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 yes, laying on the floor in Chelsea Girl to fasten a pair of jeans. They were so tight I couldn't get up! Circa 1976

I remember the one in Top Shop in Leeds and regularly got harassed by a woman who used to offer to steal what you were trying on for half price 😐

😂, how do people come up with these ideas 😅.
I remember being offered the famous Victoria Beckam leather jacket with the blue stripe for peanuts, it still had the security tab and chain on.

😂

The horrors!! Witnessed a female remove her underwear to try on Spandex leggings😚

I am so sorry . This thread should have had a trigger warning!

@Bondiblues URGHH! Disgusting..

Yep. Usually the big, trendy places. It was the smell and awful lighting. Peter Robinson was an awesome shop, the changing rooms were minging. I think I'd switched allegiance to the department stores, Laura Ashley, Benetton, etc, by the time I was 22/23. Occasionally, if I had a day of work, I'd be at Peter Robinson at opening time.

My dd has managed to escape this horror. During covid the school realised that they could get a hell of a lot more PE done if the kids didn't spend 30 mins changing. So ever since she started school they get them to come in in PE kit and send them home in PE kit.

Yes and I’m still trained to want to leave my enclosed unit to go out and get the long view from the mirror outside. Too fat and old to dare now though

I'm 48 and I remember it when I was young, maybe 12/13. And feeling so awkward about my body at that age too. One of those shops is now a Waterstones, I walk through and get a flashback to being in that old changing room 😂

Then you are either not in the UK or you never went clothes shopping.

Ah, that's a good idea, one my DDs' primary school adopted. But I went to a private convent school in the 80s, and the idea of us gels slobbing about in our joggies all day - the horror! 😱 Standards, girls, standards! 😂😂

I think that's why they did away with them eventually. They really were awful not to mention smelly.

I'm nearly 70 and I remember them clearly. Why did they smell so bad?

Or if the girl next to you stared at you, whispered to her mate and looked back at you while laughing they could be horrific.

Personal hygiene was much worse decades ago, when most people's homes didn't have a shower and baths and washing of hair were often kept to once or twice a week to keep water heating costs down. People probably didn't wash their clothes as much either. And of course a lot of those clothes were made of man-made fibres. I'm harking back to the 1970s. It's more surprising that it was still smelly in the 90s. Maybe the smell somehow sank into the carpet and the walls?

Tammy Girl, trying on coral pedal pushers that were too small when the popular girls from school walked it.

The shame. Oh god, the Shane.

I haven’t thought of that in years.

I remember that people's shoes were often plastic rather than leather. My father's feet absolutely stank.

There were TV adverts for Odor Eaters to put in shoes to absorb the smell. Eurgh.

I remember Top Shop having smelly, messy changing rooms. I was an incredibly shy teen though so always tried things on over the top of my clothes!

Did you read the 6 pages of comments, the vast majority talking about their experiences of communal changing rooms?

Clearly not!

Im 39 and only experienced this once - the Jane Norman on Oxford Street mid 00s when it was about to close down.

Otherwise never realised it was so widespread.

I quite like it tbh, it's a pita queueing for sooooo long nowadays, I would rather strip off and quickly try my stuff on

Absolutely a thing and absolutely dire. I used to wait for one of the few curtained cubicles and try to avoid them. Otherwise it was a case of major disassociation and blanking everyone else out (usually unsuccessfully).