Not much of a shopper myself (God's sense of humor I guess, blessing me with 6 girls), and even less of a studier, the only time I was really amenable to going shopping was when I needed a good way to avoid sitting and doing my schoolwork. Often those attempts at buying me clothes meant a trip to Loehmann's, which always tempered my not studying enthusiasm, especially during bathing suit season.
You see, as successful as we were at Loehmann's there was always the dreaded dressing room. The dressing room was just one big room with mirrors covering all the walls and hooks at various intervals, and a low bench running the length of the wall to put your things down. I hated this. The Back Room, which had more expensive clothing had real dressing rooms, you know with doors and privacy and all that, so I got smart and would always take one item from there so I didn't have to use the communal room.
Even though my young ladies FREAK if they are in a dressing room and the curtain or door opens the slightest bit while they are in the process of trying on new things, I decided to take them to Loehmann's anyway.
Plus, a long time ago I heard the Loehmann's put in real dressing rooms, private stalls with doors, and I knew that somewhere in the back of my mind, but just to be safe, as we approached the area laden with clothes for our inspection, I jokingly said to the girls, you know the dressing room might be just one big room. They looked at me like I was crazy, and then stepped through the curtain.
It was the same big mirrored room! I could not believe it! The store itself has been updated, and it was a pleasant shopping experience (for some reason, I always think of Loehmann's as having dirty linoleum). But now this? I really thought that they had added private dressing rooms, so I was surprised, but also glad that the girls had a 10 second warning. I did not expect the calm that ensued. I expected some sort of fight, or NO WAY!!! Or, perhaps, even tears. The older one said "well this will cure me of my dressing room issues." The other one just layered on the clothes, pulling off what she could without undressing.
Luckily, it worked out well with the two year old, since there was ample place for her to run around. In one of those runnings she ran over to the door where they put the rejected clothes on a rack similar to the kind they have at a dry cleaner. The attendant places the clothes on color coded hooks to help facilitate the apparel's quick return to the shopping floor. I remember being mesmerized by it as a young teenager, wishing it was a roller coaster I could hop on. I don't know what The Cheese-Eater thought it was, but she liked it.
Chasing her over there, and trying to prevent her from following the track to parts unknown, I noticed another doorless entryway, to an area that had......PRIVATE FITTING ROOMS!!!!!
I went back over to the girls, and told them about my mistake, and asked if they wanted to move, and they both said "Nah, this is fine."
8 comments:
it's different from the private dressing room, because unlike certain other indiscreet people, you are much more careful when its a big room than if it's a stall with a makeshift door. (besides, it's way more embarrassing to have an inadequate door pulled open on you)
I remember those dressing rooms from my childhood too.
But my trauma does not stem from having to change in them, but rather from what I was exposed to while in there! I was always filled with a mixture of horror/fascination/wonder at what seemingly normal looking people chose to wear (or not wear, as the case often was) when they ostensibly *knew* they were going shopping in a store with communal dressing rooms.
Ooooh, I still shudder thinking about it.
I think that's part of the reason my girls were Ok. It really is more about the horror of what you see!
Interesting, but my own childhood shopping memories make it difficult for me to relate to the experiences you describe. The dressing rooms at Barney's were always completely private...and rather tastefully furnished, as well.
I can't comment publicly, but you all know what I would say
FIL - I feel so left out :(
{and I bet it's good too.....}
I go to loehmans as rarely as possible. reading this I finally realize it was not the lack of dressing rooms, nor the uninhibited shoppers It seems i have never recovered from taking unwilling, reluctant, daughters who performed all sorts of gyrations not to have an ounce of skin viewed BY THEIR OWN MOTHER who never looked anyway. Still traumatized and relatedsa
I would agree with you G6, I was always shocked and appalled at what you saw in the dressing room. It was impossible not to look and horrors if you did.
We also were traumatized by my mother frequently pulling off her wig and dropping it on the bench beside her to try on sweaters and things! (Being married I now understand this better but it was soooo embarrassing as a child.)
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