But I’m So Much Slimmer In My Mind
Retail giant Hammerson is now taking down mirrors from its Birmingham Bullring, Bristol Cabot Circus and Croydon Centrale malls in a bid to boost the confidence of female shoppers. Alex Thomas, regional marketing manager for Hammerson, said: “One of the main reasons people come to our shopping centres is to buy clothes, whether that be a brand new wardrobe or a one off item for a special occasion. We want to ensure that everyone feels comfortable and confident when trying on clothes, so that’s why we’re trialling banning the mirrors.”
What?
No, seriously. What?
What?
I think the idea is that bigger, lumpier ladies will be spared any unflattering sights at close quarters and under harsh lighting, at least temporarily, and will instead rely on the no doubt impartial counsel of sales staff. Being told you look fabulous, albeit by someone on commission, may give the customers an agreeable lift, which I’m sure is nice. But sadly, I fear the magic may evaporate shortly after they’ve handed over their debit card and made it home to a mirror.
Do they sell BEER GOGGLES that women can hand out to their friends and potential suitors ?
How can society* simultaneously believe that women are tough, strong go-getters and that they are oppressed by their own reflections?
*Yeah, I know society doesn’t have one opinion, but still.
Removing the mirrors also means no-one else can see you too.
Frankly, I don’t think they’re going far enough. When I buy new togs I want the sales staff to turn in unison, gasp and then burst into applause, and possibly song, while a massive overhead scoreboard flashes a result somewhere between 9.5 and 9.9.
How can society* simultaneously believe that women are tough, strong go-getters and that they are oppressed by their own reflections?
Kinda like how even ONE woman can believe herself to be tough, strong and a go-getter but when it comes time to make a difficult decision she looks for a man to take the lead and/or potential blame if things go bad. She’s all over it if things go good however.
I think lots of women in the past and today are tough-minded and willing to get on with things. But the self-reliance and a refusal to wallow in self-pity they show are exactly the sort of qualities third wave feminists despise.
Er, I don’t want to pee on anybody’s firework but I think we should not get too carried away with this one- trade journal Draper’s puts a slightly different spin on this.
As the landlord, Hammerson PLC can suggest away all it likes, but my guess is that the various brand and marketing managers from Topshop et al will being saying something rather different and publicly questioning whether the apparently rather gullible Mr. Thomas can distinguish his arse from his elbow when it comes to clothes retailing.
“What you don’t know can’t hurt you” seems like a curious slogan for the retail end of the fashion industry. Is there some way we can also block out the little voice that says you can’t just wear the same three golf shirts in rotation every week?
http://www.funtoosh.com/f_images/diff_menwomen.jpg
I know I feel more confident walking out the door now that my full-length is tucked out of sight behind the towel rack.
If only it weren’t for those niggling full-story, ground-level windows on the building where I work, I could live in a fool’s paradise all the live-long day.
Of course, I’m not the one who has to look at me all day: that’s the fate of my co-workers.
Sux to be them!
Can’t stand mirrors. I’m with the retailers on this.
Lancastrian, I don’t see the different spin. Do you mean that the mirrors were not taken down, just papered over? Not much of a spin.
And may I add that all sales are final.
Shan’t be surprised when Hammerson suffers a burgeoning rate of returns.
Charlie Suet hits the nail on the head. Modern feminism is seriously schizophrenic. One day they insist women are just as tough and strong as any man, and the next day they sound like insecure teenager girls.
Famous last words:
“Does this dress make me look fat?”
“No, dear, you make the dress look fat.”
and the next day they sound like insecure teenage girls
Yes, but let us not forget that women have been using the ability to sound like insecure teenage girls since times immemorial, mostly in order to get what they want from a man, and most men have been happy to comply, in their role as protector of, and provider for, the fairer sex. Where it becomes seriously schizophrenic with modern feminism is that these women are still doing it, but without the rewards (to both sexes) that normally ensue from the behavior.
Other famous last words:
“Does this dress make me look fat?”
“No, dear, your fat makes you look fat.”
And even more famous last words:
“Does this dress make me look fat?”
“Yes.”
And followed via inferable lethality by:
“Does this dress make me look fat?”
“No.”
Croydon Centrale
That will look good on all the designer labels:
Paris – Milan – Croydon Centrale
… via inferable lethality …
I rather like that string of words.
I want the sales staff to turn in unison, gasp and then burst into applause, and possibly song,
You still have to deal with the father of um, the groom . . . .
No Mirrors!
Then you’ll never get Juthtin Trudeau and hith wife inthide your doorth!
