The Next Big Thing in Menswear Is ... Gardening?
When the chore jacket shuffled into the style spotlight somewhere in the late 2000s, it offered men the ideal way to feel sufficiently dressed without wearing a blazer. The tipping point was the 2010 documentary Bill Cunningham New York, about the then-80-year-old New York street-style photographer, who went everywhere in his trademark French worker’s jacket. Whether your inspiration was military grunts, Japanese factory workers, or, like Cunningham, French mechanics, those three- or four-pocket pieces had a no-nonsense vibe and a functional appeal that led to widespread adoption by normal guys and fashion aficionados alike.
Perhaps it’s a sign of the times, but 15 years later a little escapism has crept into the chore jacket. Instead of the reek of engine oil and cordite, the fragrance of choice is English roses and jasmine, with a side order of compost and mulch. It’s still workwear, of course, but the work has moved into the garden, where guys are connecting with nature and taking their style cues from elder statesmen of horticulture.
Lead image: Jacket ($800), trousers ($485), bandanna ($125), and hat ($150) by Rovi Lucca; tank ($119) by Dandy del Mar; clogs ($80) by Birkenstock; socks ($26) by London Sock Company. Above: Denim work jacket ($158) by Le Laboureur, available at Gardenheir; jacket ($138) by Gardenheir; shirt ($100) by Todd Snyder x Gardenheir; hat ($98) by Magic Hat, available at Gardenheir.
One such unlikely fashion plate is British national treasure Monty Don. A fresh-faced 69, Don has been a fixture of the BBC’s Gardeners’ World since 2003. His preferred uniform is elegant yet comfortable, informed yet unfussy. He is rarely out of his sun-bleached blue chore jacket, Blundstone Chelsea boots, a home-knit sweater, and roomy corduroy trousers. Don’s style motivation is as organic as he is, driven entirely by function, with those useful pockets usually bulging with twine, seed packets, and pruning shears.
Rovi Lucca, an Italian brand inspired by Italian gardens and the wider rural landscape, puts a slightly more polished spin on the look. Rovi is the Italian word for brambles, and Lucca is the walled city close to the Tyrrhenian coast of Tuscany, where its creators—Australian-born Bradley Seymour and his Italian partner, Fabrizio Taliani—spend any free time they have in rural bliss in the nearby mountain village of San Romano in Garfagnana.
Jacket ($830), shirt ($470), and trousers ($620) by Rovi Lucca; clogs ($90) by Birkenstock.
“This season, we were inspired by the Botanical Garden of Lucca,” says Seymour. “We imagined a kind of wild herbarium, where science and nature meet creativity. We were drawn to the idea of a garden as a living archive, full of quiet energy and forgotten systems of order.”
The Rovi Lucca collection is composed of simple chore jackets in Irish linen, cotton poplin, and canvas, often in combinations of earthy tones of sand and rust and denim blue. Trousers come in similar cloths and have a roomy comfort about them. There is nothing rough-and-ready, however, about these clothes. The make is crisp, refined, and precise; it’s all made in premium factories in Tuscany. Even better: The collection can step straight from the shrubbery onto the street.
“There’s something very grounding about gardens,” says Seymour. “Especially in a moment when so much feels fast, digital, and abstract, gardens remind us to slow down, observe, and be present. They’re also about care and patience, which feels quietly radical at the moment.”
The brand Gardenheir, based in Windham, New York, offers a similar—though more casual—take on gardening apparel and accessories. The clothing doubles down on functionality and sits alongside specialized gardening clogs and high-end equipment like watering cans from Mexico, trowels from the Netherlands, and Japanese gardening gloves. Serious stuff.
Frankly, garden style is a rabbit hole of possibilities into which you could very easily be sucked bodily, even if your urban oasis is nothing more than ten square feet of fire escape. Maybe start with the chore jacket and work your way up to the full Monty.
Photographs by Evegeny PopovStyling: Andrea RiosGrooming: Taichi Saito for Art Department
Model: Porter Gregg at Next Management
This story appears in the Summer 2025 issue of EsquireSUBSCRIBE
esquire
