Fitting Room Mirrors-Sabotaging Buying
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I spent all day yesterday clothes shopping with my daughter.Â
Sounds like fun, right?
Not.
I don’t enjoy shopping of any kind.
I know that blasphemous for a woman to admit, but I don’t even drag myself to the grocery store these days. Hubby likes to shop so when we run out of basics like food and toilet paper, off he goes.Â
By far the worst item on the shopping spectrum, in my opinion, is clothes shopping. Have you seen the current patterns and colors? Bleck! Uggglleeee.
And some of the styles leave me scratching my head.Â
If I dig really hard, I might find two or three items to try on. That’s when the real fun begins. I start start the long, and dreaded journey to the fitting room. I’m not a vain woman, but I anticipate the experience with about as much enthusiasm as I do my annual pap smear or the one root canal I’ve had.Â
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I disrobe and inevitably am startled by the pale, lumpy, saggy creature reflected in the mirror. Where the &*^% did she come from? The lighting makes me look as if I’ve got one foot in the grave, and those mirrors … Those horrid, ghastly mirrors.Â
I look like I’ve expanded five sizes since I took that last glance in my full-length mirror at home.Â
I don’t think stores really want to sell clothing at all. Nope, I don’t.Â
I think they are in cahoots with diet pill manufacturers, or those trendy diet gurus, or maybe the chain gyms to so traumatize women, and fill them with such self-loathing, they run straight home and start a new exercise and eating regime. Or in the case of my daughter and I yesterday, Â we stopped at The Spaghetti Factory, and I started plotting my latest diet/fitness scheme over bread and spinach tortellini in Alfredo sauce.Â
By-the-way, we both exercise regularly and for the most part, eat healthy too. The pasta feeding frenzy was simply a Post Traumatic Stress reflexive reaction.Â
Back to those evil mirrors. Â It’s a matter of logic, really. When the dressing room lighting and mirrors are flattering, I’m gonna buy what I try on. Well, it has to fit, of course. But when it fits, and maybe fits quite nicely, but I cannot get over the wan, sickly pallor of my skin, or the fact that every single bump, wrinkle, bulge, mole … appears ten times it’s normal size, I’m not buying a thing.Â
I don’t think my daughter and I are alone in this, and I don’t think it’s a self-image thing. Fitting room mirrors and lighting do sabotage buying. Â
Have you ever walked out of as store without buying a thing after becoming discouraged by how different the fitting room mirrors and lighting makes you appear than you look at home? What was your worse experience?Â
Just a reminder that I’m entering all March blog commenters in a drawing for a $5.00 gift card.Â
Right there with you! I very seldom try anything on in the store anymore…I’d rather take it back if it doesn’t fit or look right. And the WORST….bra shopping! UGH
AAAAHH bra shopping. I’ll drag in 6 or 7 different sizes because no two brands are the same.
I’m with you on that one Collette. I hate shopping – particularly for clothes and when I do it’s because I have no other choice. More often than not, I don’t buy any of what I’ve tried or just a couple of items (again, because I have no choice as I need the damn thing) or I end up buying clothes for my grandkids. I prefer book shopping by a league. 🙂
Buying for grandkids I’d love to do if I had any!
I’m with you. I hate shopping, especially for clothes. Nothing fits right. Everything ( even in my size 8) is made for someone without curves. I know I can’t be the only woman with shoulders, boobs, rounded belly, hips, and thighs. My seventeen year old daughter also hates shopping. Taking her clothes shopping is like a suicide mission. She leaves every store without purchasing anything in a terrible mood. The styles and colors of today’s fashion is ridiculous. I’m tired of the chevron pattern and seeing females, of all ages and sizes, wearing tights/ leggings as pants. Some of my acquaintances have been using Stitch Fix. You answer some questions and it ships clothing to you monthly. Keep what you want, return what you don’t. They say the jeans fit great. I don’t have $40 for a shirt in my budget, but might be something to try. I may not be able to find clothes, but I have no trouble buying books.
My daughter is always a grump after a shopping trip too.
My dream is to find someone in my size and pay them to do my shopping! Hideous lighting doesn’t help. Sigh. Vanity, thy name is Tracey!
Hmmm, you might be on to something.
Oh Collette! You are so right. My daughter and I used to go shopping – usually at her behest- all the time, and mostly because she enjoyed it. I would TRY to get into the ‘fun’ (a very loose term here) but hated the way it made me feel when I tried on things. I hated all of the ghastly, bumpy images that the dressing room mirror would toss back at me. Like you- I exercise regularly (at the time, I was a serious runner). Nothing I could do with authentic shoes and sweat would make my body look firm or ‘nice’ in front of those. Any time I tried clothes on, I left the store irritable – and empty handed. If I bought something- I had not tried it on. I could never figure out the store’s motivation. The paint in the dressing room is usually all wrong- too stark, and never soft. The mirrors- well you are right. They obviously would be helpful with any kind of diet torture-making things look worse than they are.
My worst experience was trying to find a Mother of the Bride dress. You would think that THESE shops would know how to cater to sell dresses. I didn’t want to look like the bridesmaids, but I did want to feel and look stylish, as I watched my only daughter get married. When I would find a shop that carried more than the ‘traditional’ styles, I fought with those ghastly mirrors, often reducing me to frustration and tears, as I watched the date get closer. That, coupled with the constant- what color are you wearing?- drove me to the brink. I finally pulled the plug and went in a completely unholy direction and bought black – a color that hid those horrid bumps- which, in turned out, were only visible in front of THAT mirror. On that day- I proudly walked down the aisle on the arm of my son-in-law to-be, and waited for my daughter. Happy.
Oh my gosh, mother of the bride? You’d think bridal shops would make the most effort.
hate those mirrors
Ditto
I actually like shopping, if not for the dreaded fitting rooms. I think those mirrors are like widescreen TV’s. They make everything look wider. When buying shoes and jackets you can try those on any where in the store in order to not be intimidated by those mirrors 🙂
Wide screen TVs in High Definition too.
I shop for clothes o line and try them on at ome. No bus fares, no parking fees, no endless prowles wondering why you can’t find the right thing. Of course, I still send stuff back, but I do better on line than in person
I just grabbed a dress yesterday, straight off the rack, and tried it on at home. I didn’t like it so I’m returning it, but at least I didn’t have to go through the trauma of dressing room mirrors and lighting.
I hate to shop, which drives my daughters nuts, since they can both shop like champions! Online works fairly well, but I also will pick up things to try at home and then take back those things I decide against. Since I do it rarely, I don’t run afoul of the more strict return policies many stores have instituted–and of course I always have the receipt!
My husband enjoys shopping more than I do!~
Does anyone remember that Seinfeld episode where Elaine was angry that Barneys New York had “Skinny Mirrors”? I have always wanted to know which stores, in real life, have these mythical “skinny mirrors.” I would love to shop at them.
Yes to skinny mirrors!