Fashion
Fixing the Fitting Room
Virtual reality and iPads won't change what's in the mirror, but better lighting and more staff may help sales.
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Haley Bierman hates clothes shopping.
The 23-year-old Manhattan fundraiser points to how society uses fashion and television to browbeat girls about how they look from a young age. Like nowhere else, that self-doubt comes out in the fitting room.
“You hear the girl next to you asking her mom, 'why don’t I look good in this, why am I so heavy?’” Bierman laments. Novelist Laura Stampler, 28, prefers looking for clothes right after happy hour—it takes a couple of whiskey gingers to calm her nerves. “So much of the time, fitting rooms can feel more unflattering than a mirror in real life,” she says.