Today we’d like to introduce you to Cindy Palmer.
Cindy, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My story is a long and exciting one 🙂 I will try and keep it brief, but that will be hard – ha. !!
I grew up in South Africa. When I was 18 I moved to San Diego, California with my family.
It was a very fun time exploring our new country. I met my husband Chris during this first year. A few years later we were married and off on our next adventure. We moved to the Gold Coast of Australia. A stunning country and a lovely place to raise our 2 boys (Keegan and Bryson) Long story short – I stepped away from a career to raise our kids. Keegan becoming a very talented skateboarder. The constant travel ended up with me taking on home schooling him to keep up with his competition schedule. Which was continually bringing us back to the USA, as southern California is the “mothership” for skateboarding.
Then, skateboarding was announced as one of the new sports being added as an Olympic sport. This was all very exciting. Keegan competed to be apart of the Australian Park skateboarding team. He qualified as the highest ranked Australian and was on the team. We needed to be in the USA to train. So we made the decision as a family that we need to relocate back to the USA for Keegan to have closer access to training facilities as well as easier travel routes to qualifying contests in other parts of the world. This was not an easy decision but we as a family are always up for a challenge and this was just another chapter in our book. Now, high school math and science was not my strong suit and homeschooling Keegan in these subjects was a bridge too far for me. I am a creative brain lol not a math brain and so we started Keegan with a USA tutor. yah!!
Now it was time to find work to cover the additional costs of starting over. (we left everything in Australia and only came with suitcase) So it really was atarting over again.
My wonderful mother in law owned “Brigitte Couture” a custom uniform company here in San Diego. She knew I needed a flexible schedule to still travel with Keegan but also needed to earn extra money. She knew I was very creative and thought I would be a great asset to her business. It was a great fit. And so I started part time with Brigitte Couture Uniforms. It was wonderful to get back into the working world. As well as scary. I loved it so much I began working more full time. I was trained by a true master in class, Brigitte having excelled in the fashion industry for 50 years. Timing was good too as Brigitte wanted to start doing less and get ready to hopefully retire in the next few years. Keegan in the mean time had a great coach supporting him too and I could travel with him but do less of the day to day. And then covid happened. whaaaa whaaaaa
What a shocker that was. We are in the hospitality industry, So our hotels all closed and everything went quiet. Brigitte has auto immune problems so it was safer for her to stay home. The Olympics was postponed and life was on hold. As it was for everyone. Thankfully we were very lean at our company and we used this time to automate all our processes and get all our record keeping up to date and digital. It was a very very good use of our time and has helped us grow and be way more efficient since then.
Brigitte took this time to step away from the business and I officially took over. It was a very good learning and growing time for me personally. So what do we do……
We are your go to uniform specialists in San Diego. We are a full custom house as well as distribute for all major catalog brands. If you need corporate apparel or any kind of uniform, we are who you need to call. A lot of our business is in Las Vegas, but we have hotels, casinos and resorts all over the USA and abroad. We are unique in that we specialize in swimwear. We dress the cocktail ladies that serve you drinks at the pool. All made here in San Diego.CA, USA !!! And have been doing swimwear for over 25 years. Not only do we do the swimwear but any pool attire. Polo shirts, pool shorts, warm up’s, lifeguards. We also work with all departments – like housekeeping, spa, hostesses, valet and more.
My goal the last couple years was to grow our San Diego foot print and I am so thrilled to now be working with some of the most devine resorts here at home. Rancho Valencia, The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe, Estancia, La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club, Omni La Costa to name a few. Ha – I am name dropping but seriously these are some stunning resorts and I am so honored and humbled to be working with them. I continue to grow and learn new skills and work with a truly wonderful group of people. I am very focused on customer stratification and I know a lot of my customers will tell you that I will go above and beyond to get them what they need in a timely manner. I truly care about what I do. If a hotel needs design help, samples, ideas for big or small departments, I can help.
Oh and guess what. Keegan my son went on to compete in Tokyo 2021 Olympics and won the first ever GOLD medal for Park Skateboarding. What a awesome achievement. And then he went on to win his second GOLD this past year in Paris 2024 Olympics. And this time we as a family, Chris, Bryson and I got to go to Paris to watch him. It was a dream and I am beyond proud of my kids.
I am a strong believer that you only have one life, so make sure you live it well. Go on adventures, take risks, work hard, take time out, love deeply and be a good human being and enjoy the ride. This is your story, it will be made up of many chapters. and at the end of my book I sure hope it is a darn good read 🙂
PSS – I am also an identical triplet. My sisters (Kerry and Heidi) and I look exactly the same.(apparently that is very very rare, especially identical girls) ha we love each other so much and have a lot of fun confusing the heck out of people, along with my older sister Rochelle. But that is a whole other interview!!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It certainly has not been a smooth road but I believe if you have a good attitude you can over come all struggles. Covid was certainly a challenge being in hospitality. It almost took us down. But we hung in there.
Learning new skills in this industry was more of welcomed struggle as it helped me grow and really hone my skills and knowledge.
I am certain all the struggles are not over yet. But I am ready. There will always be mountains to climb. Keeps life interesting.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I have alway been a creative person. I was in interior design but stepped away from pursuing further to raise our kids. And as you read from before that turned out great.
So coming into the creative fashion space was not a HUGE leap for me but rather a big jump. I am known for helping my hotels make uniform decisions by providing them great options that meet all their needs, as well as keeping the needs of employees in mind (they have to wear these uniforms for 8 hours a day) This is especially true when I design swimwear for employees. It needs to be comfortable for working in, for all shapes and sizes, with enough support, made with durable materials. As well as look great. If management likes what employees are wearing and employees are happy and comfortable with what they are wearing, I have done my job. This does also translate to all departments.
I take the burden of getting your staff looking great in uniform by bringing knowledge of what works and what does not. I make sure there is the stock they need in order to get their uniforms in a timely manner and tell my customers exactly what to expect. They can trust me and my hotels know that. I am very good at communicating and don’t ever leave my customers waiting. I truly invest my in customers success. Their success becomes my success. It feels good.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
I love my customers and I know they love me. But I have learnt don’t get an order started without a Purchase Order!! Ha. If it aint written it aint reality 🙂
Contact Info:
- Website: www.brigittecouture.clothing
- Instagram: brigittecouture.clothing
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindy-palmer-7a7757158/
