Excalibur Hotel Casino: Interview for Made to Measure

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Excalibur Hotel Casino is a family-oriented resort located in Las Vegas. Part of Mandalay properties, this 4,032-room hotel has been operating since 1990.  Its focus combines the Middle Ages, King Arthur, and Robin Hood.  In addition to over 124,000 square feet of gambling casinos, there are 6 restaurants, swimming pools and sports facilities, shops, family entertainment areas, a wedding chapel, and an arena for jousting tournaments.  Marge Duquette-Castellanos, veteran of the uniform business, is Wardrobe manager.

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.