For, Taylor Made Designs, designing a high-quality uniform involves sticking to the client’s brief and knowing the client and end-user well.

“We understand what engineers, for example, need; we understand what front-of-house needs, and we understand what hotel and beverage teams need. Each sector has its preferred brands, and we know what those are,” said Managing Director Ed Taylor, who added the company supplies cruise lines, yachts, hotels, theme parks and other leisure clients.

“For the cruise sector, we supply any clothing you see onboard: front-of-house gear, crew uniforms, galley engineers, PPE, everything. We supply onshore gear, expedition items, guest gifts and marketing gifts,” he added.

“It’s best to understand whether an operator has themed restaurants, for example. They might want something like an oriental jacket that is unique.”

Other clients may not want bespoke items but rather a basic or plain design, he added, so it always boils down to the brief.

“And if the client has a very unique color palette, it may not be as easy to pick that with one particular brand; we have to go to another to get it,” Taylor highlighted, adding that knowing the intended function of the clothing and the people who will wear them are also important considerations.

“It’s understanding the environment that they’re going to be used in. There’s no point in me trying to pitch a heavy-duty jacket if they’re in the Caribbean,” Taylor said.

What Clients Want

Taylor noted that sustainability has often been a requirement in briefs from clients, as they look for sustainable materials and manufacturing, and the company is licensed to accommodate their requirements.

Some lines even return old uniforms to the company to be recycled when they come to a UK port.

While the trend is mostly on sustainability, Taylor added clients are also looking for convenient geographical delivery locations.

“Lines say it’s costing them an absolute fortune sending stock from the United States to Europe, and in the time that it takes to send stock from the U.S. to Europe. They ask us if we can supply something very close, or exactly the same, to what they have onboard. And often, we can; if not, we’d offer them something very similar,” Taylor said.

Service

To accommodate varying orders of extensive ranges, colors, sizes and designs, Taylor said that having an e-store helps the company maintain efficient delivery and service.

“We put all of our clients’ ranges and the agreed product on an e-store built for our clients for consistency. Once we’ve agreed to the products, they can just go online, add it to basket and we wrap it up and deliver it to them,” Taylor said.

When it comes to getting sizing right, Taylor Made Designs provides a sample size set of the requested items to ensure correct sizing despite varying global size metrics. The company also has two warehouses to hold stock for clients.

Set Apart

Taylor said that what sets the company apart is its communications and regular interaction with clients, which in some cases is daily.

“We’re not looking for volume of clients; we’re looking for good clients that want to stay with us for many years… to do that, we need to stay very close to our clients; we want to build a relationship,” Taylor explained. “We will source from all over the world to make sure that our client gets what they need.”