Crops on model

I did a commercial shoot about 4 weeks ago and I got into a debate with another photographer about partial crops on the model wearing the product. The product was fully visible but the model was partially cropped in the shot. It was intentional.

I was under the impression that this is a favorable trend right now. Can anyone else weigh in?

I don't know about whether it's a trend or not, but sometimes this can be what the client wants. I did a shoot back in October '13 for a local brewery, featuring their t-shirts for sale; I used employees as models and deliberately chose to crop off some of the identifying features so that the pictures would stay evergreen.
As luck would have it, the guy ended up leaving the place for a bigger job, about two months later. The girl is still there.

Seems to me if you're not focusing on the model - and the fashion is what's being centered on - then cropping that way shouldn't be an issue at all.

It's pretty obvious ... you are commissioned to shoot the product. Model is irrelevant. Model is not paying you , the client is.

It's the Art Director's or Creative Director's call.

Maybe the other photographer was suggesting it is safer to shoot wider so that if the client changed their mind the layout/graphic designer would have some flexibility with the crop later?

In this era of super high MPs which most of us don't need, I'd rather do any creative cropping later during post processing. I do try out a few images with crops, but the final images for the job are usually full. Never know when the clients start asking for more of the model and I don't want to be left searching for an alternative image.