Service Works: Chefwear With A Real Kitchen Behind It

Plenty of brands borrow from the kitchen. Service Works was started by someone who actually worked in one, and it shows in clothes built for a double shift rather than a photo shoot.

Plenty of brands borrow from the kitchen. Chef pants, chore shirts and aprons have been menswear shorthand for years, usually worn by people who have never done a double shift. Service Works is different for a simple reason: the person behind it actually came out of a kitchen. Tom Chudley grew up around his family's hospitality business and worked in restaurant kitchens before moving into clothing, first behind the scenes at labels like Maharishi and Billionaire Boys Club, then running his own shop, Blacksmith Store, in Brockley, south-east London, from 2016.

A Trip To Japan, And A Gap In The Market

The idea came on a buying trip to Japan in 2019. Chudley kept seeing chef-inspired trousers on menswear shop floors, and kept noticing the same thing: they looked the part, but the link to hospitality was purely visual. Nothing about them suggested they had been designed by anyone who knew what eight hours on the pass actually asks of a pair of pants. He wanted to close that gap, to make clothes where the connection between food and clothing was practical rather than decorative.

Started In Lockdown

The first small run of Chef's Trousers went up on Blacksmith Store in 2020, in the middle of lockdown, and sold out quickly. That was the start of Service Works. Chudley still handles much of the brand himself, from design and production to photography, with a small team around him running operations and the warehouse.

Designed From The Kitchen Out

The design logic runs in one direction: start with what works in a kitchen, then let it travel. That means 100% cotton rather than polyester, because it breathes and sits better against skin through a long, hot day. It means elasticated waists on the chef pants and shorts, because a working waistband has to move with you. And it means keeping designs simple, working with long-term suppliers and producing in steady volumes, rather than chasing a new idea every season.

The result is a range that is genuinely affordable for what it is, and credible enough in food circles to have collaborated with St. JOHN, the London restaurant that did more than most to make nose-to-tail cooking a household phrase. But you don't need to work a pass to get the point. Clothes built for a kitchen tend to be very good at ordinary life too.

The Pieces Worth Knowing

The Classic Chef Pant is where it all started: a relaxed fit with an elasticated waist, cut in hard-wearing cotton. The Chef Short is the same idea cut for summer, which makes it one of the most useful things you can own in an Australian December. And the Chore Shirt, in canvas or the Classic cotton, is the layer that pulls it together, a proper workwear overshirt that doubles as a light jacket on cooler evenings.

Why It's On Our Shelves

We stock Service Works for the same reason we stock most things: it is honest about what it is. No invented heritage, no borrowed costume. Just a small London label making the same reliable pieces at a steady pace, built by someone who knows exactly what a working day in a kitchen demands, and priced so you can actually wear them hard.