Monday, September 16, 2013

A Dressing Room Without WHAT?

When I went to try on some clothes, I came across this most unexpected sight of a dressing room with a view.
Yes, you're seeing it right. There was no door on this particular dressing room, and no "Out of Order" sign, either.
Did they expect you to get dressed really fast so all anyone saw was a blur as you whipped off your old clothes and threw on the new?
Was there an unspoken "no looking" rule?
Was there an invisible barrier that made it LOOK like a door once someone crossed the threshold with bundles of clothes in their arms?
Perhaps this was the "bring a friend" dressing room, where someone you know, love, and hopefully trust could hold up a blanket or other large, opaque item while you tried things on, trying to finish before their arms got too tired.
Or maybe this was the dressing room for people who just didn't care who saw them in whatever state of undress they needed to accomplish their shopping in. (That makes me wonder... could anyone get arrested for indecent exposure if they were inside the confines of a designated dressing room that didn't happen to have a door?)
And why doesn't it have a door?
Ah. That leads to a whole other set of questions.
Questions are good, especially when plotting a story. If you let your mind go to the most varied ideas ever (this is the newest anti-shoplifting technique, this is a black hole to another dimension where no one uses dressing rooms) no matter how weird, then you have more material than you need to finally settle on a storyline that feels right to you. Letting your mind draw "weird" conclusions keeps your storyline from being cliche and stale.
Here's how I handle doorless dressing rooms - I almost always wear black bike shorts under everything, so I just take it all off except my bike shorts and t-shirt and try things on anyway. No waiting! No muss! No fuss! Just funny looks from other shoppers.
But I'm used to that.
What would YOU do with a doorless dressing room?


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