For International Women's Day: 'A Room of Her Own' Salons Held Across Three Cities
One hundred and twenty women of different ages and professions were invited into the boutiques' private fitting rooms — not to shop, but to talk about the body and the self.
The salon takes its name from Woolf: every woman should have a room of her own. On the 8th of March, the boutiques in Shanghai, Chengdu and Hong Kong closed for half a day; fitting rooms became sitting rooms, and fitters set down their tapes to talk.
The conversations began with "when did you first buy lingerie for yourself", and travelled through body anxiety, motherhood, ageing and reconciliation. No cameras were allowed; a single stenographer kept anonymous fragments, to be gathered one day into a small book, She Said.
At the close, the Maison announced that the salon would become a quarterly event, open to all women by complimentary reservation. "Dressing for oneself is not a slogan," said its host. "It requires an actual room, and an actual afternoon."