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

I'll never forget the first time I went to try something on in Top Shop when I was about 17/18 (in 1981). I didn't realise that they had communal changing rooms. Up until then I'd led a relatively sheltered life,only going in shops with private, individual changing rooms. I was utterly dismayed when I saw the set up in Top Shop and vowed never to go in there again!

I've only had the dubious pleasure one time in my early 20s.
i needed to try on some trousers and I wear thong panties. It was very embarassing. Went as fast as I could!
After that I avoided that store!

Oh yeah! I's completely forgotten they were a thing. Same era as having to do PE in your pants if you forgot your gym kit!

Yes! I’m 59 and remember Oxford st topshop. It did whiff quite a bit!

interesting. Primark is the only place I remember having them, and I would only have been about 5 in 1994 so would definitely be much later than that, as I wouldn't remember shopping that young - I'm sure it was at least until the 2000s when the one in my city re-opened in a different location. I don't remember ever going into a Topshop with a communal room though, which would have been around the same time.

In school we had communal showers but we also had at least 70 girls crammed into a room designed for 20 at most, changing in literally any spare inch of space including in the showers themselves, so nobody could ever use them, thank goodness!

No, I don't remember communal changing rooms, but having grown up with communal (single sex) showers at school, for obligatory use after PE, I am not sure why that would be such a problem, Here in Newcastle upon Tyne, in the 1980s, when the pound sterling was so weak a currency that Norwegians, Danes and Icelanders flew to the UK to shop, we mostly had Norwegians arriving by ship from Bergen. They loved Marks and Spencer (boxes full of quality garments at a very affordable price). M&S had NO changing rooms and the Norwegians had to try things on since they could not return mistanken purchases once they were back in Norway, so they stripped in among the displays without hesitation. Nobody had a mobile with (or without) a camera in those days, so there are no pictures to show you of what this looked like.

What everys - exactly my first thought when I saw the title of thread...

I remember the staff often pulling open the curtain to shout ''watch your handbags ladies!' when the thieves came in too!

Yes! We had ‘Jean Jungle’ where the cubicles, with saloon style doors were all around the edge of the shop floor. Visible, taller peoples heads and a myriad of legs, sometime a struggling reveal of stuck jeans!

Communal showers also a thing. My PE teacher would position herself at the edge of the showers to check we were all washed. In those days (late 70’s/early 80’s), it was a ‘secret’ that could never be confirmed, that she lived with a female.

And of course @MiloMinderbinder - no problem to the Scandinavians and many Europeans, where saunas are naked. The body is just that, a body!

Last time I used the communal changing room in Primark in the 80’s, there was a boy aged about 6 running around hyper through all the piles of clothes on the floor (probably remembered all the women in their undies when he was older!) and someone took my tag or whatever it’s called saying how many items I had. Didn’t want to get accused of stealing and so many in the room that day, I never used a communal room again.

That's like a lot of sample sales I've been to recently.

Yes it remember them.

Where do sample sales happen, if you don't mind my asking? I've often wondered! Are all the clothes really small?

Yep!

What about Biba? (I'm that old.)

Allegedly (according to AI) "Yes, the original Biba stores pioneered the concept of communal changing rooms, which was unusual for the time and helped transform shopping into a social event."

God,yes I remember this

I clearly remember my mother picking out some crop top bras and shoving me into a communal changing room in c&a to 'see if these fit'

I didnt try them on but claimed they fit (they didnt) just to get out of the hell that was that changing room

Would have rather died than take my top off to try them on

When it came to my own dds,thankfully they didnt seem to do them anymore and we got sorted with comfort,privacy and dignity

I swear its why I dont try stuff on in shops-if it's my size,it'll fit and if it doesn't,the charity shop will sell it on

Ditto the school changing rooms-why they thought that getting changed in front of your peers (and in my case bullies) was a good idea,I will never know

I also had communal showers but it didnt make communal changing rooms any easier!

Just told my 16 year old daughter as I completely forgot! She said what if someone recorded you! Life without the Internet she can't imagine that!

l am of your generation and never come across communal changing rooms.

Maybe the OP is not from the UK.

They never bothered me.. mind, I had a damn good figure then!
A thousand reflections of my own sweet self self self.. and you're old if you can remember that song!

Oh I definitely am!

Wow Jane Norman, I forgot about that place. One of my favourites.

I could only tolerate the communal changing rooms if I could secure a corner.

They would have to have had a great big cine camera, I think we’d have noticed 😁

Yes absolutely remember these, but I'm surprised that pretty nuch everyone on this thread say they hated them. I WISH they still had them! - i can't stand queuing for ages to then get a stupid little cubicle where there's no space to turn around, bend down or see what you look like! I'd much rather just go into a big room with the benches all round the outside and mirrors a proper distance away so you can see what you look like full length.

Don't miss the smell though

I remember that Top Shop at Oxford Circus, lots of Thursday evenings spent late night shopping in the 80s.
The changing rooms were a bit whiffy and despite the mirrors, were darkly lit, the whole shop being quite dark really. Going down that escalator was still fun though. Apart from one time, aged 14, I went with a couple of school mates who, unbeknown to me, had nicked some stuff and got caught as they were about to ride the escalator back up. Naive me was horrified. Loved Miss Selfidge more. Down the side of the main Selfriidges store in Duke Street. Don't remember their changing rooms being smelly at all. I remember there was a cocktail bar nearby you'd go for happy hour. Can't remember the name. Happy days

Oh and yep the big communal changing room at Mark One used to stink!

Yes I do but what I don't understand is why they were considered so horrific but people on here seem to think it's perfectly normal being completely naked in a gym changing room.