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I had an interesting experience at the Birmingham store of the UK clothing brand River Island on Saturday and thought I’d share and see what people think.

Compared to other stores where you simply walk into a changing room and try on your desired clothes, River Island has recently introduced “smart” changing rooms which pick up on what you’ve bought in and give you the option to have alternative sizes bought straight to you or suggest alternatives that you may also wish to try on. Interesting technology, bit more information on it can be found here if anyone’s interested to learn more - https://www.rfidjournal.com/news/fittin ... id/202513/

So back on Saturday, after a walk round the store, I picked up this dress and headed up to the men’s changing rooms to try it on (https://www.riverisland.com/p/red-tarta ... ess-930616), along with a trench coat that caught my eye in the men’s section.

Dress was a perfect fit and thought it looked good in me. Via the screen in the changing room, thought I’d request that a couple of “suggested” dresses be bought over to try on to. After a couple of minutes, one of the male members of staff knocked the door and said that it wouldn’t be possible for them to be bought over as they’re considered women’s wear!

Shortly afterwards, a female member of staff then knocked on the door and asked me to request the items again, which I did.

Waited about 5 minutes and nothing arrived. Unfortunately thereafter due to time constraints (had a train home to catch), I didn’t have the opportunity to wait longer.

Didn’t end up buying anything in the end, while the dress I tried on fit and looked good, got a bit put off by the price (£66) and not being able to figure out a good colour coat to match it with.

Quite tempted to contact River Islands customer service from a feedback perspective and see if there’s anything I should do in the future to make use of their “smart” fitting rooms. Sounds like their expectation was that only women would be trying on dresses in the women’s changing rooms!

Kieran, absolutely contact River Island customer service. It is appalling behaviour. All we have to do is imagine what would happen if a lady was refused a men's shirt.

Absolutely Barleymower, to me it comes down to just treating everyone the same, regardless of what they wish to wear.

I've just submitted the following message via the "Contact Us" form on their website, shall see what they come back with. Supposed to take up to 48 hours for a response.

"Hi

On Sunday 2nd November I visited your Birmingham Bullring store right as it opened at 11:00am.
I’m a man who likes to incorporate skirts and dresses into my wardrobe so after a walk around the store, I picked up a Red tartan collared mini dress in my size and headed up to the men’s changing rooms to try it on, along with a coat that caught my eye on the men’s section.

While the dress was a perfect fit (albeit haven’t quite got the hang of doing up zips on the back!), I thought I’d request a couple of the suggested dresses to be bought over to try on via the screen in the changing room. After a couple of minutes, one of the male members of staff knocked the door and said that it wouldn’t be possible for the them to be bought over as they’re considered women’s wear.

Shortly afterwards, a female member of staff knocked on the door and asked me to request the items again, which I did. I waited about 5 minutes and nothing arrived. Unfortunately due to time constraints (had a train home to catch), I didn’t have the opportunity to wait longer.

While I appreciate that such a scenario isn’t too common at the moment, I feel that it should be possible for a man to not only try on clothes that are have been traditionally labelled as “women’s wear” but request either different sizes or items if desired, just like a woman may wish to try on clothing from the men’s section of the store if she wished. Thought I’d just raise this as feedback to clarify your position on this or alternatively determine if there’s anything I need to do differently in such a situation in the future."