When Dubai sees the opening of its first Fashion TV hotel, expected by the end of next year and complete with the world's largest LED screen broadcasting the channel around the clock, one thing had better be à la mode: the staff uniforms.
After all, Fashion TV will be up against the likes of the new Burj Khalifa Armani hotel, not to mention plans afoot for hotels in Dubai from Elie Saab and Karl Lagerfeld, the latter on Isla Moda, with uniforms designed by Victoria Beckham.
They will be joining the ranks of designers who have either opened hotels in recent years - Versace, Christian Lacroix and Missoni among them - or been hired to make the concierge more catwalk. If fashion insight has long been tapped for the public face of bars and airlines, hotels have come late to the idea but are making up for lost time, with Michael Kors, Yohji Yamamoto, Cynthia Rowley and even Gwen Stefani having signed to design in recent years, as well as increasingly specialist, style-literate corporate uniform design companies.
"So many hotels are opening now that the uniform is becoming vital to giving each an identity, which means proprietors are ready to accept more creativity to get something distinctive," says Feizel Virani, the designer for the Dubai-based Dream Uniforms.
The company is behind the style at The Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh, as well as The Palm's Jumeirah Zabeel Saray hotel, with uniforms featuring a new blend of grey flannel with black-and-gold embroidered jackets.
"Putting together staff uniforms now is like putting together a complete fashion collection for each hotel," he explains. "In fact, it's not about designing uniforms anymore but a kind of hospitality couture that's as five-star as the property."
Certainly, according to Virani, the Middle East has become the hotel uniform design hot spot, not simply because of the world-leading rate of new openings - the first Jumeirah hotel in Abu Dhabi, at the Etihad Towers, opens today - but because of the availability both of specialist designers to create their staff style (with more western designers typically tied up in global brands or own-label projects) and, more crucially, of more economical fabrics and manufacture. Not that price is limited anymore: Dh1,800 for a jacket for key staff is now not uncommon for a uniform that has a lifespan - in terms of fashionability - as short as 18 months, compared with perhaps the three to five years that was the industry standard for most of the past decade.
Uniforms are now typically designed and delivered within just four months of contracts being signed.
"That step up in interest is a real change," says Stuart Chase, the general manager of the new Mövenpick Ambassador Hotel Accra in Ghana. "Too many hotels in the past have overlooked the uniform, but as hotels themselves have moved up to become more designer products, the uniform has had to follow. Staff not only look good, which is more important to the hotel brand now, they feel it too - they're more motivated and that's good for service."
That perhaps explains why the Mövenpick's uniform, designed by the Beirut and Dubai-based uniform company Emile Rassam, went through 19 drafts before the ideal look was selected. Small wonder, according to Marion Steinger, the senior vice president of the New York-based Top Hat Imagewear, that proprietors are giving staff more and more say in the design of the uniform they will wear, "and inevitably this means staff are pushing for the kind of clothes that chime with the kind of fashions they choose to wear outside of work".
Michel Noblet, the chief executive of Hospitality Management Holdings, the owners of Coral Hotels & Resorts, went one further: he hosted a fashion show for staff and clientele, followed by feedback sessions and wear trials, before launching the latest series of uniforms, designed by François Desroches of Dubai's Marketing Pro-Junction. "But then the uniform is increasingly regarded as a feature of the hotel," says Noblet. "The uniform is an attitude. Its style expresses what the hotel is about. It instils pride."
But the rising demands of hotels to look current is not without its complications, ones that non-specialists can overlook. Some are practical. Fashion fabrics will not stand up to the wear and tear, or the frequent laundering required for their effective lifespan or daily use - with even local conditions, such as the weather extremes and hard water throughout the UAE, needing to be taken into account.
"Comfort, too, cannot be overlooked," says Rana El Deek, the director of housekeeping at the Media Rotana Dubai, which is working on updating its businesslike uniform for next year. "Increasingly, hotel staff comprise younger people, so they want a certain look. But they also want something they can wear and work in every day."
Steinger, whose latest projects have included the new Ian Schrager Hotel in Chicago and the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, explains: "We have clients going into fashion stores now and finding pieces they want us to copy - they want a non-uniform uniform because that makes their hotel more distinctive.
