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H&A: This resort is huge!
As head of Wardrobe, what are your responsibilities?
Marge: I hire and
manage the personnel who work in Wardrobe.
This includes laundry, alterations, linens, employee lockers and
showers, and the uniforms. We can have
20 projects going on at once: Vendor notebooks; uniform samples; purchase-order
ledgers, the inventory system; tracking each garment; flagging low stock… I also search out new uniforms for the hotel.
H&A: How does that work?
Marge: A director of a department will tell me what he/she
is looking for. We come up with a basic
idea and I’ll either sketch it or find something similar to show. We submit the concept to several vendors (we
have no favorites and encourage competition); they return live samples or their
own sketches to us. We build from
there—the best ideas, best prices. I
take these back to the director, we eliminate certain ones, and go with a final
sample.
We
test the garments, putting them on employees.
Random members of our staff wear them, launder them 25 times, and
dry-clean them 20 times more for aging.
Employees give us input in terms of comfort, function, and aesthetics. (It’s very important employees feel good
about what they’re wearing. If they are
pleased and comfortable, these same employees will have pride in themselves,
enjoying their relationships with our clientele).
Once
we’re all settled on what we want, the department head and the general manager
of the hotel OK it, and we go into final production.
H&A: Are all of your uniforms custom?
Marge: No. Actually,
the original uniforms were much more costumed.
They were uncomfortable, hot, perishable, very difficult to clean or
alter, and the employees were miserable.
They cost a fortune to maintain.
H&A: You abandoned them and went with ready-to-wear.
Marge: So much so that a lot of the hotel’s charm was
abandoned.
H&A: Is that what you’re wearing now?
Marge: Nope. We’ve
reverted to uniforms that are once again reflective of the hotel’s theme. However, we’ve compromised by using
ready-to-wear garments that are easily customized.
H&A: How’s that?
Marge: Take shirts:
If I order custom, they will take 8-12 weeks to produce. By the time they arrive, several people have
quit, and we probably need different sizes.
Or, if I order similar shirts in stock-items, they arrive in a few
days. Then, we send them to our
alteration department: We change a collar, add a stripe, re-make a cuff, or
whatever it takes to give the proper look.
It’s faster and cheaper to go with a stock item, and it allows us to
maintain our theme without the cost, maintenance, and lag-time of a custom
garment.
H&A: What’s the percentage of your ready-to-wear
merchandise?
Marge: We still have mostly custom but gradually, we hope
to change over.
H&A: You mentioned your alteration department.
Marge: Yes. I have 3
fulltime girls who do everything. They
even make some of our simpler uniforms in-house, and I’m hoping we do more of
this. My girls alter employees’
uniforms, stitch up tears, do terrific stock-item customizations, and re-design
for employee special needs. (One aspect
of ready-to-wear that’s challenging is its limitation in style and color. Our alteration department solves that
problem.)
H&A: What is the procedure for an employee acquiring a
uniform?
Marge: He or she goes to Human Resources, submitting a
resume and references. Everything
okayed, there is an interview with the particular department where he’ll be
working. Once completed, it’s off to
Wardrobe.
H&A: Does he get issued a uniform at that point?
Marge: Sort of. We have a staff of 35 people—12 in laundry, 3
in alterations, and 23 managing the carousels, turnstiles, conveyors, scanners,
lockers, and clothing slots. The employee
comes to our counter where our processor (who’s been doing this for years and
has developed an eye for accurate sizing) hands the new employee a uniform for
his area. It’s off to the fitting room,
and then over to alterations.
H&A: Then he takes his finished uniform and goes home?
Marge: After the uniform is suited to him, he is given a
locker bag—a garment bag with a lock.
Every morning, that employee comes to the counter, announces his bag and
slot numbers. Our 7 conveyors house
individual slots for each employee. From
there, his bag is taken with a freshly cleaned uniform, is scanned and given to
the employee. He puts his own clothes in
the bag and puts on the uniform. When
his shift is over, he returns to Wardrobe and once again is issued his locker
bag from the conveyor slot. He replaces
the uniform in the bag, takes his own clothing, and the dirty uniform goes to
the laundry.
H&A: You mention scanning.
Marge: Yes. We have
53,130 uniforms in this hotel. There are
over 350 different types, as well as different kinds of uniforms—housekeeping,
engineering, the kitchen staff, waitstaff, front-desk. There are court jesters, knights,
courtiers. We even have genuine suits of
armor on display that have to be polished and buffed!
Our
scanners are just like the grocery stores’.
Every single item is given a bar code, and before the item goes
anywhere—even in here within the walls of Wardrobe--it is scanned.
H&A: What does that do?
Marge: It eliminates any question of inventory because we
always know exactly how many garments and of which size, we have. Also, because everything is always scanned,
we never have to worry where an item is.
If it goes to the laundry, the dry-cleaner, alterations, it’s
scanned. If it leaves Wardrobe with an
employee, it’s scanned.
H&A: There are no problems with loss, theft, or low
stock?
Marge: Very little.
No one is allowed within Wardrobe unless a Wardrobe person accompanies
her. The area is totally enclosed; only
cashier-windows and counters are open to non-Wardrobe personnel. There’s really no way to get anything in or
out of the department. As for low stock,
since we always know exactly what we have, we know if there’s a shortage.
H&A: Computers.
Marge: Exactly. Everything is kept on computer. Everyone in wardrobe is computer literate.
H&A: Do you have a customized inventory program for
Excalibur?
Marge: Not really.
The program is used by many of the Mandalay properties. It’s wonderful and lets us know exactly
what’s going on at all times.
H&A: Are there any changes you would make?
Marge: Only that the software be user-friendlier. My wish list is a program for
pattern-assisted designs. Imagine doing
patterns for our own designs right here, in-house. There would never be a question of copyright,
or the enormous cost of making patterns, adjusting them, and so forth.
H&A: Everything is right here, on property.
Marge: I wish it were.
We still have our dry-cleaning done off-site. Some of the garments can’t be laundered, and
we don’t have a dry-cleaning facility at this time. Also, our contractors for embroidery,
silk-screening, and rental uniforms are located elsewhere.
H&A: I thought you owned all of your uniforms.
Marge: At this
point, sadly, no. We rent our kitchen
and engineering uniforms, and the supplies that come with them—bar-mops,
towels, you know. It’s easier to get
everything from one supplier; they have the industrial Laundromats that can get
the heavy grease out of those garments.
H&A: Considering Las Vegas is a one-industry town, I
imagine there is a well-established cleaning and uniform-rental business to
support it.
Marge: That’s right.
However, we bar-code and scan these uniforms, too.
H&A: I am totally impressed with all that you do. What kinds of skills do you need for this
job?
Marge: There are no
schools for wardrobe mistresses. There
are several of us in town, and we try to get together—we support and learn from
one another. (We’re all women,
coincidentally, and we call ourselves “The Rag-mates.”) I think skills for being a wife and mother of
2 children have helped a lot! Certainly,
my background in uniforms, sales and marketing has been invaluable.
I
also think it’s important to know about people.
Our staff represents a huge diversity in population, and folks in
Wardrobe are employees helping other employees.
Wardrobe employees need to treat house-employees like
guests—customers--at all times.
H&A: I bet you love what you do.
Marge: I’ll tell you, there are days when I feel I’m buried
under a mountain of paper and clothes…
It’s an exciting job, though, and no 2 days are alike. For me, being in charge of Wardrobe is like a
dream come true.
