YOUR fitting room

admin — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 20:15:26 +0000

Not everyone loves shopping. Not everyone who loves clothes loves shopping. For a start, it requires the not insignificant financial privilege of having enough disposable income to spend on non- essential items. But even for those who can afford to shop just as a pastime or hobby, the experience is not always easy.

Think of all the necessities that a trip to the shopping centre requires.

You have to be able to get there, physically able to navigate the transport systems and move around the stores without too much difficulty. Whilst there’s always options, for those who are less physically able this becomes much more difficult. It can be hard enough to squeeze into a fitting room anyway, without a wheelchair for example. Campaign group Trailblazers reported earlier this year that three quarters of individuals with a disability shop online as direct result of their store experiences. Buses often only have room for a single wheelchair or pushchair, so if you’re not the chosen one on that occasion, you might have to miss out on retail therapy today.

Individuals who are conscious about their bodies may not mind being in the stores, but changing rooms are a whole different battleground of inner critics and shaming voices. Who hasn’t felt embarrassed and judged, convinced that the eyes of the whole world are upon us as we wriggle out of a pair of jeans that looked perfect on the plastic model? Marianne Clark, a doctoral student in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta, undertook a study on the experiences of women in gym and shop changing rooms, and found the psychological impact to be not insignificant.

Time is a key factor. For people with children, care roles, demanding jobs or something else that requires them to be at home or another location, an afternoon at the shops just isn’t an option. Even when you think you know what you want, inevitably something else will catch your eye, the size won’t be in stock, the traffic will be a nightmare, your card won’t work, or something else will happen that means that the brief trip is far from it.

Some people who suffer with anxiety find shopping trips particularly triggering. Busy, intense, stuffy and pressurising spaces and experiences; far from the fun day out that some revel in. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want beautiful clothes in which they look great.

New website Your Fitting Room helps with some of these stresses. Showcasing clothes from independent designers including Luck Be A Lady, Bodyfrock, Moka London and more (so let’s be honest about both the economic and body size privileges this entails) they allow you to pick items you’d like to try on from the curated store, before delivering them to you to try on at home and pick up anything you don’t want afterwards.

It’s a great way to see what things really look like in normal light, with your own shoes or other items of clothing, and without the sweat and stresses of the shopping centre. I had quite a good time parading around the bedroom in different dresses and tops I would not have ordinarily picked out, and ended up with a new dress for summer. I could try things on and think about what I liked or disliked, with no regard for other women in the changing room.

Technology may be one way to address some of the issues with shopping and trying clothes on, and a number of virtual reality apps and offerings are being developed. Gap launched DressingRoom app in January 2017, and Ralph Lauren piloted smartmirrors in 2015.

A lot of the products are very high end and so it’s a bit inaccessible for everyday shopping. And practically, given the fact that they need to pay drivers and travel, I can’t see the economic model working for high street stores. If you can afford to splash out and stretch the budget for a special occasion, it’s worth considering, especially if some of the barriers above make shopping more of a pain than pleasure for you.

Women In Clothes – Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits, Leanne Shapton and 639 Others

admin — Sat, 29 Nov 2014 11:46:00 +0000

They say that clothes maketh the man. But women and their interest in fashion is often dismissed as a frivolous pursuit, a merry preoccupation that is accompanied with giggles, rolling of eyes, and casual dismissals. Yet sociologists, psychologists and zoologists would all concur that the way we choose to present ourselves to the world is hugely important, revelatory about both the inner self and our perceptions of the outer world.
In Women In Clothes, a hefty scrapbook like anthology, essays, lists, images and interviews are all gathered together in order to explore fashion in its relation to the women who wear it. The compendium was curated and compiled by three friends in their thirties – writers Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits and Leanne Shapton. None of them work in fashion, but they are all experts by virtue of wearing the very clothes that the book talks about. Fashion and cosmetics are not only decoration on a ‘blank page’ (Maya Fuhr) but a demonstration and investigation of oneself. The book sees clothes as functional, magical, and pieces of communication in a world where women are individually and collectively navigating their personalities and roles.
Style is something hard to pin down, and this certainly is not a ‘how to dress well’ manual. In total 642 women have added their thoughts, each with a unique perspective. Surveys make up a large majority of the content, and the questions asked are probing. Do you notice women on the street? Who is the ‘other’ person you create when you go out? What is ‘you’ and ‘not you?’ They touch on some particularly relevant political topics. The woman who wears a hijab explains her choice in a proud manner: “You cannot control what I wear to please your desires. My interaction with you is not physical.” Garment workers in Cambodia wonder about the wealthy Western women who will wear the garments they stich for pennies.
The structure is inventive. Sketched maps of women’s bedroom floors are an illuminating invitation into a private space. The ‘Mothers As Others’ montages, images of mother’s as submitted by their daughters and the comments on how they see their style as women is heartwarming. Pamela Baguley’s ‘An Older Woman Going Through Her Closet’ is not just an expose of her wardrobe, but relationships and sexuality associated with those items. Fifteen women in an office photocopy their hands and talk about them, the rings, lines and scars all telling their own small stories. The banality of safety pins and striped shirts is elevated when their role in everyday living every day is considered. Women talk about their bodies, the thing underneath their clothes, and how they feel, with a mix of positivity and acceptance.
It is surprising how many areas fashion infiltrates. The merger between the inner and outer person is far more fluid than we may imagine. Clothing is a visual language. When writing your name, choosing an outfit to wear to a funeral, putting on knickers and brushing your hair, a number of choices and thoughts are being made about how your presentation to the world may be perceived. This subtle and sympathetic examination into what this means for women is both exhilaratingly expansive and domestic in scope. Identities are communicated and forged through what we wear, which is not something to be dismissed as mere fashion triviality.
The final entry is a letter from Lisa Robertson. She describes getting dressed as process of ‘inventing concepts.’ Women In Clothes is less about the fabric, layers, sizes and shops, but that process, and what it means to females today. It’s about being a person, and telling the world who that person is. Inventing one’s self as it were.

clothes – and so she thinks

YOUR fitting room

Women In Clothes – Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits, Leanne Shapton and 639 Others