Gardening has never been cooler, and the latest proof comes from Monty Don, who is fronting a New Balance campaign for a new trainer collaboration with jewellery designer Bleue Wickham-Burnham. The trainers launch on Saturday, with Don photographed shrinking into a bush with the footwear around his neck. The move follows his announcement this week that he will step down from Gardeners’ World after 23 years.
High fashion embraces gardeners
The trend extends beyond Don. Gardener Charlie McCormick became the face of JW Anderson’s spring 2027 campaign, while Alfie Nickerson, who grows flowers biodynamically in Norfolk for Burnt Fen Flowers, was picked by Jimmy Choo for its autumn campaign, Wild Rose. Catwalks have featured mossy designs and mycelial motifs.
In everyday settings, beige hemp gardening clogs have become sought-after items among twenty-somethings, who Lime bike across London to buy them. Gardener style—cords, gilets, Blundstones, and barn jackets—is now common in urban environments, far from allotments. Chore jackets, once associated with factory work, are now ubiquitous in cafes and ad agencies.
Online growth and aspirational gear
Online, gardeners are gaining new audiences. i-D magazine has highlighted a new generation of “hot gardeners” as part of the catalyst for a 50% increase in gardening content on TikTok this year, alongside genuine interest in the activity.
Fancy tools and clothing are aspirational. Gardenheir sells hand-forged tools, £275 two-gallon watering cans, and collaborations with French workwear brand Le Laboureur, items that seem more suited to a small-plates restaurant than a vegetable patch. Niwaki, another site for high-end gardening gear, has intentionally pushed products to non-gardening markets. Founder Jake Hobson says, “We sell a lot from Chiltern Street to customers who may or may not have a garden, and who may or may not even wear it in the garden.” He notes that the popularity of gardening togs is about mindset as much as practicality: “They communicate a particular attitude. They’re comfortable and loose-fitting, but they also suggest that you’re ready for action.”
Cultural shift and challenges
Matt Collins, head gardener at the Garden Museum in central London, attributes the trend to a broader exaltation of professional gardeners. “For a long time, it was seen as quite a kind of lower-status [job] … gardeners are cool, gardeners do important work,” he says. Selina Ozanne, head gardener at The Exchange in Erith, south-east London, adds, “Gardening is often romanticised. It has charm, as well as aesthetic appeal,” and it “holds a lot of nostalgia for people. It’s often a hobby associated with parents or grandparents.”
Gardeners are more visible now, not just on social media but in public spaces. “Galleries and museum spaces and communal spaces are investing more and more in gardens,” says Collins. Non-gardeners are also gardening in parks and community gardens, he notes.
The timing is key, with climate change a central topic and AI experts warning of extinction risks. “There’s definitely a feeling that gardening is one of those crafts that can’t fully be automated,” says Collins. “Watering schedules can be automated, seed-sowing even, maybe, but the act of observing and engaging in gardens remains quite human.”
Younger appeal and practical realities
For younger people, gardening offers escapism. Ozanne, of the “Nokia 3310 generation,” spent her childhood outdoors, and she thinks gardening “holds a sense of intrigue and presents escapism from a chronically online society” for the current generation.
But Collins points out thorns. Public gardening can involve “dog shit, human shit, sometimes, and grimy waste bags,” he says. Ozanne, who wears brands like Gramicci and Toast, repaired repeatedly, says, “I knew early on that if I was going to be out in public, picking up litter and dodging all manner of nasty things, that I wanted to look good doing it.”
Despite the glorification, Collins notes it isn’t necessarily translating to “their pay grade and how their actual value has been translated into [the] real world.” Ozanne adds that gardening isn’t “a career that’s accessible to everybody – both physically and financially.”
