The Brief
The Ned Hotel, which opened in 2017, is situated in the heart of the City in the former Midland Bank headquarters — a Grade I listed building originally designed in the 1920s by Sir Edwin Lutyens, from whose nickname “Ned” the hotel takes its name. The Ned houses Ned’s Club, a private members’ space, gym and rooftop, alongside a public spa, twelve restaurants and bars, and 250 hotel bedrooms.
The uniform project involved providing uniforms for over five hundred staff, and Fashionizer’s brief for The Ned Hotel was to evoke the glamour of the building’s refurbished art deco splendour, while signifying the hotel’s identity as a modern, stylish, urban destination. Keeping the uniform concept operationally simple was another aspect of this brief.
Fashionizer’s Uniform Solution
The classic uniforms include black dresses with white aprons for the waiting staff across the restaurant floor, incorporating a subtle flash of green in the front pleat which echoes the stunning dark green verdite columns of the building. In the Bar and Lutyens Grill, staff are dressed in classic cream bar jackets and waistcoats, adding a note of timeless hospitality elegance befitting the building’s grand interior. Front of house staff wear city grey and pinstripe suits that speak directly to the hotel’s location in the heart of the Square Mile: precision-cut, understated and unmistakably English in their tailoring. Those in the more informal rooftop bar are dressed in one of the more innovative elements of the project: cardigans with a contemporary pattern, which at the time were commented on by the Evening Standard as “the best-dressed waiters in town.”
The Outcome
Almost a decade on from the design of the original concept, minor tweaks have been made to the uniforms in 2024 to ensure they look up to date, but the simplicity of the original concept has meant that the designs have stood the test of time. The durability of our garments has also meant that they have lasted well, and this has enabled the planning of budgets and the reordering process to be straightforward.
We have been delighted to expand our working relationship with some of the Ned’s other properties.