The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal would approve.
I don’t see the different spin. Do you mean that the mirrors were not taken down, just papered over? Not much of a spin..
I’m a former lawyer and, woe upon me, a commercial property investor. Without going into boring detail, the leaseholder can do anything what they want providing they don’t infringe local authority imposed rules. Provided they’ve stayed within the bylaws and planning consents, the client/leaseholder can do pretty much what they want provided that at the end of the lease they put things straight.*
*The mirrors on the ceiling and the ice buckets for the pink champagne are long gone by the time we claw the lease back…. so we get the industrial cleaners in.
It’s another world, I tell you. Just when you think you’ve underestimated the capacity of the human race for depravity, something else turns up to prove you wrong.
Overestimated, not underestimated.
Doh.
And this time preview was friend and I still got it wrong.
Why not just use those circus distortion mirrors?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/images/mirrors_600.jpg
Could have a downside of course…
Also at the Telegraph…..this
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/30/youtube-personality-in-gay-hate-crime-attack-charged-with-making/
You’re welcome.
Additionally at the Telegraph,
Organic cloth caps: how Britain thinks it is still ‘working class’
I know a fellow who is always wearing a totally stock variety flat cap. He’s a Russian ancestry, absolutely clearly middle class, business development director of a software infrastructure support company. Arguably, I could see the coders he recommends for hiring being counted as the twenty-first century working class, but he’s definitely more involved in directing what they do, not doing it himself . . .
Why not just use those circus distortion mirrors?
Actually, there is at least one noted instance where not having a mirror works just fine.
We want to ensure that everyone feels comfortable and confident when trying on clothes, so that’s why we’re trialling banning the mirrors.
It’s almost as if there’s a metaphor here for the broader world of politically corrected pretentious sensitivity, in which one isn’t supposed to notice certain unedifying things.
We couldn’t help noticing that the main reason people didn’t buy our clothes was that when they tried them on and looked in the mirror, they looked like shit. So we took out the mirrors.
I believe the GUM stores have a similar policy.
“It’s almost as if there’s a metaphor here for the broader world of politically corrected pretentious sensitivity, in which one isn’t supposed to notice certain unedifying things.”
David insights again! What annoys me the most, I think, is the relentless apparent refusal of so many media outlets’ expert social commentariat interviewees to point out obvious absurdities. They just give the attention-starved, self-centered f*ckwits what they seek and that meets the simpleton goals of promoting controversy and conflict to the hypothetical media consumer. At what point does ‘informing the public’ turn into ‘not challenging and actually encouraging the morons’?
Sheer madness! I would certainly not buy a dress/trousers/jacket/coat without being able to inspect the fit of the article in a mirror — preferably triple mirrors, so I don’t have to squint with a handbag mirror to see the back view. The other option (buy sight unseen, inspect at home, take back to shop) is a no-no. Luckily, I don’t live in Birmingham, Bristol or Croydon.
preferably triple mirrors, so I don’t have to squint with a handbag mirror to see the back view.
Heh. Absolutely. You can never have too many mirrors in a changing room. To check the right bits are visible and all sins are hidden from view.
I seem to recall in my yoof when I wanted to look half-decent, all the shop assistants were trained to admire whatever the customer chose to wear. While mirrors were available, having someone give a gasp of admiration when you had picked a jacket off the rail that frankly hung like an abandoned tent did tend to make you think it was your eyes deceiving you, or the mirror was warped.
I no longer have that jacket, however, so the mirror must have worked fine at my house.
Jones, I bought one of those distorting circus mirrors at an auction a few years back. Always pull it out parties and BBQs in the summer. After a few drinks, no one, male ,female or other is concerned about body image when standing in front of the mirror. Booze, circus mirror and jocularity make for memorable parties!
FlynPig,
I suspect the combination is more fun to observe…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Aiv71E2VBw
Thing is, I confess, I am a bit of a lardarse. I accept it quite happily as I am not yet unhealthy/grotesque (I hope!), and do try to reign it all in. Still, if I am moved to buy a new frock I still like to see whether it suits, and whether it makes me look large or very large. I’m a grown up gel, I can take it. How utterly patronising it is if a retailer decides I’m a fragile neurotic who can’t reconcile my curves/flab and as such has to be denied the evidence and placed into a no-mans land of unawareness/ignorance. I’d rather have the truth out there and the acceptance I’m a tough enough bird (aka ‘normal’), to take it.
David: “and all sins are hidden from view.” What – you don’t have a painting in the attic for that?
They can see themselves in the mirror. How come we can’t?