THE OTHER HOUSE X JAMES LAKELAND: DRESSING THE MYTHOLOGY OF MODERN LONDON HOSPITALITY
Some collaborations arrive feeling less like a marketing alignment and more like a shift in a creative ecosystem. The partnership between The Other House, London’s trailblazing Residents Club concept and British designer James Lakeland is precisely that. It marks a moment when hospitality design, British fashion and cultural storytelling overlap in a way that feels both inevitable and deeply contemporary.
As The Other House expands across London, first in South Kensington, then Covent Garden in 2026 and Belgravia beyond, its new uniform collection becomes a visual manifesto. These pieces aren’t simply garments; they are the next chapter in the brand’s maximalist, design-driven identity, a blend of Italian craftsmanship, British eccentricity and the emotional intelligence of modern hospitality.
Lakeland, who has spent decades refining a vocabulary of elegance built on couture-level Italian production and British clarity, steps into the world of hotel uniforms with surprising ease. Under his direction, the Owl & Monkey motif, the playful emblem woven throughout The Other House’s interiors, morphs into teal and flame blazers that read like artefacts from a storybook London. Black velvet jackets conceal illustrated linings: a quiet luxury, a secret flourish, a reminder that design need not shout to be deeply felt.
For warmer seasons, the silhouette dissolves into kimono-style wrap shirts, garments that echo the layered interiors and narrative-driven spaces The Other House is known for. At The Club, the private members space within the property, black, ivory and gold uniforms shimmer with peacock feather detailing. It’s the kind of visual opulence London once reserved for theatre curtains and fashion runways.
These are uniforms that refuse anonymity. They elevate the staff into custodians of the brand’s mythology, positioning them not behind the experience but within it. Satin blouses, sculptural camisoles, flared trousers and velvet waistcoats build a modular wardrobe rather than a fixed set of rules, a sartorial expression of belonging rather than hierarchy.
Naomi Heaton, Founder and CEO of The Other House, describes wanting her team to feel “as beautifully dressed as their most stylish residents.” This goes further: it reframes the emotional architecture of hospitality. Lakeland’s designs honour the presence, individuality and quiet theatre of the people who animate a space
The collaboration also offers a glimpse into London’s evolving travel landscape, more design-led, more narrative-driven, more aligned with the creative class who treat hotels as cultural touchpoints rather than stopovers. As the city prepares for The Other House’s expansion, these uniforms feel like a prologue. They are bold, layered and deeply alive.
In Lakeland’s hands, uniform becomes costume, costume becomes identity, and identity becomes the story The Other House has been telling all along.
A story of London,decadent, curious, modern, dressed for wherever it’s going next.
