Resources · Choosing Uniforms
Staff notice the fabric before they notice anything else about a uniform. It is also the part of the decision most often inherited rather than chosen.
1,000+
Healthcare organisations
60,000+
Garments supplied
40+
Years experience
95%+
Client reorder rate
A uniform is almost always chosen by looking at it. Someone picks a style from a photograph or a sample rack, a colour follows, and the fabric arrives attached to whatever that style happens to be made from. Nobody in the room set out to choose it.
That is the wrong way round. The style is what the uniform looks like on day one. The fabric is what it feels like, hangs like and holds up like for every shift after that — and it is the thing staff will comment on first.
What gets chosen
Decided deliberately, usually in a single meeting, from a photograph or a sample. Everybody has an opinion and everybody gets to give it.
What gets inherited
Not compared, not discussed, and then lived with by every person wearing it for as long as the range runs.
The actual job
A healthcare uniform is not clothing that happens to be worn at work. Judge a fabric on the four things it is genuinely being asked to survive, and most of the decision makes itself.
Not the ideal process. The one it actually meets — at home late after a long shift, or in a commercial machine with everything else.
A garment that has gone soft at the collar or dull across the shoulders reads as the organisation, not as the individual wearing it.
Movement, temperature, bending, reaching, and hours of it. Comfort is not a luxury requirement here. It is the reason a uniform gets worn properly.
New staff join a range that already exists. What arrives has to sit beside what is already in the cupboard without announcing itself.
Plain language
Five words do most of the work in any fabric conversation. This is what they actually mean for a uniform range — enough to follow the rest of the guide, and no more than that.
Stretch
Freedom of movement is only half the issue. Recovery decides whether the garment returns to shape and still looks composed later in the shift.
Breathability
Matters for active roles and warmer environments, but it has to be weighed against opacity, coverage and how the garment is constructed.
Fabric weight
Influences drape, coverage, warmth, and whether a garment reads as structured or relaxed.
Colourfastness
Particularly important where garments are washed repeatedly and new ones will later be reordered into an existing uniform program.
Easy care
Especially important where staff launder their own uniforms and wash conditions cannot be tightly controlled.
There is no fabric that wins on everything. Improve one property and you generally give up a little of another. Choosing deliberately means deciding which side of each of these you want to be on, rather than finding out later.
Comfort
Structure & formality
Stretch
Recovery
Breathability
Warmth
Lightness
Opacity & coverage
Softness
Colour retention
Easy care
Crisp appearance
There is no universally correct position on any of these. The right balance depends on the organisation, the role and the laundering arrangement — which is why the same fabric can be an obvious choice for one team and the wrong one for the team down the corridor.
Who washes it
Most uniform fabric complaints are laundry questions that were never asked. The same garment behaves differently depending on who washes it and how, so it is worth settling before the range is chosen rather than after the first complaint.
Staff laundered at home
The most common arrangement and the least controlled. A fabric that is forgiving under imperfect handling is worth more here than one that performs beautifully under ideal handling.
On-site / commercial laundering
Far more consistent and considerably harder on the garment. That consistency is an advantage, but the range has to be chosen knowing it.
Mixed arrangements
Common in larger organisations, where clinical garments are processed and everything else goes home. It works, but it should be a decision rather than an accident.
Ask the laundry question before the fabric question.
Once we know how the garments will actually be laundered, and by whom, the sensible options narrow quickly — and the ones that were never going to hold up drop out before anybody orders them.
One range usually has to cover people whose shifts have almost nothing in common. What suits one is wrong for another, which is why a single garment for everyone tends to fail on fabric long before it fails on fit.
One organisation, one branding standard, four different jobs — and four different sets of demands on the cloth.
Constant movement, bending and reaching, and the highest chance of something needing to come out. Give and recovery matter more here than a crisp finish.
In and out of a car, in and out of the weather, and often no opportunity to change. Layering and a fabric that travels without creasing badly are the priorities.
