Who remembers shop changing rooms in the 80s/90s

[thedevilinablackdress]

The baffling fad for open plan changing areas...i.e. no cubicles. Or only one or two that were always full (obviously)
Horrors
I think it was a cunning plan to increase sales beacause strangers would tell you that you liked nice in something to be polite, even if you didn't.

I remember, it was grim.

I remember that, Bay Trading in Staines had the communal bit and a couple of curtained off cubicles. Wonder if your theory is right about compliments? Although they must have missed out on lots of possible sales where buyers didn't want to strip down to their undies surrounded by strangers! Never bothered me but I was teenage then!

Oooh god was it Miss Selfridge in Ealing Broadway with the massive white communal mirrors all round the walls changing room?

I braved it once or twice. Whipping in and out of a garment too fast to actually look at myself in the mirror. High school age, excruciatingly self conscious and hated it.

It was almost as bad as the school PE changing rooms! Being forced to strip to shower ...

Memories flooding back now!

Oh yeah...

And you've just made me remember a shop I'd forgotten ever existed as well - Mark One (before it became MK One, even)

I remember how bright the light was in the Top Shop communal changing room

I was so glad when I started earning enough money from my weekend job that I could afford to buy stuff to take home and try on then return for a refund if it didn't fit, rather than having to brave the soul destroying Room of Glare

yes, I was thinking about this recently, I always had my worst underwear on

Yes! And no chairs to put anything so everything got heaped on the floor. i had the horror of getting a dress stuck over my head once, arms stuck up, knickers and bra on show. Shudder!

Yes ! Another vote for the horrible bright / strobe lighting in top shop! Maybe the bright light sent subliminal messages to part with your cash!

Harrods do this at Sale time. They set up black curtained areas with a single narrow mirror and women cram in and avoid eye contact while self consciously disrobing. Public shaming for those of us desperate for a bargain.

I’ll never forget Ozzie’s, a, for the eighties, relatively expensive shop in Petticoat Lane. All the women in my department coveted their clothes but only one of our number was ever brave enough to actually try stuff on in their open plan changing room. The rest of us just used to splurge our hard earned cash on the thing we’d been eyeing all month and take it home. If it was awful or didn’t fit hardly anyone ever took it back so if it was a marketing ploy, it worked. (Oh we were all so young and gorgeous, if only we’d realised )

Yeah I remember the communal changing rooms, was just talking about them at work last week. The youngsters (those born after 1995!) in the room thought I was lying!

What?! I grew up in the 80s/90s and never came across this . Except for once at a Pilot clearance pop up shop ( in 1996 approx).

Yes it was hideous. Why did we put up with it for so long? No choice I suppose. It's bad enough when they have those crappy curtains that leave a 2 inch gap.

I used to find solace in the teeny weeny 'black fabric hung roughly across one corner' style ''changing rooms'' of lovely dingy, gothy Kensington Market

SO tiny that elbows and knees hitting the fabric as you tried to change made it look like someone in there was having a fight with themselves but it was STILL preferable to those awful operating-theatre-bright communal ones in the high st stores.

Top Shop was our worst one. Just a room with mirrors, horrible lighting and no cubicles or curtains. The assistant used to blast it with air freshener regularly whilst shouting “no offence ladies”.

Grim.

Oh yeah, the smell and bogging carpets 😨

Miss Selfridge in Bath c.1990. I remember that communal changing room with a shudder!

Jean Jeanie fitting rooms were tiny and had saloon style half doors with a flimsy slide lock on them. I once forgot to lock the doors and the entire shop was treated to the sight of my wobbly arse as I crashed backwards into the shop, with skintight jeans stuck halfway up my thighs.
Communal rooms were actually a step up from that horror. At least we were "all in it together".

TK maxx changing rooms in Bristol galleries shopping centre had louvre doors and a huge gap underneath. I remember a man walking over to the women's side and sticking his head under each door looking for his girlfriend. Bay trading also had communal changing rooms and as a self conscious overweight teen it meant I never went in there!

Warehouse had a neon strip lit bunker changing room surrounded in mirrors. I used to always go trying on clothes over opaque tights or under a skirt and wearing a vest top to avoid having to parade around in front of everyone else. These days I am about two stone heavier and have less inhibitions!

@Laiste Miss Selfridge in Ealing Broadway was awful, alongside Top Shop - just one room in floor to ceiling mirrors and scummy grey carpet

Bay Trading definitely had this. Trying to remember if Dorothy Perkins did when I started working there in 99...

@ Melbourne :)