Uniform dilemmas
If you look for a definition of ‘uniform’ you will find that it stresses similarity and consistency. Indeed one of the purposes of a ‘uniform’ is to lend a feeling of cohesion to groups that want or need to be identified as a unit; the police, football teams and their supporters, symphony orchestras are all examples of this. One of the major challenges with uniforms however, is that the people who wear them are not uniform. I recently worked with a designer on a project that brought these differences into stark relief and the impact this can have if a project is not sensitively managed.
There seem to be three matters involved that have to be in alignment; the requirements and expectations of the wearers and their employers, the need to create economies in scale, and the design that will determine the final result. Of these, it is the handling of the level of the wearer’s expectation that seems to play a vital role.
The needs of an employer are normally driven by their brand’s positioning and how this should be perceived. This implies something that carries the branded colours and possibly other elements of the brand’s identity such as the logo. For the wearer it is more to do with fit and personal comfort. This is where things start to get complicated, because to completely satisfy individual needs the bespoke element has to come into play. Usually with the mass production of a line of garments the tolerances have to be much greater to allow for the differences in body shape, the result is a corresponding economy in scale for their production. As soon as the bespoke element starts to creep in the situation becomes much more complex with the cost model quite different from that originally proposed. It is the age old formula of ‘cost v time v quality’ at play.
Add to this design elements which may not have fully considered the needs of the work force and difficulties can emerge. For example taking into account whether or not one’s staff spend most of their days sitting or standing can have considerable impact on the way in which the design should be worked through; close fitting flat-fronted trousers can look extremely chic for people whose work entails a lot of standing, but for those who spent most of their work life seated they can be a nightmare.
So I would suggest that designers, in support of the clients who commission them, should consider a little more the sensibilities of those who will be wearing the finished article, these people will after all become the biggest advocates of the branding exercise if their needs are accommodated.
Photo: thanks to US Military from http://www.army.mil/asu/resources.html