"But style has to function in a hotel setting. That means knowing how to make an economical, hard-wearing fabric like polyester look good, or that black may look chic but in certain climates is likely to fade in the sun, or simply that some styles may look good on a model but won't work as they must with all skin colours and body shapes."
And while functionality is essential, fashionability is becoming even more of a minefield. Creating a look that has to work for usually at least 500 people but perhaps the 15,000 staff of a major hotel chain is hard enough. Working with seasonal trends, however, is a matter of delicacy. "Not least," says Virani, "because staff can't look too good. Guests don't want to be outshone. And, as much as a great uniform can add to the hotel's appeal, they do want to be able to tell who is staff and who isn't."
According to Vicky Hales, Emile Rassam's commercial director and designer: "It's about being fashionable but not too fashionable."
For example, the uniform it has designed for the Hyatt Capital Gate Abu Dhabi hotel, set to open by the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre this month, will be formal but contemporary tailoring in charcoal - with a shorter but not super-short jacket that current fashion dictates, with a single-button fastening rather than the more common two or three, a narrow lapel and flat-fronted trousers.
"It's about fashionable detail rather than big statements," says Hales. "What would have passed for exceptional uniform design four years ago would now get an 'is that it?' reaction from clients. You can't go with too much fashion - if only because most hotels open six months or more after the plans say they will. But it has to be there." Indeed, hotels are set to chase style even harder over coming years as competition intensifies. The long-term trend for uniforms to reflect the local culture - for hotel uniforms throughout the UAE to have an Arabic or oriental twist, for example - is predicted to fade out, both as fashions become more globalised but also because it has become unacceptably clichéd to fashion-literate travellers.
"The industry is having to keep pace with guests' expectations and experience of fashion, and that 'ethnic' style, all muted shades of brown and Mandarin collars, just looks dated," reckons David Sprakes, the design manager for the uniform designers A Ronai LLC, which counts Emirates and Fly Dubai airlines and many Rotana hotels throughout the UAE among its clients, and which has noticed a strong shift away from off-the-shelf to bespoke uniforms. "The demand for difference between hotels in the Middle East is only going to grow, and it's already way ahead in uniform design compared with Europe and especially the US, where in some cases it's awful," he adds.
"The fact is that the more design-led hotels become, as they are, the edgier and the more designer the uniforms are going to get."
IF YOU GO
The flights
FlyDubai flies direct from Dubai to Skopje in five hours from Dh1,314 return including taxes. Hourly buses from Skopje to Ohrid take three hours.
The tours
English-speaking guided tours of Ohrid town and the surrounding area are organised by Cultura 365; these cost €90 (Dh386) for a one-day trip including driver and guide and €100 a day (Dh429) for two people.
The hotels
Villa St Sofija in the old town of Ohrid, twin room from $54 (Dh198) a night.
St Naum Monastery, on the lake 30km south of Ohrid town, has updated its pilgrims' quarters into a modern 3-star hotel, with rooms overlooking the monastery courtyard and lake. Double room from $60 (Dh 220) a night.
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
Tips for entertaining with ease
· Set the table the night before. It’s a small job but it will make you feel more organised once done.
· As the host, your mood sets the tone. If people arrive to find you red-faced and harried, they’re not going to relax until you do. Take a deep breath and try to exude calm energy.
· Guests tend to turn up thirsty. Fill a big jug with iced water and lemon or lime slices and encourage people to help themselves.
· Have some background music on to help create a bit of ambience and fill any initial lulls in conversations.
· The meal certainly doesn’t need to be ready the moment your guests step through the door, but if there’s a nibble or two that can be passed around it will ward off hunger pangs and buy you a bit more time in the kitchen.
· You absolutely don’t have to make every element of the brunch from scratch. Take inspiration from our ideas for ready-made extras and by all means pick up a store-bought dessert.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Company%20Profile
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Company profile
Name: Infinite8
Based: Dubai
Launch year: 2017
Number of employees: 90
Sector: Online gaming industry
Funding: $1.2m from a UAE angel investor
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
Company%20Profile
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Company%20profile
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The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 194hp at 5,600rpm
Torque: 275Nm from 2,000-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Price: from Dh155,000
On sale: now
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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