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Ted Baker Slims Images of Meghan Trainor in Pencil Skirt

Ted Baker’s PR sent around an altered, slimmed down version of Meghan Trainor in their pencil skirt. (Photo: Getty Images)
Ted Baker’s PR sent around an altered, slimmed down version of Meghan Trainor in their pencil skirt. (Photo: Getty Images)

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All About that Bass” singer Meghan Trainor has become synonymous with body confidence, but not everyone is as supportive of her curves. Today, a public relations representative for Ted Baker London sent around a press release via email to editors of the singer looking confusingly thinner than usual in one of the fashion brand’s vibrant pencil skirts.

 

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“Meghan Trainor stepped out on to the pink carpet at this year’s Wango Tango wearing a bright and festive number,” the press release said. “Megan wore the tropical toucan printed Racind skirt by Ted Baker London.” The email included two images of the star taken from Getty Images stock photo agency (as evidenced by the watermarks) that were altered and stretched out. As a result, Trainor’s face, hips, and waist were whittled down. Yahoo Beauty located the exact original images of Trainor from the photo agency and placed them side by side so you can see the alterations. Ted Baker sent around the version on the right, and the original, unretouched photos are on the left.

 

Ted Baker made Meghan Trainor appear smaller in press photos. (Photo: Getty Images)
Ted Baker made Meghan Trainor appear smaller in press photos. (Photo: Getty Images)

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Brands often send around promotional emails like this in hopes that fashion editors will report on celebrities wearing their garments. (Often times, the brands even send garments to stars for free and then brag about how much said famous person adores the brand’s clothing.) In this case, however, Ted Baker clearly wants to use Trainor’s fame and likeness to help publicize their printed skirt, but they aren’t celebrating the star who has been openly proud of her curves.

 

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Ted Baker’s Racind skirt is available on the brand’s website for $248 and is available up to a size 12. In a recent interview with the New York Daily News, Trainor said she discovered the wonders of pencil skirts after admiring Christina Hendricks and her retro fashions on Mad Men. “Me in a pencil skirt is LIFE,” Trainor said. “I watched with my bro, and we were like, ‘Dang, look at that girl. She looks amazing.’” Pencil skirts are notoriously flattering on women with curves, and Trainor is no exception. If the singer is willing to celebrate and spotlight Ted Baker at a high profile event like Wango Tango, the brand should return the favor.

 

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We reached out to Ted Baker’s PR for a comment. “It was a simple pitch,” the representative who sent the email told Yahoo Beauty. “I tried to put the images together and make them fit them into the email. I’m so mortified that that was how it was received. I apologize and I take responsibility for that. I am a huge advocate for women and that was not my intent.” Intended or not, the images went out to to perhaps hundreds of editors looking drastically different from the original photos.

 

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Trainor, now 21, frequently discusses her past struggles with body image as a teen. “When I saw photos of myself, I would think, I look awful. There’s a double chin! I never thought I’d be a pop star. I don’t look like Rihanna,” she said in the March issue of Seventeen. “Just recently I was thinking, ‘I’m confident now, and I look good,’ and that’s because I’ve started saying those words out loud more. So now when I see pictures, I’m like, 'Oh my God, why would I hate myself at all? I look incredible in that picture!’”

 

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The singer even told the Daily Mail that her body confident anthem came about during hard times. “While writing that song I was still insecure,” she says, “I realized that out of all the thousands of songs I’ve written none of them have been about my body or insecurities. ‘All About That Bass’ was the first time I’d ever talked about it. When I started performing it, seeing the reactions, I started to feel confident and to love myself more. So this song helped me as much as it helped other girls.”

 

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Yahoo Beauty reached out to Meghan Trainor for comment, but have not heard back at press time.

 

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[Editor’s note: Ted Baker’s public relations manager reached out after this article’s publication with the following statement:

 

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Our LA based agency did not Photoshop or intentionally alter images in anyway. We are absolutely mortified by this story as we hold our relationship with Trainor in high regard and we are thrilled that she is a loyal fan of Ted Baker. Only this morning we tweeted out an image that Trainor posted of herself in our pencil skirt to our 70 thousand global followers. This is her fourth time wearing Ted Baker to a public event and we have published across our social channels each time.

 

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Ted Baker appreciates and respects women of all sizes and we think Meghan Trainor — a woman of remarkable talent — looks fantastic in Ted. Multiple low resolution images of the singer in a Ted Baker pencil skirt were imbedded [sic] in an email pitch. The photos were cropped and reduced in size in order to fit into the email and were not intended to be published in this watermarked format.]

 

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