Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton: I was fired for being fat

October 14, 11:38 AMNY Celebrity Fitness and Health ExaminerSamantha Chang

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Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton says she was fired for
being 'too fat.' This photoshopped image of a super-thin
Hamilton caused an uproar. (Photo/BoingBoing)

Filippa Hamilton, a striking 5-foot-10, 120-lb. model, claims she was fired by Ralph Lauren for being too fat.

"They fired me because they said I was overweight and I couldn't fit in their clothes anymore," Hamilton, 23, told the NY Daily News.

Filippa, a half-French, half-Swedish stunner who has modeled for Ralph Lauren since 2002, recently appeared in a Japanese print ad that was digitally altered to make her look emaciated (right). 

"I was shocked to see that super-skinny girl with my face," says Hamilton, who's a size 4. "I think [the Ralph Lauren company] owes American women an apology. I'm very proud of what I look like, and I think a role model should look healthy." 

Indeed, Filippa's grotesquely thin body in the photoshopped ad caused an outcry among Internet bloggers, who criticized Ralph Lauren for promoting unhealthy body images for women.

In a statement Tuesday, the company said the controversially altered photo "was mistakenly released and used in a department store in Japan and was not the approved image which ran in the U.S."

The fashion house confirmed that Hamilton was released "as a result of her inability to meet the obligations under her contract with us."

The fashion industry has come under fire in recent years for promoting über-thinness as a physical ideal. While critics say the industry contributes to poor body image and eating disorders among women, others say modeling is an industry where women make big bucks off their looks, and that being thin is merely part of the job.

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