Tuesday May 19th marks the return to work for Top Shelf. We have many customers to contact for appointments for fittings on work in progress, and new and existing clients already have appointments for this week. Our biggest concern is the safety of both staff and clients. Our Covid plan for the foreseeable future includes masks when unable to social distance, hand washing upon entry, temperature checks, and constant sanitation and disinfectant of all the touchable surfaces. We’ve connected through webinars with other custom clothiers around the US and shared many good ideas adaptable to different businesses. We are very fortunate to have a large showroom area, and a spacious workroom to be able to bring back our crew. Even so, staff will work different days and hours to cut down on contact with one another.
An interesting topic has been discussed on how the virus might linger on clothing. One good thing is that our clients will only be trying clothing on that is made for them. We will be protecting all our garments in plastic until ready to be tried on, and will hang for 48 hours after being worked on. Evidence suggests that it’s much harder to catch the virus from a soft surface like fabric, although it might linger on hard surfaces like buttons and zippers. We like to have customers be able to touch and feel fabric swatches, and we’ll be leaving any samples out in the open exposed to sunlight as much as possible for natural disinfecting.