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Original poster

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

91 replies

thedevilinablackdress · 19/06/2018 19:51

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.

OP posts:
nottinghillgrey · 19/06/2018 22:52

The state of independence had it too

LoveProsecco · 19/06/2018 22:55

Top Shop, Bay Trading Co, Miss Selfridge & Internacionale were all like that!

JaniceBattersby · 19/06/2018 22:55

The overpowering smell of malodorous feet though. Too many Reebok classics with no socks, as was the fashion in 1990s Preston.

Branleuse · 19/06/2018 22:56

god I'd forgotten. They were everywhere. I hated those communal changing rooms so much

EllenJanethickerknickers · 19/06/2018 22:58

MrsMoastyToasty you beat me to it. Upstairs in Chelsea Girl in Bristol. Horrific!

kikashi · 19/06/2018 22:59

In some ways though the communal rooms were quite radical at the time. The stores with cubicles usually had a sales assistant posted outside - looking over the low door or talking to you through the curtain or waiting for you as you came out to look in a mirror to give you a really hard sell and would only give you outfits one at a time whereas you could take a load of clothes into the communal room and no hard sell.

Also in the days before jeggings and when stretchy jeans always bagged after a few wears being able to lie down on the floor (using a piece of string) to hoist up the zip on super tight jeans was also a plus of the communal room. (talking 80's here)

kikashi · 19/06/2018 23:02

Do you remember that there were headscarf squares hanging on the hooks? You were meant to put them over your head and face when pulling light colour jumpers and tops on so that the thick make up of the time didn't get on the clothes

DontDrinkDontSmoke · 19/06/2018 23:09

It was alright then.... I had the figure for it.

evilharpy · 19/06/2018 23:10

I remember those headscarves!

I also remember the smell. BO mixed with feet mixed with Charlie Red. Boak. Topshop was the worst. When my mum dragged me into middle aged lady shops, they always had cubicles and I was so jealous.

I am so glad they don't exist anymore.

Kaybush · 19/06/2018 23:10

I actually thought they were a great leveller. Everyone had different shapes and sizes and IME no one ever really took any notice of anyone else.

I often got curious though and took inspiration from seeing a similar aged person looking amazing in something I'd never thought of trying on, so I'd trot out and find the item myself and try it on.

It also made me realise that a lot of people who looked amazing in clothes actually didn't look so hot with them off, even aged 20 Grin

Slightlyjaded · 19/06/2018 23:11

M&S didn't have ANY changing rooms. My mum used to buy a mountain of stuff, take it home, try it on and then return 90% of it...Confused

Freetodowhatiwant · 19/06/2018 23:15

Had completely forgotten about these! Topshop in Brighton had these I recall. Gosh it was awful having to change in front of everyone. You just had to brazen it out.

HaroldsSocalledBluetits · 19/06/2018 23:16

Yy I remember all of this - including the air freshener spraying and the scarfs. But I thought the scarfs were so that you could find something to go with your outfit until I read your comment just now, kikashi! I used to put them on after I'd got the clothes on! 😲

I first encountered them in London because the small town I lived in had no changing rooms at all apart from House of Fraser which I couldn't afford. So I thought, my goodness this is terrifically cosmopolitan, as I wobbled around in my knickers pulling trousers on and pretending that I was a member of the insouciant club.

rightknockered · 19/06/2018 23:25

Ugh. There was a smallish Jigsaw near Liberty's, with two changing rooms in the main shopping bit. Because it was never that busy it was a good bet to find a top in my size. So once found a lovely silk high-low dress that I had to try on, so braved a changing room with just a flimsy curtain to shield me. And I fell out of curtain, arse first, no bra, ten shoppers - men and women - got quite the show as I tried to hold on to my dignity and excused myself. Never went there again

SamHeughansLeftEyebrow · 19/06/2018 23:28

@Laiste - that has taken me back 30 years! (How can it be three decades since I was in my teens?!) Paisley pattern harem pants and cropped jackets are the things that stick in my mind, with dangly feather earrings and armfuls of bangles. Along with the overwhelming smell of incense sticks nothing else to smell here, guv

So much better than the hell of the bright communal changing in TopShop, feeling like the skinny runt next to all my glamorous curvaceous friends!

NotARegularPenguin · 19/06/2018 23:33

I was an independent shop the other week which only had the louvred Middle covering only doors in the one changing room which opened out right into the main shop.

So I’m half naked while able to see about 15 blokes and praying they couldn’t see the bits of me which counted while my dog ran in and out the changing room under the big gap at the bottom!

Sunbeam18 · 19/06/2018 23:40

Totally remember Top Shop, Argyle St, Glasgow. Also remember shops with cubicles but no mirrors in them so you had to scuttle out for a peek, hoping that the assistant was passing comment on someone else and not waiting for you.

Orlandointhewilderness · 19/06/2018 23:40

bloody awful. as an overweight, bullied teen i refused. i don't think i actually tried anything on for a period of about 6 years! oddly enough, i may be 4 stone heavier now but would have no such compunction! they scarred me.

god and the smell....eww. charlier red spray or bloody impulse.

user1483390742 · 20/06/2018 06:55

I honestly didn't mind them! I was in my teens/early 20's with a great body! Now, however...😂😂

Original poster
thedevilinablackdress · 20/06/2018 06:59

Oh yes, I'd forgotten that the alternative was louvered doors with big gaps at the top and bottom. On the main shop floor! Levi's had this mid 90s. Fairly sure that was an anti theft thing

OP posts:
ItsalmostSummer · 20/06/2018 07:01

Ugh I’d always go up to these changing rooms and find someone parading around looking gorgeous and turn around and walk out. Id change my mind. Not worth stripping off and feeling yuck. Looking back I had a great figure. So silly. As they say youth is wasted on the young.

OnlyonMN · 20/06/2018 07:10

I’ll never forget the stench of body odour in Mark One Oxford street. My goodness it was awful!

Monkeypuzzle32 · 20/06/2018 07:33

The sticky, reeking carpets too-remember them?! Yuk! When did communal changing rooms stop? They seem so odd now, you really had to watch your handbag in them too

Lollyb86 · 20/06/2018 07:36

Oh wow i had forgotten about this! Some bad experiences in Bay Trading flooding back - late 90s....

Laiste · 20/06/2018 07:36

SamHeughansLeftEyebrow ah the ever present incense. ... ect Grin

I'm just thinking harem pants cropped jacket and armful of bangles wouldn't be out of place at all today tbh! What goes around comes around.

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