t the 209-room boutique Hotel Viking in Newport, Rhode Island, food servers are done with the standard light shirt, dark pants, black shoes, and an apron routine.

This spring, the waitstaff will go to a mustard-colored skylark shirt—a style designed with a large collar to be left open, cuffs to be rolled, and the hotel logo revealed after the roll.

“Everyone is making a concerted attempt to not have a ‘hotel’ look,” says John Trudeau, Hotel Viking’s food and beverage director.

In the design world, the alternative to the hotel look is known broadly as “retail” style and is being promoted increasingly among uniform suppliers and in food and beverage settings. The shift primarily drives the style of uniforms, although fabrics too are evolving.

It’s a tricky business, tweaking foodservice fabrics. By and large, the industry has always focused on garments that are indestructible rather than aesthetically thrilling. This approach has been necessary, given the heavy wear and tear of kitchen and server work.

“People bring us very high-style designer garments [as templates for uniforms], but this is a dress that is meant to be worn three times a year, and they want [their servers] to wear it five days a week,” says Marion Steinger, senior VP at Top Hat Imagewear in New York.

Without going to such couture extremes, fabrics are changing to accommodate a more retail look, according to Jana Stern, a fashion designer with Los Angeles-based uniform vendor NEWCHEF Fashion Inc. New materials can stand up to the test and still flatter the wearer.

“The fabric still may be a polyester blend, very uniform friendly. No rayon, silk, taffeta. New materials are typically anything that is a cotton or polyester blend, so the wearer can comfortably endure the stress of a fiveday work week in the same outfit,” says Stern. The difference is that these fabrics are now being manufactured in colors and patterns that might be worn outside the dining room. “There are such beautiful fabrics in polyester now, it is beyond belief.”

In addition, manufacturers have added features that make these cheerfully fashioned fabrics more wearable, for example, by adding three or four percent spandex to the mix. “It’s enough that it gives a little breathing room, with a more fitted look,” Stern says.

THE RETAIL LOOK
The new fabrics are not an end in themselves. In a sense, the fabric is the enabler, making it possible for food and beverage executives to pursue their new design vision, a look that moves away from the institutional and leans toward the retail.

“We are getting really creative, from the types of buttons to the different types of piping, all the kinds of details that really push the uniform to a different level,” says Kechia Ley, account supervisor with hospitality and restaurant consultancy Andrew Freeman & Co. in San Francisco.

Buttons are just the beginning. Food and beverage directors are looking for a change in the fundamental nature of the uniform. “I have heard tons of clients say, ‘I want something where, if I took off the logo or name tag, I could go out to dinner after work and people would think I was wearing clothes bought in a store.’ People want to feel like they are not in a stuffy uniform. They want to be in an outfit,” Stern says.

It’s no coincidence that Stern describes this shift from the server’s point of view. The move toward a retail look is as much about the staff as it is about the customer. Employee needs “were a driving force” in Hotel Viking’s overhaul, Trudeau says.

His dining room opens onto the patio in the summer, and servers work up a sweat scuttling in and out from air conditioning to sunshine. “Comfort of the servers was one of the main reasons for going away from the tie,” Trudeau says.

Underlying all this is a newfound appreciation of fashion, with top couture designers pitching in to help hotels realize a look that is more casual and yet still professional, still “uniform.”

Fashion designer Cynthia Rowley has created concierge and housekeeping uniforms for the Hotel Monaco in Denver. Michael Kors has designed outfits for W Hotel properties around the world, and Narciso Rodriguez has contributed T-shirt designs to Gramercy Park Hotel in New York City.

As food and beverage executives move toward a less institutional, more custom-tailored look, they free themselves to take an even bigger step. That is, they up the ante in terms of the image, character, and exclusivity of their dining settings.

“We want to pick a uniform that complements the colors of a room, to dress people in a uniform that matches and enhances the surroundings,” Trudeau says.

The new retail trend creates greater latitude and more options through which the physical appearance of staff can help round out an overall image. “If it’s an Italian restaurant, why offer sake? It’s the same with uniforms,” says Ley. “Done properly, uniforms can be a way to carry through on your theme.”

That’s what Trudeau had in mind as he put together the latest server uniforms. By moving away from the starched blues and blacks, the uniform becomes more particular to place, more an expression of the hotel’s own character and ambiance. “Now you feel like you are being taken care of by the Hotel Viking,” says Trudeau, “rather than just being taken care of by a breakfast place.”

Adam Stone is a frequent contributor to HOTEL F&B.