Hinching

Figure 1. Michelle Lee in an unknown dress

Walk into the nearest fashion boutique and do your usual ‘clothes surveying’. Grab yourself a few favourites. Proceed to the fitting rooms with your chosen garments only to be greeted first by a fitting room attendant who then leads you to your allocated fitting room. You close the door behind you—€“only to feel alienated in a room quite different from the shop interior outside. Disappointingly, not enough retailers are putting emphasis on fitting rooms—€“a place where purchasing decisions are mostly made. Fittings rooms still tend to be white, single-mirrored—€“clearly needing us to rethink the importance of fitting rooms to customers.

Mirror
This does not necessarily apply to all retailers but there are always some mirrors which actually do “flatter” your appearance. Yes—€“some retailers do feel that it is their duty to get rid of your guilt from that heavy lunch you ate before trying on their clothes. Another significant trend are fitting rooms fitted with multiple mirrors—€“allowing the customer to see a 360° view of the outfit they are trying on—€“ whether a dress flatters your derrière or if your designer bareback dress is probably a better choice for another day. These fitting rooms reveal it all—€“giving you the opportunity to see yourself from a different point of view and are very much agreed by all female shoppers that it is definitely a good thing. Right?

Lighting
One of the most annoying things of a poorly-designed fitting room might as well be the bad lighting—€“the overhead fluorescent which casts a shadow over you—€“effectively making any outfit look hideously bad. A good tip: Something softer and natural to mimic natural daylight would probably the way to go. That said, different environments require different lighting. For instance, a bridal retailer would always use white lights to compliment the bridal dresses whilst some would benefit a lot with more natural lighting.

Floor
As insignificant as it may seem, a clean floor is always favourable—€“assuming that the majority of female shoppers take off their footwear when trying on clothes such as pants, skirts, dresses and so on. Michelle, a dedicated female shopper feels that ‘a carpet floor feels cleaner—€not so icky’. On the other hand, MeiQ thinks otherwise—€“preferring a wooden floor to a carpeted floor. What would be your preference?

Color
Most fitting rooms are predominantly white in order to have the space around contrast itself with the outfit you are trying on. I would see more colours being incorporated in the background. After all, colours do seem to play a role in the psychological mood of a person especially seeing that purchasing decisions usually are made in the fitting room too.

Doors
Enough said. The main reason why curtain doors are still used are to allow annoying salesgirls a chance to unsuspectingly checkup on you just to make sure whether do you need a new size or perhaps a second opinion when they find you unresponsive to their questions. Else, there’s that issue where you think you might never get the curtain door to close properly. But I am guessing it doesn’t bother most of the female shoppers.

Hooks
The more the merrier it seems. It’s just bizarre to find a fitting room with one hook when in your hands—€“you have 5 pieces of clothing to try on. Also, all hooks should always be strong enough to withstand the weight of the average women’s handbag—€“the type which always leave you wondering how they could possibly fit an umbrella, an ipod, a notebook, a bottle of water, skincare products into—€one single handbag!

Chairs
Given the fact that most females were not born with a talent to take off their heels while standing up, a chair inside the fitting room itself is absolutely appropriate and necessary for the ones who do struggle. And for the rare occasions when there is extra company in the fitting room, there’s always the chair for him/her to look forward to.

Figure 2. Michelle Lee in an Alannah Hill dress

This entry was compiled with the generous assistance of MeiQ Doido and Michelle Lee—€“both committed shopaholics. If you enjoyed this entry, leave a comment. A new entry with a similar theme will be posted this Sunday. Cheers.