Temple boom has makers of clothing scrambling

The Parable of the Sower has taken on new meaning for many local Latter-day Saints who find themselves scrambling to help keep pace with the explosion in temple-building activity worldwide.

With new temple announcements, groundbreakings and dedications happening several times each month during the past year, the demand for white temple clothing and the ceremonial apparel that is specific to LDS temple worship has local seamstresses up to their elbows in thousands of back orders.

An employee taking orders at the church's U.S. telephone mail order department said Thursday that both the white temple clothing and ceremonial robes would not be available to Wasatch Front residents "for at least five months, maybe longer. We're just taking back orders right now."

The rationale? Temples along the Wasatch Front rent clothing to patrons, whereas many of the new temples worldwide do not. And other new temples that will rent the clothing need to be stocked.

"Members in areas like Alaska, Ohio and North Carolina," are at the top of the priority list, the employee said, because members near temples now open or opening in those locations need the clothing immediately.

The church, which has traditionally manufactured most of the white dresses, shirts, pants, ties worn by LDS faithful during temple worship, is contracting much of that work out to private manufacturers so workers at church-owned Beehive Clothing can concentrate on making the ceremonial apparel. (See related story.)

And officials at Beehive Clothing are reportedly looking to expand manufacturing facilities locally to keep up with the relatively sudden worldwide demand.

LDS Church spokesman Dale Bills confirmed that a letter from church headquarters went out last week to Salt Lake-area wards "that Beehive is looking for additional employees." Specifically, the letter sought seamstresses interested in working part-time or full-time to deal with the additional workload.

Utahns aren't the only ones having a hard time getting temple clothing.

Marilyn Delbagge, manager of Beehive Clothing in Oakland, Calif., said in her 15 years at the distribution center there, shortages have never been an issue — until now.

With the recent announcement that a new temple will be built in Fresno, Calif., "people come in all the time and want to purchase clothing. Right now we can't get it to them. We tell them probably around September, they'll be at the top of the priority list, but right now they just have to wait."

Her store isn't the only one feeling the impact. "The Sacramento center has been in the same situation, with the same items."

The most acute shortages are in "men's items, as well as ceremonial clothing for both men and women," Delbagge said. "It's really not anyone's fault. There are so many temples opening that Beehive has to stock the new larger temples (first). We've been told they're just working as hard as they can" to try and meet the demand, she said.

Last month, approximately 60 managers of the church's Beehive Clothing distribution centers in the United States and Canada were called to a three-day meeting in Salt Lake City for discussion of how the church is planning to deal with the demand. Delbagge was among them.

"We were told that Beehive in Salt Lake is farming out most of their commercial items" in order to concentrate work on ceremonial clothing. "They're even shipping some of the pre-cut (items) to Paraguay to be sewed there, and then shipped back to the U.S.," she said.

New temples aren't the only reason the workers at Beehive are busily living up to their company name. The First Presidency of the LDS Church sent a letter last October to local church leaders, asking members to purchase and maintain their own temple clothing. The letter said clothing would be available through the church at a discount in order to allow members to make the purchase.

For decades, LDS temples have provided rental clothing for patrons, but the new, small temples now being announced, built and dedicated have no in-house laundry facilities like their older and larger counterparts.

"When the discount program started last October, our sales immediately increased 25 to 30 percent," Delbagge said. "And we didn't have any increase in work force. We were super tired."

The outlet store orders everything from Salt Lake City and receives a weekly shipment, she said. But much of what customers want just isn't available.

"We have lots of comments from patrons when they come to buy and find out there's a six- to eight-month back-order list. Some mothers are really disappointed when they find they can't get temple clothing for their children. But most people have a really good attitude about it and comment on how nice it is that there are so many people anxious to go to the temple."

Delbagge said despite the disappointment, she thinks most church members will be understanding. "He (President Hinckley) really started something," she said, reflecting on the sessions she recently attended in Salt Lake City. "He told them he would pray for them."

Such prayers are apparently having an impact, according to one story told during her Salt Lake meetings. "They said the director of Beehive recently got a call from a plant in the South that manufactures men's clothing. They had 20,000 pairs of white pants and wanted to know if the church would like them."

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