New Delhi, Aug. 15 -- When designer Payal Jain was brought in to design the uniforms for The Oberoi Rajgarh Palace in Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, she wasn't just asked to make the staff look the part. She had to figure out what people in the 350-year-old palace hotel could wear to work in the Bundelkhand heat that would also survive hundreds of washes while representing the property.

That is a very different brief from designing a fashion collection but Jain has been doing it for more than three decades. Hospitality has long been a separate vertical of her business, and she has designed for The Oberoi, Four Seasons and other hotels across the world.

At Rajgarh, she started with the palace itself: its arches, domes, sandstone walls and Bu...