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With elasticated or drawstring waistbands, reinforced hems and silhouettes designed to suit many body types, modern kitchenwear remains an easy sell. “We’re now launching a ‘best hits’ of our workwear collection – shirts, a jacket and trousers – to build on B2C demand,” he says.
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In lockdown, his wife was wearing her jumpsuit on loop: he realised he was onto something. “Sales from ordinary clients completely froze, but products outside our apron offering started selling from our website,” says Worktones founder Huw Bennett of his playful Mortadella caps and loose utilitarian all-in-ones.
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As restaurants adapted by offering street-food takeaways, their outfitters set their sights on those waiting in line. This flourishing customer base was largely ushered in by the pandemic, when chefs were out of work, and uniform brands had no B2B business to cater to. In Sydney, Worktones has found broader interest in the boxy jumpsuit it originally designed for the staff of a hotel in the Surry Hills district so much so that it’s now opened a new street-facing studio that doubles as a shop. Older Studio, the brand that has outfitted staff at Chateau Marmont, Tate Modern and Copenhagen restaurant Barr (a sister to Noma) in its button-down shirts, has seen an uptick in personal orders since offices have reopened, while London-based Ventura/Foreman’s unlined, baggy workers’ suits have whet the appetite of those heading to more casual weddings. Owner of the latter, Ian Peggs says the trousers are “relaxed and versatile, with an internal drawstring waist that borrows from sportswear”. And he’s not the only one. Service Works, founded by Tom Chudley in 2020, launched with the aim of creating cool clothes for the kitchen that had a fashionable but performative fit and an easy price point it’s now sold by retailers including Hip, Blacksmith Store and Peggs & Son. Service Works Checkerboard Classic Chef Pants, £59, modelled by Skinny Macho for Bone Soda records © Sirui Maĭescribing the silhouette as “the perfect length to sit properly over a chunky-tongued New Balance 991” – apparently an elusive trait in ordinary menswear – Millen-Cramer has found his own sartorial flavour in modern chef’s uniforms.