Personal data: a friend's daughter was heavily into fashion retailing, even to the point of getting a degree in it. I imagine she was a good salesperson, but I don't know that.
Anyhow, she's now a buyer for some large company, obviously working away from customers.
I'm not discounting your reasons at all, but you left out "buying clothes on the web." Once companies like Zappo's started making it easy to try things and return them if you change your mind, people's reluctance to buy online started evaporating. Now that driving to the mall sucks more than ever, staying home and buying on the Web becomes much more compelling.