Musings From The Field: Dressing Room Decorum

So, I’m waiting in the 20-plus person line for the fitting room this evening at Forever 21′s Union Square location, and it’s moving slower than usual. Construction has rendered the downstairs fitting rooms inoperable, but even with only one functioning set of fitting rooms (a frequent occurrence at the chain’s Soho outpost due to the lazy ass staff) it’s never this big of a beotch. I’ve waited in enough F21 lines to know when shit other than dressing room shortage is going down and holding me and everyone else up. As I neared the front of the line after, oh, I don’t know, a fucking HALF AN HOUR, the problem revealed itself in the form of two girls gabbing away as they tried on the merch.



Now look, you want to shop with your besties, that’s fine. You want to try stuff on together and get each other’s opinion on the few things you’re thinking about buying, that’s cool too. You want to take up TWO dressing rooms during RUSH HOUR at F21 and discuss, at length, EVERY SINGLE GARMENT of the TEN you’ve selected, even the shit you’re not even thinking about buying, when you can clearly see 20-plus people waiting for you to finish up? SO NOT OKAY.

I’m all for approaching the act of shopping as a game of sorts. But dressing room show-and-tell is a spirited merriment reserved for off-hours only. I hate to rag on these girls, as they seemed like genuinely nice people and honest, funny shopping buddies; even in my pissed off state, I chuckled at their banter. And they certainly weren’t aware that their exchange resulted in an excruciatingly long wait for us Poor Unfortunate Souls behind them (um, yes, that’s a Disney song). But their lack of intention doesn’t change the fact that this kind of dressing room disregard is as criminal as putting on a full face of make-up in a Starbucks bathroom when, behind you, there’s a Mom waiting to change her baby’s poopie diaper or something. My F21 trip was a raging success (as per usual, obvs), but if I’d waited that long with zero pay-off… I don’t know. I’ve never been in a catfight, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if someone behind me who’d had a less fortunate overall experience started one today with those girls. Nor would I have blamed her.

The real guilty party here is, of course, Forever 21′s management staff, who really need to do something about the construction-related shortage of fitting rooms. But who are we kidding? The economy blows so hard that even successful chains are making cuts, so the odds of F21 spending time and money on temporary dressing rooms are basically nonexistent. And as long as that’s the case, it’s up to those two girls – and to all of us for that matter – to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Shopping is, at its core, supposed to be fun, and you should do everything in your power to make it so. But when said fun starts to inconvenience those around you, it’s time to take the conversation out of the dressing room and into the coffee shop.

The coffee shop where hopefully, in between latte sips, you won’t go to the bathroom to touch up your make-up when there’s a Mom behind you with a diaper to change. Karma, baby. Karma.