Fair Go experiment: Have increasingly prevalent ‘skinny’ retail mirrors gone too far?

March 19, 2018

Clothes shops are more and more using flattering mirrors to pry cash from unsuspecting customers.

Next time you look at yourself in a changing room, ask yourself, is that really me? Or a skinnier version of me?

Leading Auckland University of Technology academic, Dr Sommer Kapitan, says skinny mirrors are becoming prevalent in clothes stores. Skinny mirrors are mirrors manipulated to make the person in front of them look slimmer and taller.

"The idea is you as the retailer, you are trying to design a fitting room that inspires to want to buy, and if you can angle a mirror a different way or set it up in such a way to seem more flattering as a consumer.

"We already want the mirror to confirm what we see, so it pushes us over the edge. The only problem when you walk outside and it looks or feels differently, right?" Dr Kapitan says.

Fair Go conducted an experiment with a normal mirror and a skinny mirror, asking people which reflection they preferred. Every time they choose the skinny mirror.

"I look more slim," says Brioche. 

"I think I like myself a bit more in this one," laughed Sarah. 

American woman Belinda Jasmine started theskinnymirrors.com.  She estimated each skinny mirror could bring in nearly $150,000 more sales each year, based on selling on extra item a day.

"It's not about making them look good, it's about making them feel good," Ms Jasmine told the ABC.

Harriet Fisher supplied our skinny mirror. She says she brought it by accident at The Warehouse.

"I went to The Warehouse to get a mirror and I saw the only long one that appeared to be available and thought I look good in it," Harriet says.

How could she tell it was skinny? 

"I could just tell. I know what I look like in a normal mirror. It didn't look right."

So next time you're shopping, take a really honest look at yourself and ponder the question, is this really me?

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