Grazia admits digitally slimming Duchess of Cambridge

Press Complaints Commission confirms magazine admitted digital alteration of bride image for 9 May royal wedding edition Grazia has admitted that it inadvertently slimmed down the waist of the Duchess of Cambridge by digitally altering a controversial cover picture of her in her Alexander McQueen wedding dress. In its 9 May edition the weekly fashion title published a photo of what appeared to be an impossibly thin looking bride standing alone from the day of the royal wedding, which reignited the debate over the presentation of the female form in women’s magazines. The Bauer Media-owned magazine has admitted that it did doctor the original image, of William and Kate leaving Westminster Cathedral after their wedding ceremony. In the process of removing her husband, the Duke of Cambridge, from the original photo and digitally reinstating Kate Middleton’s right arm – by using a mirror image of her left arm – to give the impression she was posing on her own, her waist was also reduced in size. After investigating a complaint that the image had been manipulated, the Press Complaints Commission said: “The magazine explained how the image had been altered to remove the arm of Prince William so that the duchess could be featured on the cover alone. “This involved mirroring one of the duchess’s arms and an inadvertent result of the change was the slimming of her waist.” In a statement Grazia said it had wanted “a great image of the duchess on her own, but all the photographs had the duke in too … so we asked our reproduction house to remove him from the picture (common practice among glossy magazines). This would have left the Duchess with only one arm, so they copied over her arm to complete the picture.” . Grazia said it “would like to reassure all our readers that we did not purposely make any alternations to the Duchess of Cambridge’s image to make her appear slimmer, and we are sorry if this process gave that impression”. The final image on the front cover shows the duchess with a sharper than normal synched waist and a disconnection between the bodice of the dress and the skirt on her right side, showing where the technicians had been at work. The Duchess of Cambridge is not the first to have her image electronically enhanced for a glossy magazine cover. Kate Winslet, an actor renowned for celebrating a normal figure has fallen victim to the airbrush on more than one occasion. In 2003, the editor of GQ admitted digitally lengthening and slimming her legs for a raunchy cover shoot in which she posed in a basque and high heels. Winslet protested that she “was pretty proud of how my legs actually looked in the real picture”. Last month L’Oréal was forced to pull adverts for foundation creams featuring Pretty Woman star Julia Roberts and supermodel Christy Turlington after admitting the images had been digitally retouched. Four years ago advertising watchdogs also criticised L’Oréal for a mascara advert in which Penélope Cruz wore false eyelashes. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook . Magazines The Duchess of Cambridge Press Complaints Commission Censorship Bauer Royal wedding Photography Women Alexander McQueen Fashion Lisa O’Carroll guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 11, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.