Earlier this year, designer Timo Weiland was approached with an unusual task: to create a line of employee uniforms for the Crowne Plaza hotel group. Weiland’s brand is better known for its modern-prep designs, “urban androgyny,” and subtle retro looks, than the efficient practicality usually reserved for the hotel lobby. Yet to Weiland, taking on the project was a no-brainer.
“This project was a dream project for us,” Weiland tells Condé Nast Traveler at Soho’s Cadillac House—home of the label’s first retail store—on the eve of presenting the line’s sketches at New York Fashion Week. “We are the customer. We are the global business traveler. So, in terms of the spectrum of live, work, relax, there is no division of living and working for us.” In other words, Weiland got to work on creating the look he would hope to see when checking in after a long haul flight, or working on his laptop between meetings or shows.
