In London, everyone is talking about the new Peninsula hotel, perched prominently at Hyde Park Corner, but not for the reasons one might expect. Sure, the entire city spent six years watching it being built from the ground up. And, yes, there’s a top-rated restaurant (the two-Michelin-starred Brooklands by Claude Bosi), cosseting guest rooms, and a sumptuous wellness center with more wood paneling than a small forest.
The real buzz concerns the clothes—specifically, the uniforms worn by its maître d’s, receptionists, and housekeepers. They were masterminded by Jenny Packham, known in these parts for outfitting the most stylish women in Sloane Square and revered around the world for the many evening gowns she has created for the Princess of Wales.
The British designer, whose relationship with the hotel group began when she opened boutiques at its locations in Beijing and Shanghai, took this project just as seriously as she would a state dinner. “It’s such a big building—lots of teams—and there are such different environments,” she explains. She designed the uniforms during the pandemic, long before the hotel opened, in September 2023, and she applied the same amount of rigor and creativity to designing dresses for housekeepers as she does for a $5,000 gown for a royal.
Silk charmeuse, lightweight wool, velvet, and gold brocade—these are not standard-issue fabrics, especially in the margin-conscious world of hospitality, but the Peninsula London is not a Best Western. Packham had 500 employees to dress, in many different departments, and, ultimately, she and her team created around 60 different pieces.
Each one of them gets some attention. In the ground-floor restaurant, the Lobby, where custom de Gournay wallpaper depicts scenes from neighboring Hyde Park, the waitress delivering a coconut-yogurt parfait (highly recommended) is awash in gold brocade. It’s fair to say that her 60s-style shift is more expertly tailored than some of the items worn by hotel guests.
Silk charmeuse, lightweight wool, velvet, and gold brocade.
At Brooklands by Claude Bosi, the aviation-themed restaurant on the rooftop, Packham went for what she calls a “flight look,” inspired by Julie Christie and James Bond films of the Roger Moore era. Elegant shirtdresses in Air Force blue are finished with a geometric-print scarf tied jauntily around the neck. They’ve become a bit of a thing; some guests have tried to buy them. “They love our belts, too, with a little Concorde logo,” says head receptionist Hazel Wong.
Despite all the style, the Peninsula’s uniforms are deceptively durable. Packham and her team agonized over potential mishaps. Restaurant employees needed fabrics that withstood stains. The housekeeping team required looser-fit silhouettes that allowed them to move in all directions and extend their arms overhead. The maintenance team got puffer coats. Doormen are swathed in layers of outerwear to ward off London’s persistent chill.
But the results are some of the smartest-looking staff uniforms in town—and in London, the birthplace of tailoring and the crucible of formal hospitality, that’s high praise. “I’m always creating pieces that have a bit of a dramatic effect,” says Packham. “It’s hard to please everyone, but, hopefully, they’re happy with them.”
Ashley Baker is a Deputy Editor at AIR MAIL and a co-host of the Morning Meeting podcast
