From gloves to garments: garden garb's ongoing evolution

Courtesy Garden Girl

when the first issue of Garden Center magazine hit independent garden centers 20 years ago, garden apparel bore little resemblance to today’s offerings. Independent garden center apparel departments — if they existed — stocked garden gloves and little more. As gardening’s appeal spread and mainstream fashion highlighted botanical influences, fashion in the garden followed suit. Today’s garden apparel covers gardeners from head to toe, serving up function, fashion and flair unseen two decades ago.

Venture into White’s Old Mill Garden Center in Chesapeake, Va., and you’ll find garden hats, gloves, knee pads, aprons, tote bags, tool carriers, boots and shoes, but that wasn’t always the case. Looking back to the mid-1990s, Store Manager Kim Wilkinson recalls no garden clothing or gear other than gloves.

Julie DiFeo, vice president of Donzell’s Flower & Garden Center in Akron, Ohio, remembers a similar landscape for garden apparel. Twenty years ago, gloves and hats were it for gear at Donzell’s, but increased vendor offerings and European influences fueled the segment’s growth.

New ideas and new duds hit the scene

Headlines from the 1990s reinforce the lack of stylish garden apparel at the time. The idea of fashion by and for gardeners was so unexpected, California-based gardening retailer Smith & Hawken made The New York Times and other publications with its debut of clothing for gardeners under their own label and a catalog devoted solely to the newly designed clothing line.

The reception wasn’t universally warm. For some gardeners, designer duds had no place between rows of veggies; only an old pair of well-worn jeans and a green-stained shirt with a slight tear or two would do. But for others, a line of functional, stylish garden wear breathed fashionable life into the pastime they loved.

Though Smith & Hawken’s line began with familiar, functional, high-quality basics, it didn’t end there. Founder Paul Hawken, quoted at the time in The Seattle Times, explained, “For us, clothing is just an extension of who we try to be in our lives.’’ Within a few seasons, pre-2000 garments meant for passionate gardeners and digging in the dirt were joined by garden-inspired fashions better suited for garden parties and the time garden lovers spent away from their plant beds and containers.

Gardening and the lifestyle line

As the new millennium approached, gardening as an aspirational lifestyle — complete with fashionable clothing and accessories — took hold, and spilled over into non-garden fashion.

The New York Times reported on garden clothing that blurred the line between work and play or “digging or discoing,” as they put it, and said fashion was “growing greener than a sugar snap pea” as floral and other garden-inspired garb filled mainstream fashion runways. But most U.S. garden centers stuck to the tried-and-true basics — gloves and hats — for at least the next decade or more, leaving fashion up to other venues.

Post-millennium shifts in products and vendors

Both Wilkinson and DiFeo point to approximately 2010 as the time when interest in garden apparel — and the apparel sections in their IGCs — started growing. For Wilkinson, the preceding years brought gradual change, from garden gear to garden clothing, and then “fashion in the garden.” Demand grew as more vendors offered clothing and other lifestyle items that went beyond generic green. “Florals and bright pretty patterns were introduced,” remembers Wilkinson.

DiFeo tags the growing number of vendors over the past two decades as the biggest change in the garden gear and apparel segment. Though Donzell’s offers diverse apparel for both men and women, hats and gloves still top the sales lists. “Hats have trended up more, along with awareness of skin cancer, and gloves have always done well,” DiFeo says.

In the summer of 2013, fashion for gardeners took another major leap into the mainstream, when O, The Oprah Magazine featured the Garden Girl line of gardening gear in its list of “Gardening Products We Think Are Just Great.” A whole new generation of gardeners — and people who like to be outdoors or want to look like they do — discovered that tastefully floral-emblazoned aprons, skorts, overalls and other garden gear could be durable, functional, fun and fashionable, too. They headed to garden centers for the goods.

Inspiration for the future

SHOES: COURTESY DONZELL’S FLOWER & GARDEN CENTER

While DiFeo credits industry shows for instilling excitement about garden apparel, a trip to Europe convinced her to increase Donzell’s clothing offerings five years ago. European garden centers with huge departments devoted to apparel served as inspiration and left her thinking an expansion was due. “Garden centers there branch out into farming and equestrian products. The culture is much more agrarian,” she says.

DiFeo feels that intense European interest in gardening drives a demand for apparel that’s not yet matched in the U.S., and only time will tell how that translates to sales here. She sees many gardeners still viewing more fashion-oriented garden apparel as luxury or gift items instead of working garden wear. “In Europe, people really enjoy working outside in their yards,” DiFeo says. “It plays into the whole way of life.”

Increased health awareness spurred gear-related expansions on the shelves at White’s Old Mill. Hats equipped with UV block are major sellers. “Customers are more conscious of the harmful sunrays while out there gardening,” Wilkinson says. That consciousness also influences other purchases.

“It used to be mostly garden gloves and a few ball caps with cute garden sayings,” Wilkinson says. “Now it is many items from head to toe, including the sunscreens and lip balms and lotions with sunblock in them to use while you’re gardening. [There are] some with bug repellents, too.” Natural or organic gear-related items are especially popular.

COURTESY OF DONZELL’S FLOWER & GARDEN CENTER

Building on fashion-wise advice

Even though spring is the biggest season for fashion, skin care and garden gear at White’s Old Mill, they’ve expanded on those trends to build a year-round fashion and skin care following. “Winter offers scarves, hats, gloves, shawls with floral and bright prints that go right into a garden center setting,” Wilkinson says. Natural and organic skin care items, equally helpful for winter skin, are an ideal complement. “Just change the focus to the appropriate season and have year-round interest in these trends.”

DiFeo emphasizes that garden apparel and fashion is not for women only. However, separating men and women’s apparel is essential. Donzell’s displays all garden gear and apparel items alongside the tool selection, with the tools dividing men’s apparel from women’s. While the women’s apparel focuses on floral and feminine, the men’s section carries lots of men’s hats, including leather and outback styles. A “masculinized” men’s section helps keep male customers at ease, and the extra attention to detail pays off. “Men are into hats. I was shocked,” DiFeo says. “We have a mirror up back there, and it stays busy.”

Unlike garden center customers from 20 years past, today’s garden shoppers are more likely to want gear that lets their unique personalities shine. From muted colors to brilliant patterns, clogs to boots, and neon hues to soft florals, vendors offer classics and cutting-edge garb to meet all garden apparel aspirations. Do gardeners really care what they look like in the garden? The word among fashionable garden retailers is, “Yes!”

Jolene is a freelance writer and former hort professional. She lives, writes and gardens in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area.