Fitting Boxes

Recession or not, its time to bite the bullet and hit the shops with a deflated wallet for some desperately needed essentials!

Luckily stores are in permanent sale mode but as a cautious shopper I still like to try before I buy. That's the beauty of ready-to-wear.

I still hate the dreaded fitting room though.
Often a tortured honesty box of questions and reasoning, the environment itself is part of the problem.

Doors or curtains- the ultimate pretense of privacy. Whether its calico, velvet or a solid cubicle door, it never stops pesky and bored sales assistants from trying to entice me out.

Mirrors or lack of them! Once when trying on a salmon dress in an ill-lit tight cubicle, I concluded I could pass for a skinless sausage- pale pink is definitely not my colour. Suffice to say, I didn't buy it.

Without a cubicle mirror, its a complete guess. Another ploy to entice you out of the fitting room to see the result in the large store mirror and involve the sales assistant.
Next shop please!

Hooks can be rare or plentiful.
In Farmers' revamped fitting rooms, there are slogans above hooks as an organisational tool for the flustered shopper. "Definitely", "Maybe" or "Next Time?" are a rather cynical ploy.
I'd like it better if they added a "What was I thinking?" hook. I'd be tempted to put every hanger on it to start with.

Lighting makes a difference to how you look- tired, puffy or annoyed or all three. It also reminds you what kind of shop you're in and the price tag, the brighter big chain store or the low and atmospheric boutique.
A small mercy is the bigger the store chain, the bigger the "honest shopper" sign detailing the maximum of 3 garments in rooms at one time and camera surveillance.

Try before you buy = take it or leave it. At the end of the fitting session you can walk out, put them all on the reject rack or make polite comments to the assistant that it didn't suit. I love ready-made.

I'm not sure though if I'll ever get over feeling like I've tried to get changed in a sleeping bag, just to expand my wardrobe.