Another Industry Gets a Fashion Makeover

DVF-designed hospital gowns / Cleveland Clinic
DVF-designed hospital gowns / Cleveland Clinic

Designer-service industry collaborations are not new. In the
early 1960's Emilio Pucci outfitted the flight attendants of Braniff
Airlines in his colorful wares to make the customers feel like they
were getting a unique and pleasant flight experience. In 1980,
Oscar de la Renta reworked the traditional Boy Scouts uniform
to make his mark off the runway, though I can't imagine the boys
noticed the difference.

This week, the Cleveland Clinic unveiled its new full-coverage,
reversible printed Diane von Furstenberg-designed hospital
gowns, which feature a repeating pattern of the Clinic's diamond
logo. And this is not the first time she's collaborated with a
service industry -- the waitresses at Teddy's at the Roosevelt
Hotel in L.A. all wore her signature wrap dresses before Nanette
Lepore was hired this summer for a redesign.

Nanette Lepore's sketch for new Thompson Hotel properties uniforms.
Nanette Lepore's sketch for new Thompson Hotel properties uniforms.



Other past hotel/designer
match-ups include Michael
Kors' classic American
threads for the
W Hotel chain, Zac Posen's
sexy clothes for the "Borgata
babes" at the Las Vegas
casino and hotel, Narciso Rodriguez's stark minimalist uniforms at New York City's Gramercy Park Hotel and Vivienne Tam's intricate pieces for the staff at New York City's Mandarin Oriental.

The Big Apple also plays host to a tiny vegan bakery whose employees were first clothed by local designer Built by Wendy, and who now rock uniforms from Earnest Sewn. Servers at Delicatessen, another downtown joint, are ultra-fashionable in Charlotte Ronson. On a larger scale, 67,000 McDonald's workers in the UK were treated to stylish new clothes when Bruce Oldfield -- whose fans include Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bianca Jagger and the late Princess Diana --
took on the project in 2008.

Zac Posen & the
Zac Posen & the

Julian MacDonald, a fellow Englishman, designs
posh uniforms for British Airways. Flight
attendants for Air France are chic in Christian
Lacroix, while the men and women who serve us
with a smile on Delta flights are swathed in
Richard Tyler. CFDA President Stan Herman
currently designs the uniforms for Jet Blue and
has since 2000, and he also keeps FedEx
employees looking sharp.

In sports, we've got Vera Wang, who momentarily
switched gears from creating bridal masterpieces
to outfitting the 2003 Philadelphia Eagles
cheerleaders, and Marc Ecko, who makes sure the New York Jets get roughed up in style.

Across the board it seems there isn't an industry that hasn't tried a little fashionable revamping. And why shouldn't they? Everyone should have the opportunity to look stylish and feel confident, whether or not they can choose their own clothing each day. Diane von Furstenberg tweeted, "We are very proud of our hospital gowns for the Cleveland Clinic... we worked hard at it and we hope it will make patients happier!" As someone who used to dress up for college exams because of the instant attitude boost it gave me, I'm pretty sure it will.





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