Pet Peeve of the Week: Dressing Room Lighting

This one's for the ladies.


What is UP with the horribly unflattering lighting that seems to exist in every store's dressing rooms?

I dread trying on clothes in the first place, because nothing ever fits properly. But it doesn't help when the lighting in the teeny dressing rooms makes you look like you are a soldier in an army of the undead.

Wrinkles and dark undereye circles are magnified, skin tone and color are distorted, and any imperfection you may have screams out at you: "Good God, woman! Turn AWAY from the mirror! TURN AWAY FROM THE MIRROR!!!!!!!!!!"

Now, I don't claim to be on par with a Victoria's Secret model, but I also don't think anyone would describe me as "hideous." And I typically have a decent level of self-esteem. But when I walk out of a dressing room, I'm a shriveled, beaten-down shadow of my former self. Then I wonder to myself - "Which one is the real me? The scary demon in the dressing room? Or the normal-looking person in pictures? Or the slightly pale woman I see in my bathroom mirror at home? Or the kind of distorted-looking one in the fun-house-ish mirror in the bathroom at work?"

I just can't help but wonder - has NO ONE realized that there is an incredible sales opportunity here? I smell a business plan for "dressing room designers" - just conduct research that would easily prove that people would buy more clothes at stores where they try things on and don't feel like they look like a freakish troll. Then all stores would be clamoring for their services. Or, an already-existing store could just replace the bright fluorescent lighting in their dressing rooms and watch their sales rise meteorically. Seriously, why has no one thought of this!!!! Is this some sort of conspiracy?

And if any of you reading have found a place where the lighting is good then it is your duty to report it here right now in the Comments.

- e