Ann Taylor Ad Targeted for Model with Impossibly Thin Waist

Since Ralph Lauren proverbially put its foot in its mouth with a series of ads where the models were retouched beyond recognition – and certainly beyond any human resemblance – the media has been keeping a very attentive eye on such practices in the fashion world. Next under fire is an ad from Ann Taylor, which shows a model with unbelievably wrinkle-free clothes, a very tiny waist and even smaller hips, as Shine Yahoo reports.

This is not the first time that Ann Taylor draws heavy criticism for the way it retouches the photos of its models – in fact, last time it did so, back in May, it promised it would change its Photoshop standards to “celebrate feminine beauty” as it is. Neither is Ann Taylor the only brand to take Photoshop too far, since several others have been called out for such practices and for sending out a very wrong message to women out there. However, Ann Taylor is perhaps the only one to blow its own cover like it did the other day.

“Back in May, Ann Taylor was called out for overly airbrushing their clothing, whittling down their models to nothing and assigning them Gumby-like curves. They took to their Twitter account to apologize, saying ‘we may have been overzealous on retouching but go (sic) forward we'll be sure to feature more real, beautiful images. We want to support and celebrate the natural beauty of women and we apologize if in the process of retouching that was lost.’ It was admirable of Ann Taylor to accept responsibility for their error, and we hoped it would be their last, but no such luck,” Yahoo Shine notes.

“The above alteration was detected on Ann Taylor’s site this week by women’s blog, Jezebel. They explained that ‘as the page loads, you’ll get to see what the Chiffon Trim Tank looks like on a real woman for a few seconds. Then she shrinks into an awkward creature barely able to support the weight of her torso with her tiny child hips.’ A glitch on Ann Taylor’s web site for sure, but it looked as though they were taunting shoppers with a normal image of a model, followed by a completely unrealistic one,” the same e-zine further says.

A spokesperson for Ann Taylor says the excessively retouched image was uploaded on their servers before they concluded that it was too unrealistic to put in print and online. A glitch made it so that it went online – but it has been taken down after the outpour of complaints from users. Clearly, Ann Taylor is committed to its promise of showing its customers who its products look on real women, the rep insists.

*Update [Aug. 7]: In an almost unprecedented move in the fashion industry, Ann Taylor has owned up to the mistake. See here for the company's stand on the Photoshop controversy.

Follow me on Twitter @ElenaGorgan