Long before she became the director of the International Fabricare Institute’s Garment and Textile Services Department, Lorraine Muir was a little girl who
simply loved to shop in a fabric store with her mother.
Even if she had never heard of IFI, she would have found a profession that
allowed her to work with textile materials.
“One way or another, it’s got to be something with fabrics,” she said. “I just like the material... to see
it and touch it.”
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Lorraine, who was born in South Carolina, has lived in Maryland since she was
five years old. Growing up, she
“didn’t have a clue what drycleaning was,” but that didn’t stop her from heading along a path that would lead her to the industry.
In college, she attended the University of Maryland and graduated in 1981 with a
B.S. degree in textile marketing.
“If it weren’t for textiles, I would not have gotten out of college,” she laughed. “I was probably more interested in household textiles other than fashion. I wasn’t interested in much else.”
While going to college, Lorraine earned money on the side with part-time work at
a Montgomery Ward
’s retail store.
“Retail is retail when you are at the counter working with customers,” she said. “A customer is a customer no matter where they are. I understand the challenges
of working with the consumer.
”
In all, Lorraine spent about a dozen years with the company, including a stint
selling soft draperies and home furnishings.
“I can really sympathize with cleaners, and I can sympathize especially when they
are doing draperies that go with a whole bedroom ensemble,
” she noted. “I used to sell the whole ensemble. We would just tell them across the board ‘dryclean only’ without any thought of what drycleaning was. We were just supposed to say ‘dryclean only’ and that’s what you’d write up on the contract.”
Though she had always been content with her job at Montgomery Ward, it didn’t stop Lorraine from eyeing IFI’s big sign on the highway ever since she first noticed it during her college
days.
“There weren’t many opportunities here for people with textile backgrounds that I knew about,” she recalled. “I saw the word ‘Fabricare’ there and figured they must have something to do with textiles. I did call here
to see if they had any openings, but they didn
’t.”
In 1988, however, an opportunity finally opened up. Lorraine found out about it
from a friend who applied for a job opening at IFI.
“It wasn’t right for her, but she told me about the garment analyst position and I
interviewed for that,
” she said. “They called to see if I was interested and I didn’t have to think twice. I was really tickled to come work here.”
To prepare for her duties, she enrolled in IFI’s three-week course.
“It had been years since I’d gotten out of school,” she recalled. “I liked it, but this was a different aspect of textiles. I had to relearn
everything.
”
When she started working in the lab analyzing garments, her first impression of
cleaners was not very positive. Part of the problem was that everything she
worked on was a problem.
“Everything was messed up when I saw it,” she laughed. “All I saw were problems all day long. I didn’t think they could clean anything. That’s when the lab had 30,000+ garments a year, so I didn’t know why anybody would want to do this for a living, and I sure didn’t think they could make any money at it.”
Even with as many as eight analysts working in the lab at the time, Lorraine
found herself literally studying thousands of problem garments a year.
Now that Lorraine has nearly two decades of service with IFI, she can say with
conviction that the causes of problem garments have remained consistent
throughout her tenure.
“No matter how many garments, these percentages stay the same,” she said. “Usually the biggest percentage of garments received are manufacturer’s problems. It’s like 35 to 40%.”
The next biggest culprit of problems is consumers, followed by drycleaners.
“Consumers have always, consistently, come in percentage-wise at like 33 to 38%,” she added. “Cleaners are like 10 to 12%. And, there’s usually ‘unknown factor’ or ‘no evidence’ that make up the rest.”
According to Lorraine, cleaners tend to make the same cluster of mistakes year
in and year out.
“Usually, redeposition can be a problem... or spotting problems — either color loss from spotting or they’re cleaned wet and they take on redeposition,” she explained. “Still, spotting problems are pretty big. I think finishing is next. There’s not much after that.”
One trend that has changed over the years is the total number of garments
analyzed.
When Lorraine worked strictly as a garment analyst in the late 1980s and early
1990s, IFI examined tens of thousands of garments annually. More recently, that
number has dropped off, though not without reason.
“I think the garment analyzing has gone down gradually over the years for
different reasons,
” she said. “I think cleaners kind of recognize a problem. There’s a lot of experience amongst our members and we have a lot of brochures and
bulletins to help them. Plus, the numbers from the analysis department
— our database — goes over to the Federal Trade Commission and they look at that and see if
there are any manufacturers that they need to investigate. That
’s all top secret. We never know who they’re looking for.”
Over the years, Lorraine has worn a few hats at IFI. She worked in quality
assurance for a few years before accepting a management position in the garment
analysis department in 2000. Recently, IFI merged its garment analysis and
textile testing departments, both are now under Lorraine
’s supervision and offer their own set of challenges.
“Garment analysis looks at garments that have been damaged in cleaning and that’s dealing with our members and consumers who have sent them in,” she said. “It is more subjective. You are not testing the original material. You’re testing the garment and you are comparing whether or not it was able to
withstand the care process on the label. And, you
’re assigning a responsibility.”
Textile testing is a little different. IFI handles whatever garments or fabrics
manufacturers provide and works objectively on standardized testing methods.
“In textile testing, it’s more controlled, more quantitative against standardized methods like ASTM
testing or AATCC testing,
” Lorraine explained. Manufacturers not only want to know whether their material
can withstand certain procedures in laundry and drycleaning but also if things
like body fragrances and skin preparations might damage the fabric, she said.
“It’s very interesting work,” she added.
The key to textile testing is being meticulous. Of course, expediency is also
important.
“Big money is involved in the textile testing department,” she said. “They’re really on some time constraints, but you want to get it right. You want to
get the best answers that you can. I work to get everything accurate.
”
Accuracy is extremely important when you're working on a project such as
flammability testing for children
’s sleepwear where there is no room for error. Fortunately, Lorraine has the
perfect personality for such a job.
“I never give up no matter how difficult,” she said. “I keep coming back to work. Some of these situations are pretty hard, but I just
work at them until we figure out an answer.
”
The work may not always be easy, but it helps that her co-workers at IFI are
like family.
“I get along with everybody here,” she said. “The people I work with are very helpful. Everybody’s been here a long time.”
Some IFI employees seem to know Lorraine even better than she knows herself.
“I didn’t think I’d like doing textile testing too much,” she admitted. “But, Mary Scalco suggested I could do that. I’ve been really lucky here with people having the confidence in me to do more
than I ever thought I could.
”
It seems a little ironic that a person in charge of a lab spends so much time
dealing with people, but her home life is no different. Her front door is
always open there, as well.
“We always have somebody new living with us,” she laughed. “We let people stay with us for free — it’s usually people with animals.”
At home or at work, Lorraine still utilizes the people skills she acquired years
ago behind the counter at Montgomery Ward.
“A lot of the job is talking to people and being as diplomatic as I can be,” she said. “Sometimes I’m a little direct.”
Being straight-forward is just a part of the job.
“Talking to the manufacturers, I always learn something new,” she said. “And, the consumers never have a problem telling me what to do or in giving me
their thoughts.
”
When it comes to the last group of people she deals with — drycleaners — Lorraine probably respects them the most. Her view has changed a bit since she
began analyzing thousands of garments annually almost two decades ago.
“Drycleaners are really nice,” she said. “I’m pretty lucky to be able to talk to them.”