NICE PANTS

When it came time to create uniforms for the three restaurants inside MoMA - the Modern, Terrace 5, and Café 2 - the Union Square Hospitality Group turned to award-winning fashion designer Yeohlee Teng. For the Modern and Bar Room, she created an elegant fitted black baju jacket (shown above) with a separate functional punch. "I wanted something very streamlined, and so did MoMA," she says. The understated uniforms are deliberately unobtrusive. So much so, Teng says, that "the men's and women's uniforms are the same design - they're just proportioned differently."

Teng, a fashion veteran who won a National Design Award from the Cooper-Hewitt last year, received the commissions based on the recommendation of MoMA architecture and design curator Paola Antonelli. Prior to creating the uniforms, Teng reviewed the restaurant interiors and place settings. The result has been a hit with the waitstaff. "It's almost like art in motion,'" says Ana Marie Mormando, the managing director of the MoMA restaurants. "It's such a fast-paced café, and you see these uniforms. Even when you're not fully aware of it, the uniform is just so much a part of what the experience is all about." Andrew Yang