Fashion

These Mirrors Could Change Shopping, Period.

by Renata Certo-Ware

Mirror, mirror on the wall, what the $*#% is my bra size, once and for all? For various reasons, shopping for a bra usually takes a huge amount of time and effort for something that is (mostly) hidden underneath layers of other clothing, but some Rigby & Peller outposts (formerly known as Intimacy) have started using mirrors that can calculate your bra size based on a body scan that takes 140 separate measurements. Fans of Intimacy loved the shop for its super, um, hands-on approach to sizing, but this new tech makes the whole lady-in-the-dressing-room-with-a-measuring tape thing seem kind of outdated now, doesn't it?

The coolest part (or the creepiest, depending on how you look at it) is that, using the mirror, customers can snap photos of each style they've tried on and then compare all the images side by side. This totally eliminates all those "Wait, how did the purple one with the lace look again?" moments that all but double the duration of a dressing room session.

Shoppers simply enter the dressing room, start up the scan, and do a slow 360-degree turn as the mirror begins capturing measurements. Once the numbers are in, a stylist helps pull items in the correct size.

The sizing tech will eliminate a lot of trial and error. Instead of grabbing the same item in several sizes, shoppers will get their measurements first and walk up to the racks educated about what size they need. That means that there will be fewer items off of the sales floor, and the image comparisons after all try-ons means less time in the dressing room itself. Imagine what this could do for the always-sprawling lines in places like H&M and Zara if this technology spreads!

Rigby & Peller isn't the first retailer to get super techy in the dressing room. Rebecca Minkoff has received a lot of praise for the way her stores in NYC incorporate interactive mirrors inside and outside of dressing rooms (think: champagne delivered to your dressing room). Ultimately, access to the tech has boosted sales and majorly improved customer experience, according to DigiDay.

MemoryMirror, another tech breakthrough, was revealed at NYFW last month. This full-body mirror allows users to try on clothes without taking off their clothes (perfect for winter!) and 360 cameras allow you to see every angle, even from behind.

These innovations are definitely going to change the shopping game in a major way, from eliminating time-wasting sizing errors (I've so gone into the dressing room with a size 2, 4, 6, and 8 before) to eliminating dressing rooms altogether — MemoryMirror, what's good?

That means more time for two of my favorite things: Shopping, and standing in front of the mirror.

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