If you have read my blog recently you will have seen that I have been following the Ralph Lauren PR ‘crisis.’ See previous posts:

http://jameswdcrawford.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/ralph-laurens-pr-argument-is-a-little-thin/

and:

http://jameswdcrawford.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/ralph-lauren-post-an-update/

Now it seems that things are going from bad to worse, with Boing Boing reporting that the model in question has been sacked:

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/10/14/ralph-lauren-fires-p.html

On the face of things the latest state of affairs seems like a PR crisis.  But is it?  Do fashionistas TRULY care about the size issue?  After all Karl Lagerfeld has recently said, “Only fat, potato chip-eating moms hate thin models”.  And there hasn’t really been much outrage in the conventional media either.

 

Unconsciously do Ralph Lauren customers, and fashion lovers in general I hasten to add, feel thinner when they purchase the brand’s clothes because, “if they fit into a nice designer outfit then they must be as thin as a model”?

 

This is a far too complicated an idea to get my head around, but I can see it working as an unspoken machination of the fashion industry.  It’s a dangerous line to tread though.