A controlled environment with its own laundering and its own rules. The fabric decision is often made for you, and the rest of the range has to sit alongside it.
Seated, visible and front-facing for the whole shift. This is where structure, and a fabric that still looks composed late in the day, earn their place.
Long shifts, physical work and close personal contact. Comfort and a fabric that stays soft against the skin do the most work here.
Heavier wear, less predictable contact, and a garment that has to look presentable without anyone needing to be precious about it.
Learned the hard way
Why a range that looked right at selection gets replaced early. The first three account for most of it.
Drape, weight and handle do not show in an image. Photography flatters every fabric.
A fabric that photographs beautifully and moves badly, discovered on the first busy day.
A range chosen for a process it never meets, where most late complaints originate.
One choice stretched over shifts with nothing in common, suiting none of them properly.
The palette locked first, leaving the range to whatever could be had in it.
Uncomfortable uniforms get modified, replaced or quietly not worn.
Before you order
None of these require a fabric expert. Answered together, they are a brief you can take to any supplier.
01
Laundering
02
Roles
03
Presentation
04
Working conditions
05
Range continuity
06
Non-negotiables
No fabric names needed — you define what the uniform has to do, and we work out what will do it.
Where we come in
You do not need to arrive with a fabric in mind. Tell us which roles the range has to cover, the conditions those people work in, how the garments will be laundered and how the team needs to present — and we will translate that into an appropriate range. Where branding is involved, nothing goes into production until the embroidery setup has been approved.
It depends on the garment and the range. Rather than quoting one fabric, we work back from what the uniform has to do — the roles it covers, how visible those roles are, and how the garments will be laundered — and narrow the options from there.
There isn’t one. Every fabric trades one property against another, so the useful question is which trade-offs suit your team. A fabric that is right for a seated reception role is often wrong for a mobile clinical one.
Often, yes. One range can carry different garments across roles and still read as a single uniform, and for organisations covering clinical, administrative and community work that is usually a better outcome than forcing one choice across all of them.
Follow the care instructions supplied with the garments. What matters at the choosing stage is telling us how laundering will actually be handled — staff at home, an on-site or commercial process, or a mix — because it changes which fabrics make sense in the first place.
Fabric is one of the few parts of a uniform that is genuinely hard to judge from an image. Tell us the garments you are considering and we will talk you through how each option behaves — how it moves, how it holds its shape, and what it is like to wear across a shift.
Consistency across reorders is one of the main reasons a range is worth settling deliberately. We work with you to keep a range consistent as it is reordered, and where something in it changes we tell you rather than substitute quietly.
It does. Different fabrics take stitching differently, and the same logo will not behave identically on a structured woven and on a garment with more give. Placement and setup are confirmed against your actual garments, and nothing goes into production until the embroidery setup has been approved.
It is worth revisiting if what you hear from staff is about comfort, how the garments look after washing, or the range no longer matching itself. Those are usually fabric problems rather than style ones, and they don’t resolve on their own.
Avery is cut for a contemporary, slightly tapered fit that flatters without restricting movement. Prefer a relaxed fit or planning to layer? Size up.
| Model — Women's | 5'7", wearing size S |
| Model — Men's | 6'1", wearing size L |
| Fit | True to size, tapered body |
| Length | Hip-length, V-neckline |
| Chest (CM) | Body Length | Sleeve | |
|---|---|---|---|
| XXS | 81–86 | 58 | 30.5 |
| XS | 86–91 | 60 | 31.5 |
| S | 91–97 | 62 | 32.5 |
| M | 97–102 | 64 | 33.5 |
| L | 102–107 | 66 | 34.5 |
| XL | 107–114 | 68 | 35.5 |
| 2XL | 114–122 | 70 | 36.5 |
| 3XL | 122–132 | 72 | 37.5 |
| 4XL | 132–142 | 74 | 38.5 |
