Drag Queen Kitty Scott-Claus teamed up with a supermarket clothing brand to create a changing room experience like no other – complete with treadmills and a body confidence class. The one-of-a-kind, dynamic changing room was set up by Tu, to allow customers to get a better impression of how outfits they tried on would feel – and look – in everyday life.
The machinery allowed people to move around in their outfits – after a poll of 2,000 adults revealed one in five feel changing rooms are too lacking in space. And 15 per cent feel insecure when testing out an outfit in a store – so Tu offered the body confidence workshop to show customers how to treat life like a catwalk.
Former RuPaul's Drag Race UK contestant, Kitty Scott-Claus, who teamed up with Sainsbury's Tu clothing to create the pop-up, said: “Body confidence is so important. I want people to share how I feel as a Drag Queen, empowered and happy, strutting their own confidence with pride.
“Changing rooms can be a scary place and you need to feel good about yourself. It's important, babes.” The research also found two-thirds (65 per cent) like to move around when trying on clothes to make sure they feel confident in them.
As a result, customers have raised their arms above their head to test for comfort (30 per cent), squatted or sat down to make sure clothing isn’t too revealing (21 per cent). Some even danced to ensure items don’t ride up (13 per cent) when trying them on.
But six in 10 said standing still in a changing room often doesn’t do an outfit any justice. Reasons for this included being unable to test out how clothes look in reality (47 per cent), the lighting being different to natural light (41 per cent), and struggling to understand how the items make them feel (33 per cent).
When trying on garments, shoppers take an average of four minutes to decide whether to keep them or not – but people typically return 20 per cent of the items they buy. And a piece of clothing must be worn three times before knowing whether they actually like it or not.
The study also revealed 45 per cent struggle with their body confidence – due to not liking the shape of their figure (42 per cent), believing clothes never look like they do on the hanger (30 per cent), and comparing themselves to others they see online (25 per cent).
Body parts Brits worry about the most when trying on clothes are their stomach (38 per cent), legs (19 per cent), and bottom (18 per cent). But two-thirds said feeling good in clothes improves their confidence.
Those polled, via OnePoll, believe the ideal fitting room would feature lots of space to move around in (43 per cent). It would also have curtains or a door that closes tight so no one can see in (40 per cent), and mirrors with different angles (36 per cent).
Tu’s director of clothing, Emma Benjafield, said: “The experiment showed what a difference it can make to customers when trying on clothes and being able to move like they would in real life. While it was a fun event, there was also an important meaning behind it, as we know that many people struggle with body confidence, and how you feel in clothing can have a huge impact on that.
“Finding clothes that make you feel good and allow you to move with confidence is just as important as finding the right shapes, colours, and materials for you, and means you can walk out the door feeling great on the inside as well as the outside. It was great teaming up with Kitty to inspire people to try on clothes and see them in a different light.”
