Staff uniforms at the Mandarin Oriental MayfairMel Yates
Uniform envy
When did we start envying the wardrobes of the hotel staff? The cable-knit polo necks of the doormen at The Bloomsbury, say, or the ruched peacock-blue dresses of the staff at Edinburgh’s 100 Princes Street? Both are the creations of Nicholas Oakwell, the couture designer whose No Uniform brand is redefining the hotel staff dress code, creating capsule collections for the likes of Raffles Doha and the new Mandarin Oriental Mayfair. He’s not the only in-demand designer turning their attention to hospitality either, from menswear wunderkind Charlie Casely-Hayford, with his sharp suits for The Twenty Two, to Princess of Wales favourite Jenny Packham, who created mix-and-match staff wardrobes at The Peninsula London. nouniform.com
Jasson Rodriguez
Bucharest, Romania, as pictured in Brutalist PlantsBOGDAN ANGHEL/@BOGDANANGHEL
Bio-brutalism
The reappraisal of brutalism is hardly new, but the current trend is for places where concrete meets lush greenery, as celebrated in new books such as The House of Green (Gestalten) and Brutalist Plants (Hoxton Mini Press), the latter by Olivia Broome, creator of an Instagram handle with the same name. Travellers are increasingly spoilt for biophilic and tropical brutalism, especially in concrete hotspots such as Oaxaca’s Puerto Escondido. The town is home to tropical-brutalist masterpieces, including Casa To and Hotel Terrestre, by the Mexico-based architects Ludwig Godefroy and Alberto Kalach, respectively, and is where the cool Casa Yuma resort opened earlier this year, all white concrete, palm trees and crisp-edged surf vibes. @brutalistplants; casayuma.net
Dax and Joyce RollPhilippe Vogelenzang
Welcome desk at The Brecon hotelMichael Sinclair
Next for: Hotel design
Dax and Joyce Roll, Nicemakers
After bonding over a shared love of vintage finds, Amsterdam-based design duo Dax and Joyce Roll formed the Nicemakers studio in 2011. Since then, they’ve worked on hotels, restaurants and private homes worldwide, including two Hoxton hotels in their home city, where they amplified the buildings’ sense of place, adding bold prints, natural materials and collector’s pieces. Their most recent hotel, The Brecon in Switzerland, opened in July.
“The trend is for hotels to look as little like a hotel as possible. To feel more residential and warm but not ‘home away from home’. We’re increasingly stripping away minibars and kettles and adding in unique items, so no room feels the same. Wardrobes are shrinking or disappearing – short-stay guests don’t tend to unpack. And lighting is getting more decorative, used purely for the atmosphere. Public spaces are becoming more fluid: the reception desk pushed to one side; lobbies morphing into co-working areas or places to eat, with communal tables and games areas.” nicemakers.com
Accessible style
Forget ugly steel rails – UK-based adaptive design specialist Motionspot is making the accessible rooms the smartest in the hotel, from the 18 cool metro-tiled bathrooms at The Londoner to Manchester’s NYC-inspired Hotel Brooklyn, with its subtle brass emergency call buttons and ceiling track hoists hidden in light fixtures. Safaris are also joining in, led by Ximuwu Lodge in South Africa’s Greater Kruger, with pool lifts and accessible photo hides just part of what makes it the first fully wheelchair-friendly safari in the country. motionspot.co.uk; ximuwu.com
