These Surprisingly Stylish Servers’ Uniforms Aren’t for Sale, But People Keep Trying to Buy Them

Truman admits they have a sort of commune vibe, especially since his first inspiration was an English gardening smock. However, he ultimately settled on these, designed by Paul Marlow, a former designer with Marc Jacobs and a friend of Truman’s, with the hopes of replicating vintage Japanese artist smocks. They are are loose and roomy in the front with a crisscrossed back that opens up toward the bottom. The result is a dining room, where as far as the eye can see, it’s a sea of navy, a cohesive team.

The team wanted to avoid the typical white, starched business shirts, suits, and butcher’s aprons they usually see on servers: “The problem with restaurant uniforms is that servers were men for so long, that now we’re essentially dressing everyone, even the women, like men,” Truman says. He worked with Marlow on a number of different prototypes until they settled on the retro navy blue and white smocks. The fabric is Ikat—a dyed, patterned, and woven fabric—made in India. The thin, soft fabric gathers above the elbow and flows as the servers carry dishes across the room. The server uniforms at Nix are designed so that the wait staff appears to move in harmony—even though they can wear whatever jeans and T-shirts they bring from home underneath the smock.

The two hostesses get their own uniforms, a set of vintage dresses Truman purchased on eBay using the search terms: “60s mod dress;” “70s hippie dress;” and “70s prairie dress,” although that last one pulled up dresses that were a little too costumey, like a flower child teleported from Woodstock to a Union Square location of Free People in 2016. The hostesses have multiple options. But the sommelier, Andrea Morris, has the best deal. Marlow designed a different dress for each night of the week for her. Some of her dresses veer Moroccan, and others feel more Indian- or Czech-inspired. They’re above-the-knee, similar to shifts, in fiery red and yellows, and they wouldn’t be out of place in a French farmers’ market in June or in Williamsburg’s McCarren park. The men on staff wear navy blue with white polka-dot button-downs; everyone matches.