Tuxedo

Tuxedo

Inspired by 1920s prohibition, Tuxedo is Glasgow’s new luxury early evening to late night bar and clubbing destination. Taking inspiration from New York’s neo-speakeasy scene, Tuxedo is hidden within Glasgow’s vibrant Merchant City neighbourhood.

Described as an “upscale nightlife experience” Tuxedo’s clientele will find themselves in an underground venue comprising of a large bar and club area with luxurious booth seating, dancefloor, two VIP suites, resident and guest DJs, a specially curated drinks menu and ‘dapper’ waiting staff who will deliver the finest customer experience.

All design work on the transformation of Tuxedo was undertaken by Kabe Design.

Speaking to Premier Hospitality magazine about the project, Kabe Design Director, Kassie Andrews, said: “As we are an interior design and branding agency, we suggested that the owner play about with the name as that will influence how we roll out the design. We took a concept board to our first consultation to allow the owner to get a feel for our vision. It was heavily influenced by the 1920s prohibition era. The club is underground, you have to go downstairs to get to it, it is very discreet from the outside with a relatively small front door and I had in my head that it is this kind of behind the scenes, little hidden gem venue and that encapsulated the New York’s 1920s nightlife scene. The client mentioned they liked the word Tuxedo and that sat alongside the brand and worked well as a graphic so that is where it ran from.”

Taking inspiration from the prohibition era, Tuxedo contains brass banisters, marble flooring and stand out lighting pieces to set the mood. The main feel of the club keeps to the Tuxedo brand and uses a mixture of teals and blues, panelling on the walls and booths with vintage flip down cinema chairs that have been powder coated gold and upholstered with velvet to take them back to when they were used in the 20s and 30s.

Kassie added: “Some booths also have a small hidden fridge in the back of them – we felt this was very in keeping with the whole prohibition vibe and something fun for guests to discover.”

A large mural was also commissioned by Glasgow School of Art student Marina Renee-Cemmick. She has created this within the entrance area to Tuxedo, providing guests with a beautiful visual experience the moment they walk through the door. The mural is a social scene of a night club and captures the 1920s style by using block shadows in typical Art Deco style.

Off to the side of the main nightclub are two VIP Suites – The Blind Tiger and The Rosé Room. The Blind Tiger is described as “enchanting” and uses dark woods and greens alongside leather, brass and panelled walls. The Rosé Room is seen as the opposite of The Blind Tiger and uses marble, blush pinks hues, velvet and rose gold finishing trims to complete its look.

Work on the transformation began in December 2016 with Tuxedo opening its doors to the public in July 2017.

Commenting on the importance of the project, Kassie said: “This project has been very important for us. The Glasgow club scene has a lot of amazing venues and is highly competitive, people travel to Glasgow for the nightlife and there is a huge mixture, so it was important to me that we made a statement for our client and did something that wasn’t necessarily following the norm. Once we showed the client how we could pull together all aspects of the interior, exterior, logo and overall branding, they then valued our input more and a trust formed, which allowed us to fully develop the design spec across all aspects. It is priceless to have a client that allows you to do that so that has been a big deal.”

Elite Contract Furniture

Elite Contract Furniture specialise in the manufacture and installation of furniture, beds, upholstery and soft furnishings. The company has been in operation since 1954 and within this time has worked with an array of prestigious clients including Macdonald Hotels, Havelock Europa, RAD Hotel Group, Lochs and Glens Hotels, Scottish Youth Hostel Association and a whole host of specifiers and interior designers to name but a few.

Most recently, Elite Contract Furniture has been involved with Tuxedo. Working on this project, Elite Contract Furniture was responsible for the manufacture and installation of made-to-measure fixed seating and bespoke sofas & stools for the club, as well as the re-upholstery of cinema seats to meet the client’s specifications.

Greg Winston, Director of Elite Contract Furniture, said:

“We enjoy a challenge and creating new products from scratch, which is something we got to do on this project. Working with the client we created a range of ‘U’ shaped, ‘l’ shaped and wrap around seating for the night club.”

Greg added:

“At Elite Contract Furniture, our customer service and reputation is the most important thing to us. We take great pride in ensuring that our customers are always fully satisfied with the level of service and products received from ourselves. We are also very proud to be a Scottish manufacturer and Glasgow Living Wage Employer.”