Top Tips for the Perfect Uniform

Interview with Pamela Batt, Contractor for uniform Installation Galaxy Macau

Pamela was born in Melbourne and grew up in Perth.  She began her career by owning and running and a card and gift shop in Perth for over 15 years before moving to Sydney in 1995. Her hospitality career began at Star City as a Wardrobe Attendant in the Wardrobe Department. She then moved to become Wardrobe Clerk,  responsible for quality control, ordering and maintaining the quality of all items in the Star City Wardrobe Department. She finished off as a Supervisor at the casino/hotel operation and left Star City for Saint Catherine’s Girls School in Waverley. Here she was the Uniform Shop Manager for 4 years until she moved to Macau with her husband in April 2006. She took on the job as Wardrobe Manager for Altira Hotel and Casino and undertaking the wardrobe installation for the opening of the hotel in December 2006. After 18 months she was transferred to the sister property; City of Dreams to set up the new wardrobe operation there. City of Dreams has 6300 uniformed employees and Pam’s role was to coordinate the uniform design and set up for the installation. She left the hotel in January 2009 and after a break took on  her current job as Wardrobe Consultant for the Galaxy project which began in July 2010.

She is responsible for outfitting the 7500 uniformed employees this includes initially coordinating with the designers and coordinating with the manufacturing side. When I asked what issues she faced with such big numbers she said the number one concern was communication. She needed a very extensive size range for all of the different multicultural staff. Of the 7500 employees there are 32 different nationalities. The third big issue was in educating staff on how the wardrobe department works and functions.

I asked Pamela for her top tips on how to get the perfect uniform. The number one point was functionality for the position. It is important to ensure the garment is made to fit for the purpose of the garment, this is a big priority.

Number two was durability of the fabric and the construction of the garment. Good manufacturing processes without shortcuts being taken is essential for the perfect uniform. Shortcuts could include using poor quality facing fabric in suit lapels for example.

The third point was the correct choice of fabric, a fabric which can withstand the industrial laundry process. She finds a combination of 60% polyester with 40% viscose for pants and suiting to be the most successful. She also recommended microfibre and 100% polyester for pants and suiting though this doesn’t breathe so well.

For white shirting,  the recommendation is for  65% polyester 35% cotton, this is the best mix for durability and longevity of the garment. She mentioned it is important to  always choose the blue toned version of a white shirt rather than the yellow toned version. As the garment wears, it becomes grey as the cotton fibres disintegrate and the shirt is left with 100% polyester fibres at the end of its life.

For white shirts with best the look choose 60% cotton and 40% polyester.

In terms of design, for Pam it is hard to go past the classic 2 button suit, it never dates and this is the suit design she would recommend.

For pants, always use adjustable buttons on the trousers, these are better than the adjustable sliders which tend to break during the commercial laundry process. Her other tips include to consider ordering uniform standard sizing rather than made- to- measure, even for suits. She usually order 50% unhemmed garments and 50% with  regular and longer legs at the time of installation. She also suggested to look at longer arms and shorter arms versions of jackets and shirts for ease of multi-fit.

In terms of fabric it is essential to ask the manufacturer to include in their contract 30% spare fabric to keep on hand and to be utilised within 12 months. You need to be able to give a guarantee to the manufacturer that you will use the fabric up within 12 months.

These are Pam’s top tips for the perfect uniform.