Sunday, January 3, 2010

Dressing Rooms

As I tried on two sizes of clothes in the mall dressing room, examining how washed out my face looked and noticing that my hair seemed to have a green tinge, I wondered if any woman feels good about herself in the dressing room. I had my answer when I heard a gasp come from another stall.


Such is every woman’s dilemma as she goes to try on clothes. Or is it? Does a super model look at herself in a mirror and groan? Does she have a super cool mirror that automatically air brushes what she sees? Not that she needs that if the TV doesn’t lie.


However, for the rest of us who aren’t fortunate enough to have a personal trainer, dietician or many hours in the day to exercise but does possess coupons for Doritos, we sneak into a dressing room with head held high, tummy sucked in, eyes half closed and do our best to get into what really should be our size if the manufacturer hadn’t messed it up and made it too small.  Where is the quality control in determining how much material actually goes into the sizes?


One thing that did persuade me from weeping out loud once when I tried on a dress for a work party, was having my year-old son with me.  I had let him escape from his prison of a stroller and secured him (or so I thought) in the dressing room with me.  While I had my eyes half-closed, I realized that all I saw besides the lumps and bumps in my dress, was the bottom of my son’s shoes. That’s because, he had decided to visit my neighbor, who let out a different kind of gasp, one associated with a face suddenly appearing at your feet while you’re trying not to look too closely in the mirror.


I hope she didn’t take his giggling too personally.


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2 comments:

  1. I loved this! What a great story. And I'm probably on the other side going, 'what's wrong with stupid mirror!'

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  2. Brilliant - and so true! Here in the UK some department stores now provide dressing rooms with great lighting and mirrors that tell the other kind of lies. So, you look tall, slender and fabulous in the dressing room - but it's another story when you take your purchases home and see yourself in the cold, short, lumpy light of day. Perhaps they should sell the mirrors as well as the clothes...
    Love your blog, by the way!

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