Comments on: Designing uniforms

By: Natasha

Natasha — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 23:19:21 +0000

OMG I just love the above links models with the hair.

Just got issued my school scrubs yesterday and OMG can you spell boxy. Why do they think its ok to issue us unisex ones. I have boobs in the front but not in the back.

By: Vesta

Vesta — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:46:44 +0000

Hmm, high visibility seems to conflict with hiding stains . . . maybe a neon camo? (shiver)

By: Penny

Penny — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:10:10 +0000

Ditto on shops that sew uniforms being high quality contractors. They always have good functioning equiptment, highly skilled workforce, and function within “legal” requirements, meaning they have all their licences up to date and operate as legitimate businesses instead of back alley sweat shops.

There are a lot of thriving businesses geared towards supplying uniforms. Someone has to supply all the prisons and jail inmates with clothing not to mention the off shoot products of this industry as well:
http://www.preventsuicide.com/index.htm

By: /anne...

/anne... — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:35:29 +0000

DD is a final-year Paramedic student here in Australia. Her student uniform is a dark green jumpsuit with reflective strips and reflective embroidery (she’s doing a degree at Uni, but they have placements with the Victorian ambulance service, so have to wear a uniform for safety). The uniform is, as Kathleen said, very well made - but as she’s 5′3″ and curvy, it makes her look like a hobbit. I’ve promised to tweak her uniform when she gets a job.

One thing that the uniforms have to cope with that hadn’t occurred to me until she told me was that they spend a lot of time crouching over or kneeling next to the patient - so padded knees and a comfortable crotch are important.

Oh, and one of her lecturers said that the best way to improve the health of paramedics is to make ambulances too high to go through the McDonalds drive-through

By: kay

kay — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:05:50 +0000

I’ve been at the local hospital’s ER a few too many times over the last few years — they’re one of the local ERs that allow EMT students to observe, and so I’ve seen a number of the students trying to deal with new uniforms, most of which were not designed to fit a woman’s body. Nothing quite like losing your pants while you’re trying to lift a patient off the gurney — and taking the waistline in by amateur methods would lose most of the pockets. Then there was the pregnant EMT student had just plain given up on the jumpsuit she had been issued… she was wearing a uniform shirt unbuttoned over a maternity top, and a gored, divided skirt hiked up over the bump.

The guys fit the uniforms a little better, but they had the same problems a lot of police officers do with utility belts and gravity.

One of the EMTs coming in from another site had on a uniform that seemed to have come from REI — looked like tan cargo pants and a fishing vest over a polo, with appropriate markings. Looked like the outfit worked pretty well.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:41:04 +0000

Kathleen,

Thanks for the plug. I can only speak for military uniforms, but over the last few years there have been huge changes in design with a large move towards more functional features and less focus on “looking pretty”. This is all for obvious reasons when you consider the operational tempo of the military today.

The military cycles from functional to “pretty” as we transition from wartime to peacetime. If you look at the post Korea, early Vietnam era uniforms as they evolved into the jungle fatigues. That uniform eventually transitioned to the BDU during the 80’s and through the 90’s. There were modifications to the BDU that made the lower pockets on the blouse unusable and merely for show. Now we are transitioning to the more functional uniforms of today.

A lot of the changes that have been incorporated are based on common modifications soldiers used to make themselves (albeit against regulations). Things such as pockets on the sleeves, angling the chest pockets so that they are easier to get into.

There is currently a big push towards fire retardant materials. Infrared reflectance is also an issue. Uniforms are not to be washed with detergents that use optical brighteners.

Right now every branch has its own uniform and camouflage pattern. Even the Navy has adopted a camouflage pattern. However the intent is not for them to hide from the enemy but to hide grease and oil stains.

With that said the new uniforms aren’t without their problems. A lot of soldiers complain about crotch durability issues, which has always been a problem even back in my day. Not sure why they never went with a gusset type crotch, my guess is production difficulty? . Also there are complaints of too much Velcro. which is noisy, wears out, and is not as secure as buttons in some applications.

Anyway a good friend of mine has a blog where he writes often about uniform development http://soldiersystems.net/blog1/category/acu/