The Idea

I first started getting huffy about the situation a year ago, but I'd been dealing with it from the time I first started going bra shopping with my mom. When I first started out, I tried to tell myself that everyone buys undergarments, that it was nothing to be ashamed of, and that it was me who had the problem if I was terrified that a man might see me pick up the bra I actually end up buying. I thought this because that was how it was, and if that was how it was and no one was complaining, then there must not be a problem with it. In the end, however, I mostly gave up buying my bras at stores with open layouts and chose instead to buy my bras at Victoria's Secret for various reasons, but partly because you could suppose that everyone in the store had a reason to be there that didn't involve watching me shop.

Fast forward to a year ago when I got engaged and started shopping for underwear with visual appeal as its goal. My first attempt to do this in Kohls, was as I recall, unsuccessful. The reason being that every time I picked up a cute pair of panties or a little nightie, I had a man I didn't know watching me. I don't necessarily blame him, he was actually standing in the aisle next to the men's section. He had every right to be there. It just so happened, however, that that was also the aisle next to, not just the women's underwear, but the sexiest of the women's intimate apparel. At one point I even ducked behind a display table I was so fed up with being seen. It occurred to me then that this was probably the MOST inappropriate place for either of these sections to be located.

I had a similar experience at a JCPenney while shopping for my wedding day underpinnings. I was with my mom, and we could not for the life of us find the women's intimate apparel section. Well, silly us, we were looking on the floor that had all the women's clothing. As it turned out, the women's intimate apparel section was on the floor that had exclusively men's clothing. At this point I went on a tirade and was quite certain that men create these store layouts. It was also at this point that I decided I would do something about it.

I will grant that these store layouts are probably not maliciously designed for the satisfaction of male lust as I was at first in my wedding planning craze wanting to believe. However, I still maintain that they are in the least carelessly designed. It is also the case that not every department store is this way. In the Macy's stores I have been in, the intimate apparel is buried in the women's clothing sections and I believe there is a similar arrangement in Nordstrom.

The name of the section itself should suggest where it belongs. "Intimates." This means that you probably don't want everyone seeing what you are buying. In particular, you probably don't want men seeing what you are buying. Depending on what it is you might have a very particular man in mind to see it, someone with whom you share an "intimate" relationship. You might be more or less modest about your intimate apparel, but in any case, if a store is concerned about the shopping experience of its customers, the choice of degree of modesty will be given into the hands of the shopper.

I hope this gives you a good idea of where I'm coming from. In my next post I'll discuss more in depth my thoughts on how the placement of the intimate apparel section affects the way fellow shoppers perceive each other.