How to choose your restaurant uniform?

Shirt, polo shirt or T-shirt, suit trousers, chinos or Bermuda shorts, smart lace-up shoes, trainers or lightweight sneakers? In their catalogues, companies specialising in workwear offer such varied collections of professional clothing, footwear and accessories that choosing a uniform for your restaurant becomes complicated.

How do you select the outfit that will accompany your employees in their daily tasks, knowing that it will also be one of the first “details” to attract the attention, consciously or unconsciously, of your customers?

In this new article, the experts at Shoes For Crews discuss the challenges of restaurant uniforms and then give you some advice to help you find clothing perfectly suited to the requirements of the hospitality and restaurant professions and, above all, to your establishment.

Restaurant uniforms: both image clothing and protective clothing

Wearing a uniform in a restaurant has a dual purpose. On the one hand, it has a practical role as it must protect employees from the risks specific to their profession. On the other hand, it plays a role in its own right in the company’s external communication, as it conveys its image and values not only through a colour or logo, but also through the materials and clothing style chosen. Through its personalisation, the uniform, as image clothing, makes it possible to clearly identify a company and its employees in the eyes of the public. It should also be noted that it plays an internal role: it helps to create and maintain a sense of belonging among employees to a community and contributes to their recognition.

Our advice for creating your restaurant uniform

As professional attire is a reflection of the company, adopting a uniform in a restaurant should not be taken lightly and must be based on prior consideration.

To achieve perfect harmony between the different elements that make up your restaurant, it is essential to define your establishment and its activity. To do so, we invite you to ask yourself the following questions:

• What type of establishment do you run: traditional restaurant, themed restaurant, brasserie, etc.?
• What type of cuisine do you offer? Do you specialise in the cuisine of a foreign country, in working with a particular product such as local or organic products, or in a lifestyle, as may be the case with vegetarian or vegan restaurants?
• What image of your restaurant should the uniform convey? Elegance, simplicity, style, casualness, tradition, modernity… think of three words that define your business and that you want to reflect in your staff uniform.

Factors to consider when choosing your uniform 

Your answers to the previous questions have certainly helped you identify the style of professional attire best suited to your establishment. To provide a uniform suited to your teams, we recommend taking the following criteria into account before making your selection :

• A model suited to each profession and its use: manager, head chef, cook, sommelier, bartender, waiter, dishwasher, etc. There are many roles in a restaurant, and professional attire  must adapt to the needs of each profession from both a practical and aesthetic point of view. Do not forget to complete your uniforms with accessories also suited to each role: apron, chef’s hat, cap, neckwear, tie or scarf. 
• Clothing designed for your sector: the cuts of the garments chosen must not hinder your employees’ work, but rather give them complete freedom of movement. In this respect, particular attention should also be paid to their composition, to choose safe and comfortable materials to wear in environments where temperatures are often high. Choose specialised collections to select items that are both practical and comfortable. 
• Personalisation: in addition to colours, you can personalise your clothing and accessories by including your name or logo. Embroidery, screen printing, printing: choose the technique that suits you best. However, make sure it withstands washing so that your textiles last over time.
• Trends : we recommend consulting and following trends even if you opt for a classic uniform, in order to give your establishment a contemporary image.
• Uniforms suited to the seasons: whether or not you have a terrace, equip your employees by adapting their uniforms to the seasons of the year. 
• Work shoes: opt for high-quality and comfortable shoes that also offer safety features such as slip-resistant soles to tackle occupational risks at the source and protect your employees.

To find out more about your employees’ professional footwear needs, we invite you to read this article, which presents the features of our range of shoes specially designed for the various restaurant professions.