To quote Elaine (Julia-Louis Dreyfuss) from the hit TV show “Seinfeld:” ‘She looks like a walking candy apple.’

Ralph Lauren has been forced to apologize after digitally altering a picture of a slim model to make her look appallingly thin.

The disturbing image from the fashion brands Blue Label line features model Filippa Hamilton with her head disproportionately wider than her waist. Ralph Lauren admitted that it was responsible for producing ‘a very distorted image of a woman’s body.’

The never-ending debate over whether fashion houses use of only unrealistic ultra thin models instead of healthier figure models hit a fever pitch after the image of the 23-year-old Swedish-French model was reproduced on an Internet blog last month with the caption: ‘Dude, her head’s bigger than her pelvis.’

A spokesman for Ralph Lauren said: ‘For over 42 years, we have built a brand based on quality and integrity. After further investigation, we have learned that we are responsible for the poor imaging and retouching that resulted in a very distorted image of a woman’s body. We have addressed the problem and going forward will take every precaution to ensure that the calibre of our artwork represents our brand appropriately.’

Ralph Lauren’s initial reaction to the accusations regarding image was very different. The company accused the Boing Boing website, which highlights the web’s weird and wonderful sights, of copyright infringement when it reproduced the image. Boing Boing, however, refused to remove the post, claiming that the image publication was: ‘classic fair use: a reproduction “for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting.”‘

In June, British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman launched an attack on some of the world’s most famous designers for promoting unrealistic, tiny body shapes. Shulman accused designer labels of supplying such small sample sizes that magazines were forced to hire size zero models. ‘We have now reached the point where many of the sample sizes don’t comfortably fit even the established star models,’ she wrote.