Everything looks great till you actually get to the spread.

This is where things begin to get strange. It should be pretty apparent about what went wrong.

Either he has liposuction done, or the retouchers on staff really messed this one up big time.
His hip is clearly cut off.

Ralph Lauren is infamous for their Photoshop follies:

You can see the one on the left is the obvious mistake. And the one on the right is a clear guide of what normal is.

Apparently understanding anatomy is not a part of being a retoucher anymore.

In all seriousness, where do big mishaps like these come from? Is it just the retoucher’s fault?
From personal experience, it’s not just the retoucher’s fault. There are two scenarios that typically happen.

Scenario 1:

The retoucher does the initial retouch and gets it approved by the art director and magazine head that is overseeing the campaign. No one sees the mistake and it goes into a rushed production. The rushed portion is emphasized because often that is how it is.

Scenario 2:

The retoucher is fully aware of what is going on because he or she knows a thing of two about how a human should look (hopefully). They complete the job and send it for approval to whoever is overseeing the job. In return, they send it back to the retoucher and give specific directions on what to modify even if the retoucher is in disagreement. Then it gets done and approved. After all, the retoucher mostly follows directions given by whatever the ‘client’ wants, often even against what is advised.