So there are days I feel good about my body, then I go shopping and once I get naked in the dressing room....I just want to die!!! What is it about the dressing room mirrors that make it all look so much worse? And how long does it take to make my legs not look like jello? I just had to share my frustration because it depresses me and I wonder how long it is going to take to like myself again.
I don't know what it is but for some reason everything about my body looks horrible! I have really muscular/nice legs (I think anyway) and in a dressing room I think they look like lard. I can't offer you any advice but I wouldn't fret...everyone feels that way I think
My friends and I discussed this one day and decided we like the mirrors with the lights overtop of them. As guys, the lights cast shadows under our muscles and make us look 2x as defined, lol.
Well thank you for your kind words. They do help. It just really makes me sad. I just need to stick with it:)
Wow, and I thought I was the only one who thought that dressing rooms seemed to make me look really ewwy! I agree, it's definitely has got something to do with the lighting and ESPECIALLY if it's those white fluorescent lighting. :-s The soft yellow kind seems OK tho lol!
OK so you guys are great. I do not feel as bad since it is not just me:) Stores really need to rethink this because I would have bought more if i was not so upset. Just a thought:)
my suggestion is to put on the outfit and if the store has the three way mirror outside the stall check yourself out in that. you can get further back, in better light and see how you really look.
of course i usually only do that when there isn't anybody else in there, unless i really like the outfit :)
flourescent lighting. 'nuff said.
yeah I think we've all been there. Poor lighting, in combination with the possibility of poor fitting clothes (the whole point of the fitting room I suppose). You'd think they'd try pretty hard to make people look good, I'm sure they'd sell more clothes.
Well, years ago when I was a teen and young 20-something, there were salespeople that used to draw you out of the dressing room to the bigger mirror and better lighting and they'd inundate you with compliments and accessories for you to buy. They'd run after better sizes, colors, styles for you to try on. You barely had space to make up your own mind. That was in any clothing store, not just the expensive ones. I don't see that anymore at all. It's all do it yourself now. Yeah, they would sell a lot more but in those days, those salespeople used to make lots of commission.
ann taylor and ann taylor loft - their dressing room mirrors seem to be more forgiving, for some reason. I've noticed that at 3 different stores in the Dallas area. The Gap seems to have less bright, flourescent lighting than most stores, also.
Other than that - they all suck. Best way to go from feeling OK to feeling horrendous in record time? Go try on some clothes. UGH. Maybe this is why I mainly shop for clothes online now...
Go try on stuff at GAP! Those mirrors make you look freakin awesome! I have no idea why... but they do haha.
TK Maxx mirrors pretty much make me want to kill myself. Aaah, those horrible fluorescent lights are the worst culprits; Looking at myself in them makes me feel at least a stone heavier than I actually am.
it's also how close you're made to stand near the mirror when you're in dressing room... the perspective throws you off, cause the foreshortening makes your body look bulkier. especially the legs. (i hate dressing rooms too.) Sometimes, if you step out and look at the mirror they *usually* have at the end of the whole row of dressing rooms (for which the perspective is not so skewed), you might find yourself looking much better. (:
Personally, I think it's a conspiracy... I think these stores all purchase specially made "fat" mirrors from some secret factory (probably the same factory that make those wacky mirrors you find at fairs). The idea is that when you see yourself naked you'll want to get into that outfit you're trying on *very* quickly.... and back into your own clothes very quickly. This way people don't linger in the stalls you see? So more people can try on and buy more clothes. Then you'll be so depressed about what you saw in the mirror that you'll go buy yourself some of the store's snacks as "comfort food". Yep.. all a great big conspiracy. 
Naw... I have the same problem in stalls.. it's very depressing and it probably is the lighting. I agree with the others, if you go look in the mirrors they have outside the stalls you'll look a lot better.
I think some of you should film yourself in the dressing room so that I can get a better understanding of the lighting conditions and your figure. That way I can make a more educated judgment.
You know what makes me mad? When they dont have a mirror in the change stall, so you have to go out where all the people are and they all look at you...
ERG
Really un-comfy. AND if your lucky like me, embarassing due to too-tight of clothes.
Why would you get naked in a dressing room? You mean when I try on clothes, someone possibly tried them on naked???? 
I have the opposite experience with dressing rooms. Well, no, I find they do highlight your flaws given the unfortunate lighting. But I also find they make you look slimmer than other mirrors do. (And I find that certain high-end stores use lighting so dim it's actually hard to judge how you look.)
I have read before that that is done on purpose: the cut of the glass, the angle at which it is hung, etc.... There are many ways to artificially slim the customer. Before I lost weight, I used to try something on at a high-end store, purchase it, and then get home, see myself in my own mirror, and hate the way the outfit fit. I'd return it. Now, I like the way I look in most mirrors, but I definitely look different from one to the next, and I still find I come up against one in a restaurant bathroom sometimes that makes me look wider than I hope I really am. And I am convinced my home mirror is the worst mirror ever created. At least, that is what I tell myself when I don't like what I see. 
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