We've all had the experience of eyeing up a trendy new outfit only to go to the changing room and hate how it looks on, but what if we told you it wasn't because of you?
Bree Lenehan, a body-positivity advocate, has shared a series of photos she took in the changing rooms of different stores and compared how the lighting and mirrors affected how her body looked.
Honestly? We cannot cope with these comparisons.
The 25-year-old took pictures of herself wearing the same pink dress in eight different stores to prove that fitting rooms can create “optical illusions”.
Bree noticed the mirrors in the fitting rooms were massively different at every store.
Bree goes on to explain that a lot of our favourite stores use ‘mirror manipulation’ where we are deceived into feeling slimmer, bigger, taller, or shorter all depending on the glass.
Sometimes it really is a struggle trying to be a bad b*tch in front of one of those carnival mirrors…
Bree added, “Other stores use softer lighting, to hide the lumps and bumps we have on our bodies.
“But then there are also stores that use wide mirrors or harsh lighting which cast shadows over your body and exaggerate every feature.
Dressed in an orange number, Bree compared the “soft” and “harsh” lighting from the same store.
In one picture, the soft lighting made her look flattering while the other showed the harsh lights glaring down on her from the ceiling cast a shadow on every “lump and bump”.
“Please don’t give your reflection the power to ruin your day. You are so much more than your appearance,” she said.
So there you have it - the “clever” lighting and unflattering mirrors are affecting us all, and now we know what to look for, we won’t be letting the ‘optical illusions’ change our minds on the items we’ve been eyeing up for months.
