What’s the well-heeled gardener wearing? Who cares?
Editor’s note: This is part of The Know’s series, Staff Favorites. Each week, we offer our opinions on the best that Colorado has to offer for dining, shopping, entertainment, outdoor activities and more. (We’ll also let you in on some hidden gems).
A few years back, the Wall Street Journal had a piece on gardening attire influencing men’s fashion.
“Fall’s most improbably sought-after outfit is the ‘Garden Gi,’ a pair of trousers and a kimono-style jacket. The $330 set — made by Cactus Store, a succulent shop in Los Angeles — looks like a modified martial arts uniform with extra pockets for packing seeds and toting trowels,” WSJ reported.
Oh, we had a good laugh at that.
Not at the fashion inspiration (even though it wasn’t all that, IMO) but that gardeners actually wear specially designed attire. (And was the shop actually succulent, or did it sell cacti?)
Search for “gardening clothes” online and you’ll find companies like Dovetail Workwear, Gardener’s Edge, Terrain and many others selling adorable outfits. Duluth Trading sells Heirloom Gardening Bib Overalls. For me, it’s just too hot in Denver most spring and summer days to think of wearing long pants and a bib to boot. The company’s “gardening skort” would work, but it’s just too cute, if you know what I mean.
For only $138 plus shipping, April Cornell’s online store takes it even further with an adorable pair of floral overalls in pastels just for gardeners. Bogs sells a sturdy gardening clog for just $90; Sloggers has a darling pair of Flower Power Rain & Garden Boots for just $42.99.
Who are they kidding? (If you are a homeowner who wears those things, I am not making fun of you. Well, I guess I am.)
Of course, I do see the need for actual farmers to wear clothes from Carhartt or Farmers Defense. And any employee of a nursery or botanic garden likely has a special wardrobe dedicated to the hard work of planting and growing and reaping. I also recognize the necessity of wearing protection — i.e., sunscreen, long pants, long-sleeved shirt and a hat — from Colorado’s damaging sun when you’re out for an extended period of time.
My “gardening outfit”: old capri pants, beat-up tennis shoes, a worn T-shirt and a not-very-chic sun visor.
One day I might be persuaded to wear one of those aprons that holds a shovel and dandelion picker. Or I’ll just keep on walking to the garage and getting what I need when I need it.
Is it Colorado’s laid-back style? Our (mostly) lack of bougie affectations while outdoors? Being over 50?
Really, there are days I don’t even wear a bra under those “gardening T-shirts.”
And no one cares.
What passersby will see are the lilacs that pop up every spring in my front yard, and the lavender that scents the air along the sidewalk as they pass. If invited around back, they’ll rave about my glorious zinnias, the seeds of which I save year after year and plant in the ground where my spring bleeding hearts have died off.
They will enjoy the bounty of my grape vines, when I share the jelly I’ve made. Or the tiny hand pies using blackberries from my two bushes. Or, should the squirrels leave me any fruit, applesauce made from my own apples.
And the tomatoes — oh, the tomatoes! I can’t give those super sweet cherry tomatoes away fast enough. I’m very proud of the fact that I grew them — some nurtured from seed — in my own raised garden boxes. While dressed very unfashionably.
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