Maxine Thompson, Designer & Chef
POLKA PANTS
Edmonton, north london
Polka Pants made chef’s whites cool. After graduating from the French Culinary Institute in New York, Maxine Thompson found herself working at a restaurant in Tasmania. Cooking in hot, itchy, ill-fitting trousers ignited an idea: stylish, durable chef’s trousers tailored to women. Maxine, who also studied fashion design, started to make her own, which then evolved into Polka Pants. Reflecting the simple and functional style of 1940s Utility Scheme – high-waisted with a cropped ankle and gold zip – the inclusive trousers, which come in a mix of classic designs, from their signature polka dots and houndstooth, to leopard and cherry print collaborations, were quickly adopted by chefs including Gizzi Erskine and Olia Hercules.
“When I was about six years old, my mum started her own company making skydiving suits for women. At the time, women had to use men’s suits, which weren’t practical because they were baggy. I would unpick the seams of the suits or help Mum screen print – maybe that’s where the seed for this whole idea got planted.
I studied fashion design in Australia but was also working as a line cook, so I always balanced fashion and food. At the time, my sisters and I started living together again and we would always have people over for dinner. They started asking us for recipes, so we ended up doing a food blog. Then, when I was living in New York after graduating, we got a cookbook deal. To give the book a bit more street cred, I quit my job at Chanel and went back to school [to the French Culinary Institute in New York, now the International Culinary Center] to train as a chef.
I then moved to Tasmania just as kitchens were starting to be more open and chefs were slowly becoming more a part of the interactive dining experience; they weren’t hidden in the basement anymore. I always felt uncomfortable running food out to tables because I couldn’t find any trousers that really fit me, so I started making my own. The first ones I made aren’t that dissimilar to what Polka Pants are now, but they had a waistband with a button at the top and a zip at the side.
“I was influenced by the 1940s, that utilitarian look with a cropped leg”
Maxine Thopmson
I then moved to England and wondered if this was a thing or if it was me being a diva. I started speaking to female chefs and put some questionnaires together to send out to culinary schools to get the perspective of the younger generation of chefs coming through. I also took a job as a chef at a private bank. I was working with two other female chefs, so it was the perfect ground for testing. I’d make a sample and then we’d all wear them – it was a great place to get instant feedback and put different styles and fabrics to the test.
I was influenced by the 1940s, that utilitarian look with the cropped leg. I’ve always been more comfortable in high-waisted clothes in the kitchen – you can tuck in a T-shirt and won’t get burnt. Plus, when you bend over you won’t show your butt crack. When I worked in Tasmania, every time this chef saw a butt crack, he’d put a spoon down there.
I always wanted to be a textile designer; print has always played a huge part in my life. A lot of the time chefs wear really snazzy socks to express themselves because that’s all they could really do in kitchens, but we now have the ability to do this through printed pants. Our fabrics are made for us by a mill in Turkey, and then the trousers are made in our production studio in Edmonton, which is between IKEA and the Spurs’ stadium. Our office is right above, so it’s very close. It’s just me, which is hard, and we produce as we need to – about every two weeks.
“Kitchens these days are about gender equality, so we are making trousers for everybody”
Gizzi Erskine was one of the first to adopt the trousers, and she has always been such a huge support to the brand. Her favourite colour, like mine, is leopard print, so it just made sense to do a leopard print collaboration with her. I do love our signature polka dots trousers, but I probably wear the houndstooth design the most. I still get excited when I see chefs wearing them in restaurants, and friends always send pictures when they see anyone wearing them.
We were meant to launch a men’s slash unisex range this month [before Covid-19], but we’ve put it on hold and will try to launch at the end of the year. James Lowe [of London’s Lyle’s and Flor] has been a big campaigner of this for the last year and a half. One of the things I’ve been quite scared about is a backlash from people saying that they thought this was just for women, but kitchens these days are about gender equality, so we are now positioning Polka Pants as making trousers for everybody: women, men, non-binary. I’m really excited about that. The new designs look more classically like a trouser. We’re doing them in black and navy, and prints by request. We’ve made Tom Brown [of Cornerstone, Hackney Wick] a leopard print pair and we shot James in the croissant design. I basically started Polka Pants so I can make myself clothes forever.”
For more designs, visit polka pants.com
Photography: Polka Pants
@polkapants_
