Ralph Lauren model, this time Valentina Zelyaeva, the world's 13th highest paid model, is deemed to be to big for Ralph Lauren ads.

Comment of the Year - Can Lauren Go Any Lower

Yes...I love all my commentors

but this has to be the comment of the year

from my Texas girl and blogger extraordinaire, Jill

But I guess if your a 5'2" inch designer that looks like a haggard garden gnome, that's ok.

and that kind of says it all about Ralph Lauren

Too Large For Ralph Lauren

Again, we get another story of the Fashion industry at its finest

So our story is about gorgeous model Fillipa Hamilton, now 23

who has been modeling for Ralph Lauren since she was 15 Years old

Fillipa Hamilton, for me at least, seemed to have that quintessential "Ralph Lauren Look"

you know, healthy, sporty, all American

And she seemed to look OK with most of her clothes off too

But for some reason, the Ralph Lauren people

decided to over photoshop and distort her image in this ad

so that her head looks bigger than her waist

And now this 5'10, 120 pound model has been fired by Ralph Lauren for being too fat

According to the Times Online

Miss Hamilton had this to say

'I've been working with them since I was 15 years old, so I considered them my second family,' the 5ft 10in beauty said. 'I was very hurt about this.'
Miss Hamilton claims she was fired in April - before the digitally- altered images of her were released.
'I saw my face in this extremely skinny girl - which is not me,' she recalled.
'It makes me sad. It makes me think that Ralph Lauren wants to have this kind of image - and it's not healthy, it's not right.
'And it's not a good example. When you see this picture young women will look at this and think it's normal, and it's not.

So...the next time you go shopping and start perusing clothes from the Ralph Lauren line

Keep this in mind

If they think this girl is too fat to represent the brand

what must they think of the way that their actual real life customers look.

Also, check out the BoingBoing mocking of Ralph Lauren