When the utterly wonderful Savile Rose Luxury Events team asked us to help create branded uniforms and other accessories for Nespresso's takeover of Belmond's British Pullman train, of course we said yes.
The uniform had to look authentic to fit the British Pullman interior. This restored, vintage-1920s train has a glamorous history, with royalty, film stars and other VIPs as frequent travellers. The train itself has been featured in film and television due to its film-star good looks, including antique-style marquetry, vintage lighting and heritage upholstery.
We looked to the train's historical conductor's uniform for inspiration and bought nehru-style navy blue suits from a discount suit supplier. And we worked with Savile Rose to determine the right look for the jacket, arriving at this rough plan:
We sourced plaited gold epaulets and accessibly priced gold buttons for the suit front and cuffs from an Etsy seller. The last detail was gold piping for the collar, which we sourced from the wonderful New Trimmings haberdashery shop in Soho.
Our talented team got to work sewing all the trimmings on the jacket, and embroidering the Nespresso logo on the front left chest in metallic gold embroidery thread to match all the other details. The result was fantastic, and even Belmond might not have noticed that it wasn't their own uniform.
One last detail was the conductor's hat. A cost-effective replica of an official conductor's hat was sourced, and we changed out its cheap chrome button pins for gold-tone ones to match the jacket trim. We created a Nespresso patch to attach to the front of the hat, as it wasn't possible to embroider directly on to the area above the brim, the way we would we a baseball-style cap.
We had the team try them on to see how they looked... what do you think?
We are delighted to work with event planners and PR firms on any special requests for branded or personalised merchandise to suit an event. Our London-based embroidery and tailoring team can work their magic on goods we stock, goods you supply, or anything bespoke that needs to be sourced or made up. Please get in touch with us on bespoke@initiallylondon.com to discuss your next project.
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