For more than a decade, Worktones has been dressing the people out front. Now the kitchen is getting the same attention.
The Australian hospitality workwear studio has released its first dedicated chefwear range, adding a chef jacket, shirt and pants to a collection previously best known for aprons, shirts and uniforms designed around the wider identity of a venue.
It was not a quick exercise. The Hercules chef jacket went through 11 design iterations before Worktones landed on the final version, with the range tested by working chefs along the way.
The result sits somewhere between traditional kitchen whites and the increasingly casual uniform of a T shirt and apron. Natural fabrics and relaxed proportions keep things practical, while details including larger armholes, buttoned cuffs and side splits are there because people in kitchens actually need to move.
There is a broader hospitality idea behind it too. Open kitchens have made the line between front and back of house increasingly visible. If the dining room, tableware, menu and service uniforms are all considered as part of the same identity, it makes sense that the kitchen should belong to that story as well.
Worktones has spent years arguing that workwear can be functional without becoming anonymous. Chefwear feels like the logical next room to walk into.