Do you remember the horror that was communal changing rooms in clothes shops?

[Sidebeforeself]

Just reflecting on this today .. I remember cowering in a corner trying to show as little as possible ( I was obese as a teen) . Then the shame if something was too small ( everyone’s looking!) . Also the wait for the mirror
It made clothes shopping a nightmare for me

Oh and when they made you take in extra items from the rail outside so that everyone had four items or whatever. Never understood that

Yep. Was a teacher and one half term went to nearby city to find new clothes. Half starkers when a gaggle of Y10 girls walked in. Luckily they were more horrified than I was and immediately backed out.

Also remember trying to protect my own clothes and bag(s) when trying new stuff on.

Yes, and there was alway a strange smell 😬

Oh god, Topshop clung to these for years and years. Trauma!

I’m 68 and no, never seen or been in a communal shop change room? Some were big due to floor plan but certainly not communal.

OMG, yes, grubby carpet, a bit smelly, mirrors all around the room, allowing views from every angle. 😳

I was a tiny size 6, trying on tight, metallic, bright pink trousers (think The Nolan’s).
I got into them but really, really struggled to get them off! I got hotter, pinker and more stuck.

My face was the same colour as the trousers. 😂

Topshop and Chelsea Girl were the worst.

Yup! Miss Selfridge and Topshop in the 90s. The horror!

Wait, what?? This was a thing?! 🙈

No, I never experienced that. How old are you?

We did have communal changing in secondary school for PE though. That was horrific.

I remember this as a kid in the 90’s. So embarrassing.

I remember these! Top Shop was definitely the worst for it. There may have been 1 or 2 cubicles behind curtains but the rest was just pegs on the walls, loads of mirrors and the barely concealed entrance from the actual shopping area. The shop worker would be watching everyone and the worst thing was if you saw someone you kind of you knew and you were standing there in your bra and knickers. Wonder what year Top Shop finally stopped them? Primark didn’t have them in 1994 well not in the one I had a Saturday job.

Chelsea Girl and Etam also had them.

Yes! As well as being a bit weird they could also be really supportive though. If the girl next to you said something looked good on you it could make your day!

We had that too! Awful. And the communal showers that you had to leave your towel on the rail and stand in the shower whilst the pe teachers watched you. Just awful. I’m 49

Yes! I remember not having much money as a student, so my underwear was greying and old, trying on a clingy red velvet dress in Topshop and someone else in there making a snide comment about people who didn't put on their best underwear to go shopping. I still bought the dress though - it was something like £6 in the sale, cheap even in the 90s, and I had a good figure back in those days before everything went south😆

I remember them being a laugh - the communal changing room for WEWW in Glasgow was a scruffy dive but a right party. You’d certainly get plenty of advice on what suited you - and what didn’t

I had forgotten about those! Miss Selfridge. I dreaded it as I was so body conscious with my hips and boobs in the waif era of the 90s!

Oh gosh I had completely forgotten about them and now have a vague collection of going into one, perhaps Jane Norman or Miss Selfridge. This would have been circa 2004-ish (based on how old I was when I started to choose the shops I want on Oxford Street!).

Yes! Miss Selfridge, Topshop, Chelsea Girl, Mark One, Hennes. So traumatic and they smelled so bad.

Jane Norman in the late 90’s on Oxford Street definitely had one, remember it well.

Oh, God, they were horrendous. I just stopped trying stuff on. And I would have been a slim young thing then. I've always hated communal changing rooms and hated being made to feel weird about hating them as well with the "We're all girls". I still want my privacy 😄

It was awful wasn't it?! I'm pretty sure nobody was ever looking at each other or critiquing their bodies. I was just cringing about my own lumpen physiognomy.

But strangely you did just get on with it.

They only stopped them maybe 20 years ago. The memories are still crystal clear though!

Miss Selfridge definitely did too, and I think Bay Trading? I remember them when I was at uni so into the early 2000s although they started being phased out as shops got refurbished after the millennium. No online shopping in those days either and they were fussy about returns in some shops so it was use the communal ones or just risk being stuck with something that didn’t fit!

Yes! Was just thinking about this the other day, the same as swimming pools. It wasn't pleasant 😕