Hospitality industry prioritises comfortable and safe uniforms
Waiters, cooks, doctors, nurses, professionals in the beauty and tourism sector, mechanics, factory workers… There are many professions for which work clothing is a fundamental element. For all of them, having a suitable uniform that guarantees their safety and allows them to be identified as part of a company is key.
For this reason, Monza, the trusted brand name in workwear, on the occasion of its 65th anniversary, has elaborated the ‘I Study on the Textile Workwear Sector in Spain’. In this sense, practically all professionals in the hostelry sector recognize the importance of work uniforms, and almost all Spanish workers who wear workwear say they are suitable for the tasks they perform.
When asked about the characteristics these clothes should have, workers are clear: they want them to be comfortable, according to 81% of those surveyed, safe and functional (61.8%), breathable (57.5%), resistant (55.2%) and durable (51.1%). On the other hand, 83.5% of hotel and catering professionals also highlight comfort as the main characteristic that a work uniform should have, followed by breathability (62.4%) and functionality and lightness, both with 57.7%.
More than half of respondents would improve the breathability of garments.
In addition, 6 out of 10 Spanish professionals believe it is important for clothes to comply with safety standards, be of good quality (59.6%) and be adapted to the work environment (57.5%). In the case of workers in the hostelry sector, more than 6 out of 10 prefer to choose good-quality clothes or fabrics, and almost 58% believe they need to reflect the image of the company.
As to the most valued aspects in the evolution of work wear, breathability (81.6%) and thermal insulation (53%) are the most valued by workers. On the other hand, professionals in the hostelry sector consider anti-wrinkle clothes to be more relevant than elegant details and decorative elements.
According to the study by Monza, the first of its kind to be carried out in Spain, if workers had the opportunity to modify their current work wear, more than half of those surveyed would improve breathability, while 4 out of 10 would modify their elasticity and the material they are made of. On the other hand, workers in the hostelry sector are mainly in favour of improving the breathability of clothes (56.5%) and the material in which they are made (45.9%).
In addition, 3 out of every 10 workers confess that if they could choose their work wear, they would opt for casual wear, followed by sportswear (24.5%) and modern work wear (23.9%), the latter being preferred by employees in the hostelry sector (32.9%).
Lastly, when asked about what their workwear should be like, 1 out of every 2 respondents considered that workwear should be unisex, the same percentage as for professionals in the hostelry sector.
Workwear also creates fashion trends
According to the ‘I Study on the Textile Workwear Sector in Spain’, 42% of those surveyed believe that clothes linked to fashion trends make professionals feel more comfortable. In this sense, more than 60% of those surveyed believe that all current work wear is influenced by street trends or that it is in certain sectors (40.8%).
Thus, 57.7% of workers in the hotel and catering sector believe that work uniforms should follow fashion trends. But it is not only work wear that may follow the latest fashion trends, it may also be the other way around, or so think nearly 40% of those surveyed, a percentage that grows by more than 3 points in the case of professionals in the hostelry sector (43.5%).
Which sectors are the most fashionable in terms of workwear? 1 out of 4 Spanish professionals think the airline industry,
followed by beauty and esthetics (24.9%) and hostelry (18.3%). In this sense, almost 3 out of 10 professionals in the hotel and catering industry consider their own sector to be the one with the most fashionable work wear.
Sustainability of garments increasingly present
Almost 4 out of 10 workers surveyed say that the clothes they wear at work are sustainable. So much so that 8 out of 10 would positively value the sustainability of the clothes that form part of their wardrobe. In the case of hostelry professionals, almost half of them acknowledge using sustainable work wear and 86% say they would value positively the fact that this type of clothing is part of their work wardrobe.
On the other hand, nearly 70% of those surveyed acknowledge that they would pay more to buy clothes developed in an environmentally-friendly process and made with sustainable materials as opposed to other types of materials, a percentage that grows 4 points in the case of hostelry professionals.
For 2 out of every 3 workers, the main challenge facing the workwear sector is to move towards a more sustainable production model, and more than half of Spanish professionals consider that the sector’s greatest challenge is to reduce its impact on the environment. Meanwhile, 55.3% of workers in the hospitality sector believe that one of the challenges is the use of new raw materials.
