THE WAITER'S UNIFORM

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 134, 3 December 1929, Page 13

THE WAITER'S UNIFORM

A SUGGESTED CHANGE

Possibilities of a more distinctive dress for waiters than the white shirt and tailcoat in. which they now appear' were discussed by the National Association of Outfitters in London recently, says the "Manchester Guardian" in an editorial. At first sight this would seem to be a change that it is hardly for the outfitters to decide—it is the guest in evening dress who is liable to be mistaken for a waiter (or the waiter who is liable to be mistaken for' a guest) from whom the proposals for reform should come. However, it appears that some person or persona unknown (but presumably of the diningout classes) have asked for assistance in remedying this minor confusion of existence, and the outfitters decided to appeal for the co-operation of the Hotel Proprietors' Association.

If those who make the clothes and those who hire the waiters are both agreed on this point an alteration is possibly within sight, but the complaint, made that "whenever there was a change in evening dress fashions the waiter immediately adopted" it contains a hint of the essence of the difficulty. In the vast majority of cases the waiter is wearing the second-hand garments of the guests, which is an economy for him at the expense of possible confusion to other people. If he is to be put into a uniform of his own the cost of his equipment will probably increase; the man who has borne manyhills to others will bs asked to meet a jnew one of his own. This is a contingency that one imagines will be faced with _ more equanimity by outfitters than waiters, who are rarely heard complaining about the existing convention. The difficulty would be solved on very handsome lines if every hotel and restaurant decided to put its own staff into its own livery-j-aa ornamental but expensive solution that is not very likely to commend itself to the hotel proprietors. In the meantime the ruling is "Like master, like man"—the waiter, who is Everyman's servant, wears the shirt and coat which is Everyman's own evening livery.