In a move that would have baffled the Victorians and appalled the Romans, a teenage fashion brand has shuttered its fitting rooms. British retail leaders, with all the gravitas of a city council debating the colour of a municipal bench, have cited 'security and privacy concerns'. This is not a story about shoplifting.
This is a story about a civilisation that has decided that the risk of being momentarily embarrassed by a poor fit is worse than the slow, grinding erosion of trust. We are closing spaces, both literal and figurative, because we no longer possess the moral courage to navigate the simple, messy friction of human interaction. The dressing room was the last bastion of analogue decision-making in an increasingly sterile, digital world.
Now it is gone. And we should all feel a little colder, a little more alone.
