The Job Corps : With a Sense of Humor and an Appreciation for Polyester, Designers Have Embraced the Uniform Look
Let’s start with the disclaimer.
You’ll probably want to pass on this fad if you’ve ever uttered any of the following phrases in a professional setting:
“Want fries with that?”
“Open wide.”
“Please return your seat backs to the full upright position.”
“You’re soaking in it.”
For people who are compelled to wear uniforms, the idea of using them for recreational dress is repellent. So it must have been jobless teens who originated the look several years ago after raiding thrift shops for dental assistant lab coats and grease monkey coveralls that could be had for bus fare.
Uniform-inspired clothing ultimately trickled up to the runways of Europe, with Prada and its less expensive offshoot Miu Miu taking the style to near-haute levels in their spring ’96 collections. Miu Miu’s $445 polyester lab coat dresses are now en route to such stores as Shauna Stein in the Beverly Center. And if the label’s past record is a reliable indicator, they’ll sell out as soon as they’re hung.
Uniformity has also been embraced by California’s young designers, whose prices fall somewhere between thrift and boutique. A sense of humor is mandatory to accept the fad, they say, as is an appreciation for the colors of original Naugahyde.
“It’s a natural extension of the overwhelming acceptance of polyester in the junior market,” Madhouse designer Melissa McElrath deadpans. But, she cautions, the uniform idea shouldn’t be taken too literally. “If it looks exactly like a nurse’s dress, it won’t sell. These dresses don’t have name tags. They’re not too costumey. It’s the shape that’s important.”
Joel Fitzpatrick, the designer who works out of Swell on La Brea Avenue, is angling both sides of the trend. His Ultrasuede waitress dress, with dyed-to-match Hush Puppies, is strictly for young women with a dry-cleaning allowance. The design he’s been commissioned to create for Taco Bell employees, meanwhile, will be wash and wear. But it won’t look like a uniform, Fitzpatrick promises. No, the burrito brigade will end up in sports-inspired garb, dressed to blend in with customers.
