Emotion’ is perhaps not the most likely sentiment associated with a spa uniform but it’s the very astute and heartfelt basis from which the Noel Asmar Group has become a globally trusted leader in the field.
“Just imagine how you feel if you’re dressed inappropriately or look drab?” says the eponymous Noel Asmar in relation to her brand philosophy. “This affects you so emotionally, that you’re unable to focus on anyone else. We want to make people feel empowered.”
The business of hospitality is all about making others feel pampered and well. This starts with feeling good about yourself. Hence the premise behind the company’s success: when staff feel comfortable and stylish in their uniforms, they’re able to concentrate more fully on the people they serve.
Transforming the often ill-fitting and unflattering into uniforms with flair has been the stock in trade that’s taken the Noel Asmar design house to 4,000 cites across 60 countries in little more than 10 years in business, working with top international hotel groups and small day, medical and dental spa operators, as well as cosmetic brands, beauty academies and nail salons.
Until now this vast client portfolio has been serviced from its company headquarters in Vancouver, Canada. Yet 2015 marks a new phase in corporate growth with Noel Asmar’s first overseas sales offices in the UK and Dubai (opening soon) and an active search for local distributorships in Europe and Asia.
“The Middle East is a fashion hub and yet I don’t know of any designers specialising in design for wellbeing,” says Asmar. She sees Dubai’s predicted rise in hotel construction, for a large increase in room capacity by 2020, together with the Emirates’ taste for exceptional hotels and high design as favourable indicators for her decision to have local representation.
“Hotels that have tried to team up with a fahion brand to uniform their property have learned that off-the-shelf clothing companies don’t have the experience or set up to be able to service a uniform programme that requires infill orders and fabrics that can withstand uniform use. We look forward to filling that void. We will have samples on the ground to respond to people immediately,” she says.
This makes good sense for a brand with 8,000 SKUs in its portfolio. Not only are such numbers unheard of elsewhere in the wellness uniform industry, all variations are held in stock, meaning orders can be serviced quickly on a needs-be basis, thus alleviating budget pressures and space issues around storage, particularly for smaller clients.
Design: fashion, fabric and functionality
Noel Asmar has all the allure of a fully-fledged fashion house, turning uniforms from the quasi-medical, boxy smock into runway expressions of style: from mandarin collar, high neck, low neck or polo neck to cigarette or capri pant, even leggings; an empire waist to enhance body length or a longer hemline to flatter a fuller figure. Every design nuance has been considered.
But fashion is nothing without functionality. The choice of designs reflects the demands of different job specs. An aesthetician delivers her treatment in a different way to a Thai massage therapist. A hammam is a starkly contrasting environment to a nail bar. Together with design comes the importance of appropriate fabrics that allow a full range of movement while being breathable, fade resistant and durable enough to withstand the punishment of products and repeated laundering. The average life span of a single piece is – surprising even to the wearers – three to five years when cared for properly.
Client experience
It’s all about ease with Noel Asmar: from the ‘made for the way you move’, company tagline, to the way of conducting business. When Asmar says: “We urge our clients to lean on us. We’re experts in the field of uniforms and can offer valuable advice that will save both time and money,” she’s referring to the deliberately personal approach.
Each potential client is appointed their own business manager who gets to know the brand, property and precise job functions they’re looking to uniform – from front desk to housekeeping and F&B or even the entire workforce (as at MGM Las Vegas) – in order to seamlessly facilitate the selection and ordering process. This is made easier still thanks to a staff mix of ethnic backgrounds spanning nine languages and a sensitivity to cultural difference.
The company prides itself on being a design house offering custom styling solutions. However with 8,000 SKUs in inventory, in every colour from ‘spicy berry’ to ‘powder blue’, it makes fiscal sense to stick with off-the-peg. Every style variation from a cap sleeve or rouched waist to a fully tailored suit is available from XXS to 5XL, plus maternity styles.
Yet the in-house designers, including Asmar herself, love creating subtle ways for clients to stay on brand or culturally in-tune, with bespoke embroidery, digital screen printing and dye-casts. The company has recently created original prints based on indigenous motifs to trim the spa uniforms for the Four Seasons in Bora Bora.
There are no minimums and orders received by noon are shipped the same day. Most garments are manufactured in Canada but some production is deliberately outsourced to China for ease of servicing a growing Asian clientele.
Noel Asmar’s story
Asmar’s recent recognition as one of the Top 100 Female Entrepreneurs in Canada, 2014 is testament to life’s adage that passion leads to success. She was holding down her ‘day job’ in hotel management when her love of design took off in the night markets of Ho Chi Minh City. She was having clothes made for her friends and family while working in Vietnam when she realised this was her real metier. Her move into the fashion business took seed once back home in Canada when she designed a uniform to take her then pregnant, aesthetician sister out of the unflattering ‘boxy smock/white lab coat’ into fashionable workwear that really made her feel good.
“It was clear that there was a dire need for a feminine, thoughtfully designed tunic made especially for the spa and wellness professional,” says Asmar who started her new career officially in 2002 with one style in three colours, under her original brand: www.spauniforms.com, then the first online offering. Still 25-30 per cent of new business comes from online searches.
Here she is, 12 years and one name change later, a pivotal player (and ISPA board member) in an industry that’s evolved alongside her strong belief that proper spa uniforms are indeed a key component of their brand.
Product diversification
Noel Asmar is in essence a lifestyle brand, with an in-house design team, so branching into equestrian apparel in 2011, provided an opportunity to indulge its design credentials beyond the fit-for-work fabrics of uniforms. In line with her ‘everything stems from a need’ philosophy, Asmar started her equestrian collection with a rain-friendly riding jacket to keep her dry on her horse during rainy Vancouver winters.
Now the division offers a luxe range using merino wool and cashmere, bamboo and linen as well as technical fabrics for water resistance. It’s even designed breaches and boots for doormen for the equestrian themed Salamander Resort in Washington DC, and catered to Olympic riders and dressage teams.
The recent Noel Asmar leather handbag collection has cemented the brand’s move into retail, being stocked increasingly in hotel boutiques worldwide.
“It’s all about the experience, of making ordinary moments that bit more special,” she says. Asmar’s other exciting division, www.pedicurebowls.com, took off in 2007 when she designed a range of colourful resin and hand-hammered copper and stainless steel pedicure and manicure bowls as a move away from industrial-style foot baths. Most recently Asmar created her own collection of aromatic, hand poured, soy wax candles simply because she is ‘nutty’ about fragrance and the profound connection between scent and spa experiences. The company offers custom scents with co-branded packaging for elite clients around the world.
What next?
Asmar’s latest interest is the hospitality industry’s relationship to the environment. She’s leading a campaign to create a recycling programme that takes used uniforms in exchange for a credit towards new Noel Asmar pieces. With millions of garments being replaced each year, there’s a dire need to stop dumping fabric in landfill, which anyway, she says, the US government is lobbying to outlaw in America by 2017.
By the end of 2016 Asmar aims to have offices, not only in the UK and Dubai, but also in additional countries within Europe, Latin America, Oceana/South Pacific and Asia.
So much in the spa and wellness industry revolves around bricks and mortar design, treatment development and product houses. Noel Asmar is one company focusing on what really matters: the people who work day to day to deliver the customer experience. “Spa staff are in the business of looking and feeling good, so it stands to reason that they themselves want to feel that way too,” says Asmar.
She’s claimed the space for uniforms that are both comfortable and chic. The company stands up for ‘quality’ and is sure to inspire properties to take advantage of the in-stock collections or custom design services. There are tens of thousands of spa and hospitality professionals that are forever grateful for Asmar’s vision.
