Ibis hotels in Australia has announced ‘Style Our Threads’, a landmark fashion initiative aimed at creating a new, cutting edge designer look for its staff uniforms as part of the hotel group’s rebrand later this year.
Accor Hotel Group is creating a new identity for its Ibis Hotels with Formule 1 and All Seasons joining the Ibis portfolio under a new Ibis ‘megabrand’. The family of brands will be called Ibis, Ibis Styles and Ibis Budget. Ibis has made a global commitment to design innovation across all three brands, which is being developed in Europe and adapted locally in each of the world’s markets.
In an Australian hospitality first, Ibis will hand over the reins to young fashion students from the renowned Whitehouse Institute of Design to design uniforms for three new Ibis brands: Ibis Styles (formerly All Seasons), Ibis Budget (formerly Formule 1) and the current Ibis hotels.
One of Australia’s most iconic fashion designers, Charlie Brown, who has worked with a number of high profile supermodels including; Linda Evangelista, Helena Christiansen, Sophie Dahl, Jade Jagger and Lily Cole, is supporting the campaign and will lead judging to choose the overall winner.
Brown will also provide students with hints and tips throughout the project, giving them insights from her fashion career,which spans more than 30 years.
The top 15 student designs submitted will be chosen by Charlie Brown and uploaded to the Ibis Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ibisaustralia). Brown
will select designs based on creativity, ability to convey each hotel brand’s image while also allowing staff to easily and comfortably carry out their daily tasks.
Ibis Australia’s Facebook community will then have the opportunity to vote for their favourite designs throughout July, with the three most popular uniforms moving to the next stage of the competition. There will be great prizes on offer for Facebook voters including Charlie Brown outfits and accommodation at Ibis hotels.
The three socially voted finalists will have a sample of their uniform professionally produced, working with Charlie Brown to create a first cut to be showcased at a fashion show at the Whitehouse Institute of Design during Spring where the overall Style Our Threads winner will be announced.
The ultimate winner will win one month in Italy studying at Academia Italiana Florence Fashion School including flights and accommodation. The winner, along with the runners-up will also all receive a three-month mentorship with Brown.
The Ibis family of brands represents the values of simplicity, modernity and wellbeing with each brand retaining its own individuality. Ibis represents the ultimate in comfort and the highest levels of service, Ibis Styles is a trendy brand marked with an individual stylish design while Ibis Budget is a clever and casual brand, providing essential comfort at the right price.
Style Our Threads illustrates Ibis’ commitment to its staff, recognising their key roles throughout customers’ experiences. Ibis recognise the value of its people in representing their respective hotel brands with the aim of making staff feel proud to work at their hotels while making them easily identifiable to customers through the uniform they wear each day.
The new student designed uniforms will be rolled out across Ibis hotels in Australia from next year giving the three winning designers and all hotel guests, a permanent reminder of their work.