NEW YORK– Attendees here at the IH/M&RS who are shopping for staff apparel are bound to notice a distinct shift in the direction everyday wear has taken. For starters, there’s nothing uniform about uniforms anymore. If anything, uniforms are taking on the characteristics of street clothing and if there isn’t a hotel or restaurant brand logo on the apparel, the clothing could as easily go out to dinner or appear behind a front desk.
The trend toward retail for uniforms is very hot right now, according to uniform providers.
The Retail Look
“The biggest trend we’ve seen over the past year is more folks wanting to go to a retail-focused look and feel for their property. They want something their employees look and feel comfortable wearing outside of the office (or hotel) as well,” said Mark Leahy, national marketing manager/lodging for Cintas, which designs, manufactures and implements corporate identity uniform programs, and provides entrance mats, restroom supplies, promotional products and also first aid and safety products for over 500,000 businesses.
“We’ve taken that trend and we’re developing new products to bring that retail trend into play, such as flat-front pants for males and females, some of the color that you see in retail— a lightening up versus some of the darker products that have historically been selling into the hotel industry, like the blacks and navys.”
Marion Steinger, whose husband Alan is owner, CEO and head designer of TopHat Imagewear, also sees a trend toward retail, a direction with which the decades-old firm is comfortable. The Hempstead, Long Island, NY company caters to four- and five-star hotels, and its collections of uniforms includes doorman, housekeeping, restaurant, spa and suits.
“Everybody’s looking for a retail application,” said Steinger, who serves as the company’s vp. “The real key to what we do is model these garments after Calvin Klein, Armani, Prada, Gucci. All of us here are very designer oriented. When we go out to look to get direction we take it from the top of the top, and then we put it into a uniform.”
Another trend is a turn toward more formality, said Leahy, noting uniforms are “going away from the ‘corporate casual’ look. Even at some of the midscale properties, they’re going away from the polo shirt and khaki pants to more of a dress black and Oxford-type shirt. Occasionally, they’ll upgrade that and put a tie on it as well.”
Colorwise, Steinger noted brown has been “very, very popular. I do think that black is going to make somewhat of a comeback.” More ruffles on shirts are also part of the forecast.
The use of hotel brand logos on staff clothing almost seems at odds with the retail trend in apparel and Leahy said such usage depends largely on the hotel brand. “There are definitely some brands that want to have logos on everything that’s out there; they make it mandatory, even for the franchisees, to have a logo on their clothes. On the flip side, there are a couple of brands that are going to more of a name tag or name badge type of thing that’s actually embroidered onto the garment itself. Personalization is definitely coming back,” he observed.
Apparel Consistency
Leahy added many brands are paying a lot more attention to consistency among their properties, particularly imagewise. “They’re definitely trying to enforce compliance across the board with brand standards, a lot more than they had in years past,” he added.
Steinger noted the upper-upscale and luxury properties TopHat provides for also want a consistent look, from front desk to housekeeping. “We take the lead from the property. Let’s say the St. Regis comes to us; they want the look so it follows throughout the hotel.”
Even housekeeping uniforms, while functional, get stylish treatment, including high-end Puma footwear. “It’s a way that even those wearing the ‘typical’ housekeeping dress, you’ll look at their feet and go: ‘That is cute,’” said Steinger. “I’ll say to people: ‘You should think about putting that in your budget.’”
Among the chief concerns of hoteliers when it comes to uniforms is durability. Cintas’ Leahy said this is particularly true for those in the midscale segment. “They want stuff that’s going to last for a while because it’s a fairly significant investment,” he said.
Steinger agreed: “Budget puts constraints on durability.” She noted hotels ordering two uniforms per person for someone who works five days a week is essentially not a cost saver as the uniforms will have to be replaced more often due to more consistent wear and cleaning. The average property goes with three, she said. “Beautiful places that we love go with four, and every once in a while we get a five,” she said.
Steinger added that conversely they occasionally get extremely large orders from some places like Las Vegas.
Another concern is loss, particularly as a result of outsourcing garments for cleaning.
Toward that, Cintas offers an on-premises solution wherein it owns and operates the uniform room inside a property, such as at the JW Marriott in Phoenix and the Aladdin in Las Vegas.
“So we kind of avoid the possibility of garments walking off by managing that process ourselves,” he said.
TopHat will place micro-chips in garments on request, said Steinger, to cut down on losses.
Leahy said Cintas has developed “a lot of new product” since last year.
“The retail trend is what we’re trying to call out with this year’s exhibit. Last year we had our uniform book, about a 300-page catalogue that comes out about every two years or so. We just recently started launching in between the uniform books smaller supplements called C Magazine, which highlights products launched every six months or so…it’s very much retail focused,” said Leahy.
Similarly, Steinger said TopHat is developing and creating new ideas daily and has taken the tact of inviting clients to their Long Island headquarters to see the breadth of its operation. “Everything we do is made right under our roof. Every-thing is domestic.”