Marks and Spencer denies mirrors claim

[snopes]

Marks and Spencer has said it is mystified by a claim by MEP Robert Kilroy-Silk that it uses "distorting" mirrors in its changing rooms.

Mr Kilroy-Silk has accused the store of misleading women with mirrors that make them look slimmer in its clothes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6357035.stm

[Mosherette]

Well they didn't do much for me yesterday If those are slimming mirrors then I must be about three stone heavier than I thought I was!

[Tarquin Farquart]

Is it just Marks & Spencer who are supposed to use these special mirrors or do other clothing shops do it as well?

[Embra]

Next uses special mirrors that make you look pale, cellulitey and fat. Does that count?

As opposed to the mirrors at the tanning salon that make him look a normal colour?

[Richard W]

I think something has distorted his grin in that photograph...

In his question, Mr Kilroy-Silk asked if it was "conceivable that within the millions of EU regulations covering virtually every aspect of life in the EU" there was not one that made it illegal for M&S to have mirrors that "deliberately distort women's shapes".

So, technically, he might not have been accusing M&S of doing this. It's hard to tell from the question. He might have been asking whether, hypothetically, it would be illegal. Perhaps he's planning to approach them with a business idea and wanted to sort out potential snags first.

Maybe the only letter he got from a constituent this month was from a paranoid conspiracy theorist and he jumped at the chance to represent the interests of his public...

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by lazerus the duck

As opposed to the mirrors at the tanning salon that make him look a normal colour?

Are you implying Mr Kilroy-Silk's colour isn't natural?

[Andrew of Ware]

It's not just M and S. Every mirror I have bought makes me look bald and ugly.

[Lunasa]

Originally Posted by Embra

Next uses special mirrors that make you look pale, cellulitey and fat. Does that count?

I've never noticed anything funny about M&S mirrors (I still look like I need to lose 10 pounds in them), but I'm so glad I'm not the only one who's noticed this about Next. The three way mirrors that manage to show the back of my legs and butt no matter how I stand, combined with the terrible lighting... definitely the worst changerooms ever.

[Stoneage Dinosaur]

You'd have thought he would have gone after Harrods instead. I'm sure that shifty arab bloke that owns it goes in for such un-British practices.

ETA: A brief clip of Kilroy

[Mr. Furious]

Originally Posted by Lunasa

I've never noticed anything funny about M&S mirrors (I still look like I need to lose 10 pounds in them), but I'm so glad I'm not the only one who's noticed this about Next. The three way mirrors that manage to show the back of my legs and butt no matter how I stand, combined with the terrible lighting... definitely the worst changerooms ever.

I'm glad I only bought clothes for the kids there!

[Embra]

I meant to add, does Kilroy-Silk mean to suggest that M&S's mirrors only distort women's shapes? Are the mirrors in the men's changing rooms different?

[llewtrah]

Having used M&S frequenlty, I don't think their mirrors distort. The lighting in the changing rooms can aid in self-deception. The size of the changing rooms make it hard to vary your distance from the mirror. Also, if the mirror is tilted slightly in order to compensate for changing room size, that can alter your perception of how you look.

Is it possible there is slight curvature to compensate for the small size of changing rooms i.e. to fit the person's whole image in the mirror? I can't say I've taken alighnment tools into changing rooms to check for this. I have noticed the lighting (intensity, angle) makes a difference.

[BringTheNoise]

I can't read about Killroy without recalling a spot from Harry Hill's TV Burp:

[Clip from Killroy's old talk show]
Killroy: Sexually abused by your father? When you were THIRTY FOUR?
[Cut to Harry in the studio]
Hill: NOOOOOOOOOOO!

It's stupid, and borderline offensive, but damn, it's funny.

ETA: Some more clips of a similar nature: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sjmX78BNgE

[Toys For Big Boys]

The lighting in changing rooms is hardly ever flattering.

And how would he know what the women's changing room is like anyway?

[Jonny T]

Originally Posted by Tarquin Farquart

Are you implying Mr Kilroy-Silk's colour isn't natural?

IMO his tan is such that he should be allowed to register as his own ethnic minority. which makes his racism that little bit more amusing.

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by Jonny T

IMO his tan is such that he should be allowed to register as his own ethnic minority. which makes his racism that little bit more amusing.

Him and Dale Winton?

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by Tarquin Farquart

Him and Dale Winton?

Don't forget David Dickinson.

This ethnic minority is growing at an alarming rate. Someone should write to the Daily Mail.

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

Don't forget David Dickinson.

This ethnic minority is growing at an alarming rate.

How could I have forgotten the Bargain Hunter?

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

Someone should write to the Daily Mail.

Steady on there!

[Eddylizard]

Well I for one am thoroughly sick of them. They come over here, swarm all over our tanning salons, and use a dis-proportionate amount of our fake tanning products.

They take jobs away from decent hard-working British TV presenters. We even let one run for parliament.

I say send them all back to oompah-loompah land where they belong!

Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells.