Shopping is Scary
Comments: 10
Mannequins. (Ilford HP5)
This is an old shot. I post it to remind me of why shopping is scary.
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Posted to Photographs • 2003.09.24 (Wed) • 19:14
Comments
Posted by Beaty 2003.09.24, 21:53
…That shopping is scary should be of no surprise to any male. Scarier still, however, is going shopping with one’s girlfriend.
An event that put this fact sharply into focus was when ‘she’ last took me along when looking for underwear - surely the most scary of all expeditions.
I found myself in a shop full of tiny pieces of material - none of which were substantial enough to cover any part of a women of any kind of human proportion - trying hard not to be seen to be looking at any of the underwear on show (lest I appear to be some sort of pervert).
In this you find yourself with that fixed gaze into nothingness - neither trying to look at anything, nor appearing to be avoiding looking at anything either…It was during this visual pinball that I notice other guys dotted around the store doing exactly the same thing.
All of us were standing as close as we could to our shopping partners - that unspoken sign of ‘hey look, I’m with my girlfriend so I’m not a dirty old man’ - but at the same time we were not with them (or at least wishing we were not with them).
[If ever scientists discover the laws governing trans-dimensional travel, it will undoubtedly due to studying the physical properties of a man shopping for underwear with his girlfriend – for his ability to be there while at the same time using some mental power to project his body somewhere else is surely at the core of some quantum travel apparatus.]
Shopping for the guy is an experience that I can only categorize along with the annual medical check up and giving your children their first talk about ‘sex’. An exquisite mixture of mental trauma and physical pain that the Inquisition would have envied.
I cannot help but reflect on how the shopping experience would be different had men designed it….I see in my minds eye a row of shops, arranged strategically around central bar area, with titles like “Socks’, and ‘Pants’, ‘Food’ and ‘Bathroom Stuff’. All engineered to make the experience of shopping over as quickly as the laws of physics would allow…
Posted by Blake 2003.09.25, 04:42
Two words: Twilight Zone.
Posted by gunnar 2003.09.25, 17:30
“I found myself in a shop full of tiny pieces of material - none of which were substantial enough to cover any part of a women of any kind of human proportion”
What astonish me is how ‘they’ can charge so much for so little…
Posted by trotsky 2003.09.26, 02:30
if shopping is scary to males, think of how it is to females, all that advert, and the pressure to look like the models on the advert…and the mannequins.
you might say, why in bloody hell would they want to look like the mannequins?
simply, because the clothes look good on the mannequins.
reminds me of why i prefer 3 metres of bargain bin polyester over a pre-made coat.
Posted by Brad 2003.09.26, 02:44
Nice shot though, regardless of how scary shopping is.
Posted by lil 2003.09.26, 12:35
On the subject of shopping, I just wanted to recommend four good shopping-related books I have enjoyed recently (clearly, I LOVE shopping, since I even buy books about the experience…I guess I just like intellectualising something that feels very instinctual!):
Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping by Paco Underhill
I Want That!: How We All Became Shoppers by Thomas Hine
Fashion Victim: Our Love-Hate Relationship With Dressing, Shopping, and the Cost of Style by Michelle Lee
The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping by Rem Koolhaas
Posted by jh 2003.09.26, 12:48
lil —- I’ve been meaning to read the Underhill and Koolhaas books for a while (Underhill is supposedly the guru when it comes to retail psychology). Didn’t know about the others so thanks for the links.
Beaty —- I have never, unfortunately I think, been asked to accompany anyone underwear shopping. Which is a shame because I think I’m much better at shopping for other people than I am at shopping for myself. Perhaps I could go into business as a freelance lingerie consultant.
Strangely, my self-consciousness in stores evaporates when I’m helping someone else shop. Then it’s more like an expedition and I can be objective.
trotsky —-
> reminds me of why i prefer 3 metres of bargain bin > polyester over a pre-made coat.
I’m happier in thrift stores any day. In Japan, however, they tend to be quite fashionable and priced accordingly.
Posted by niji 2003.09.26, 23:53
blake, yes indeed: (old) twilight zone
Posted by MJ 2003.09.29, 01:50
I hate shopping.
My hubby however will quite willingly go shopping for clothes with his younger brother for 5 hours. Often they only buy one shirt between them. They both scour men’s fashion magazines to find what they like and will then go find the shop.
And their friends are pretty much the same.
Is there possibly a difference between the Western and Japanese male when it comes to shopping?
Posted by clientpars 2003.10.01, 14:40
really great fotoshots. But it is better to be afraid of people, than mannequins
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