Why Bruce is couture's working class hero

Everybody loves a woman in uniform - thanks to catwalk king Bruce Oldfield's Cadenza collection, which has transformed the world of workwear.

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to own an outfit by couturier Bruce Oldfield? Under normal circumstances this would involve being either: a) very rich; b) very famous; or c) very beautiful (models get given things, it's a well known fact). All three and you're laughing. For the rest of us though, there's now another option - we can always try applying for a job with BT or at the Millennium Dome. Confused? OK, I'll explain.

Alexandra Workwear, the revered name behind such such things as nurses' frocks, waiters' jackets with gold epaulettes and those ridiculously loud checked trousers that celebrity chefs have to wear, has given its flagging sartorial profile a bit of a fillip by engaging the services of a style guru.

Many were called up and grilled, but when Alexandra and Julian Budd met designer Bruce Oldfield, they knew that here was the right man for the job. The result is the Cadenza collection - subtly different from anything that's gone before, to those in the know, that is, like corporate wear managers of big businesses.

Philip Deighton, visitor services manager for the Millennium Experience, is responsible for The Look of 5,000 hosts, meeters, greeters and maintenance staff for the whole of the year 2000 - very high profile ... of international significance ... in the public eye ... design content very important. He's not prepared to say anything for certain, but, yes, the fact that Bruce Oldfieid is batting for Alexandra puts them in a very strong position.

"Workwear has been very staid for decades," says another invited guest at the Cadenza unveiling: John Bentley, BT's corporate wear manager. "A suit that has to be worn constantly for two years - that's 400 wears - tends to be stiff. But fabric technology now means that you can have something that staff, who are in an ambassadorial role, are proud to wear. These new suits looked professional, contemporary and comfortable."

Which must be music to the ears of Julian Budd, who was convinced that the company had to inject more design into its ranges, given the pickier nature of customers these days. Bruce has turned out to be a bit of a find. "We talked to many, but his objectives were parallel to ours, and we got on with him," Mr Budd says simply.

The fortunate thing was that they managed to catch Bruce Oldfield at a time when he was "looking for new challenges". Dressing ladies who lunch, party and have their hair done is, for this couturier, always amusing and different. "I do it well, but we get stuck in a rut, and, as a designer, I needed another challenge," he says frankly.

Well, as challenges go, he picked a biggie. Just eight weeks to overhaul an outfit from each of Alexandra's four main clothing sectors: industrial, medical, hotel and career - career being shorthand for any area that requires its staff to look businesslike. A hard enough task for any designer but pretty tough for a man whose hands are, surely, rarely sullied by anything less fine than silk georgette or a pure wool crepe. How did he cope with all that easycare polyester? "It's a partnership," explains Mr Budd. "We guide Bruce through the fit-for-purpose fabrics." And Bruce reminds me: "I did work as a consultant for Marks & Spencer for two years." Ah, yes.

But still quite a change, not least of all in view of financial restraints. How did he set about working with those? "I had to think of my de luxe feelings over here [right arm outstretched] as opposed to what's needed and how much people are prepared to pay for it over here [left arm outstretched] and then meet somewhere in the middle," he explains. "But what I wanted to achieve was more generosity in proportion, garments that had more of a quality feel, things that fit properly and feel as though someone has thought about them."

The usual thing at this point is for the designer (and Bruce follows the likes of Jeff Banks and Paul Costelloe down the workwear path) to insist that he spend (or will spend) hours in meetings with the staff destined to wear his clothes, taking on board their suggestions in order to arrive at something they're all happy to wear. However, Mr Oldfield is a little controversial on the subject.

"You can't design by committee, you need to know what the function of the garment will be, but then it's up to me," he says. "I'll probably get into trouble for saying that."

So what was wrong with Alexandra's existing tailoring range, for example, and what's he done about it? "I completely took the suits apart, they were very strangely proportioned, the shoulders all wrong," he says. "I lengthened the jacket, made the rise higher and added a chalk stripe which was something that they hadn't had before.

"I wanted to end up with something that was much more contemporary, something that men and women would be happy to wear in the evening as well as all day at work. It was the same with the workwear - I was interested in that cross-over into leisurewear."

Interestingly, among the Cadenza collection, it's actually the boilersuit that Bruce is most pleased with - the potential of workwear as leisurewear being what it is. So he'll be thrilled to learn that it went down a treat with the audience. The model wearing it being particularly gorgeous, notwithstanding. But why? It looked like any other boilersuit to my, obviously untrained, eye. "Didn't you hear the gasps?" says Mr Bentley. "Such flair, such imagination, such daring. Using a stripe rather than a plain was really looking outside the box." Alexander McQueen, eat your heart out.