I happen to be one of those who believe that codes are to be laid down and followed to the ?T?. Be it traffic or dress code, so I have always ensured that all those who work for brand Ravi Bajaj follow a strict appearance code which not only includes their clothes but also their personal hygiene, hair style, fitness et al. Therefore from my domestic to work staff, every one has been allotted a uniform. I find that this helps in maintaining a certain discipline amongst people. I also design uniforms for several companies in the hospitality and entertainment industry. However on a recent trip when I stayed at several hotels, I realised that more and more hotels are making their employees seem less obtrusive and robot like! At the Peninsula Beverly Hills, my morning tea would be be delivered by a gentleman dressed in a sharp business suit. He looked so non steward-like that I almost thought that the lobby manager had come to deliver my tea!
It was the same story at the Sofitel, New York . The front desk staff wears sharp business suits with no particular colours. The girls wear business suits with skirts, trousers or even tailored dresses. The overall look is just chic! In India though we look at uniforms a bit differently especially in the hospitality industry. We typecast. A bell boy should wear a short jacket, for Indian restaurants it has to be kurtas, banqueting staff has to have boring bad quality black suits or worse still, a vest. This also stems from the fact that we still do not a have the model of ?multi-skilling? in our hotels, which abroad is a given, so the person who takes out the luggage from your car could also be delivering your room service order! So to have a uniform that is flexible helps here. However in India we have a) surplus of manpower so we employ many more hands than neccessary! And mind you having more hands does not guarantee good service but that?s another subject to be discussed another time. b) We still have the British hangover where hierarchy is embedded deep into our psyche. The manager does not want to wear same clothes as captain and the captain wants a different uniform from the waiting staff! Such racism! As a result companies are forced to come up with different quality of uniforms for just one outlet, adding to huge inventory costs as well as making multi-tasking tough.
Another problem lies with the mindset of the Indian hoteliers. They think within the box. The front office staff has to be looking a certain way and the sales staff another and the general manager has to be severely dressed. But the new age hoteliers internationally are much more imaginative, recognising the fact that a hotel is much more than a room factory. It is a link in the life style chain and so its employees should be an extension of aspirational lifestyle. Therefore you have the ?boutique? hotels in Manhattan such as the Soho Grand or Tribeca where even the door man looks like a GQ model! And also serves as a handy concierge too. Almost all employees at such hotels are dressed in dark colours but wearing different silhouettes to suit their own body types. While here we stuff people into one type of garment even if they don?t have the bodies to carry them off. In a country like India where you have several endogenerics to cater to, this can be difficult, unlike say Singapore airlines because they hire people with a certain height to weight proportion. Therefore, we need to realise the need of the hour, which is that 1) as labour costs get dearer we need to deploy multi-skilling models and so the uniforms have to be more flexible. 2) its very boring for a guest to see 50 people wearing the same clothes walking around. Allow them to choose between a couple of options, yet maintaining the look and feel of the hotel?s ethos. A uniform should be looked upon more as a opportunity to make a statement rather than an un avoidable expense!
The writer is a fashion designer