Workwear serves many purposes, both practical and aesthetic. This article looks at what drives workwear design.
For anyone who has worked on a building site, a farm or a factory - the reasons for workwear are clear. Safety is of course the main motivation behind clothing used in physical labour - be it a helmet protecting the head from falling debris, or steel toe-capped boots protecting the feet from more falling debris. Overalls or other workwear keep the body safe from dangerous of messy substances, such as paint, oils, chemicals, dust, sparks - and innumerable other problematic liquids, solids and gases.
Required by law, many of this workwear clothing is also very practical. Steel toe caps have saved many a furniture removal person's feet from many a grand piano. Thick overalls have saved many a ship builder from welding sparks.
But it isn't only safety which drives work clothing design. There is also the aesthetic side. Wearing clothing at work which is similar or the same as colleagues, makes it easy for members of the public to spot who is working for a company and who isn't. This is particularly important in locations such as supermarkets, where people often require assistance in finding products - and locating a worker among a mass of public is much easier if the workers in question all wear the same uniform.
Workwear of a uniform nature also helps the workers themselves identify with the brand or company they work for - and in an ideal situation will find wearing the clothing a source of pride. In some roles, the workwear in question needs to add a sense of authority to the wearer. This aura of authority is essential in jobs such as police, the military and other security personnel. It needs to persuade both the person wearing it and members of the public that the wearer has authority.
There have been various studies into the effects of uniforms on people. One such well documented study involved a volunteer being asked to give another (supposed) volunteer electric shocks each time they got one of a list of questions wrong, using a button. An individual in a lab uniform pretended to conduct the experiment - and ask the questions of the person who was at risk of being shocked. In reality of course, neither the man in the lab coat nor the person being shocked was real - the only person who was being tested was the person giving the electric shocks. The person who received the electric shocks was an actor.
The study was intended to identify to what extent a person would go if told by a person in uniform to give someone a shock. Despite being able to clearly see the pain that the person being shocked was enduring, the majority of the subjects in charge of the shock-button continued - and each time the person got a question wrong, the voltage would be increased. In most cases the true volunteer increased the voltage until the person being questioned would have died. Of course the person did not die, as they were merely acting.
This is an extreme example of the potential power of workwear - but an interesting one to think about when choosing your company's next uniform!
Author Resource:-
Anna Stenning is an expert on workwear having been involved in selecting uniforms for various companies.
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