There are elegant, streamlined clothes that began life on the sketchpad of designer Michael Kors. Then there are short, gymslip-style black jersey dresses by Gwen Stefani, the frontwoman of the punk-ska band No Doubt and creator of the clothing line L.A.M.B. So far, so fashion. But neither Kors' nor Stefani's designs are on the catwalk or in a shoot; rather, they are uniforms for staff of the trendy W Hotels chain. This summer, what you see while lounging around a resort could be as chic as anything you see in a store.
“I wanted to design a super-cute dress that I would be excited to have in my own closet, and approached it in the same way I think about my clothing for a tour,” Stefani said of her hotel uniform, which debuted early this year. “We've designed an outfit for these women to wear while on their own stage every night.”
Designing uniforms for restaurant employees and airline crews has long been a fashion sideline. Bruce Oldfield did it for McDonald's staff last year; 40 years ago Emilio Pucci created a uniform for Braniff International Airways, as Julien Macdonald did, more recently, for British Airways.