the unmarked state

The original plan was simple: we would all have matching lab coats with the name of the company embroidered on a little patch on one side, with our names embroidered on little patches on the other side. We weren't going to have different colors for different departments. We considered merit badges, but rejected the idea. The only exception to "everyone in white lab coats" was supposed to be the dark blue coat everyone would have for working with colored material.

Except. Except. Except 3 of the people in research, engineering, manufacturing, etc wear "women's lab coats." When we were buying lab coats from a catalog, and everyone had to take his or her own coat home and wash it, the women's lab coats were only distinguishable by the little "W" marked on the labels, and by being shorter in the sleeves and wider in the hips than men's lab coats of similar size. Now that we rent lab coats from the company that launders them for us, they're a different style. The men's dark blue lab coats are extremely dark blue, so dark it's impossible to stain them with ink or dye. The "women's dark blue lab coats" are sort of medium blue, about the color of surgical scrubs, already stained with various colors despite professional laundering. (They're presumably darker than whatever light blue lab coats are rented to women elsewhere.) Even from a distance, across the manufacturing floor, it looks like uniformity minus 3.