Style Is Growing In The Garden

Dianne Benson stepped off her brick patio and into the East Hampton sun. Smiling against a nippy March wind, the fashion designer and former retailer pulled her quilted J. Barbour and Sons jacket in close and glanced around her garden, freckled with spring rebirth.

“C’mon, sweetheart,” she beckoned to her ruby Cavalier spaniel, Magnolia, named for the garden’s standout specimen, who energetically and obediently trotted from the house onto the lawn.

The two were on their way. And almost immediately, Magnolia gave a startled jump when her owner squeaked, “Oh my god, look at this hellebore!”

Ms. Benson, also known in gardening circles as Dianne B., half-skipped to the flower, whipped out her peeping stick from her tool belt—which she designed herself—and expanded the compacted handle to a 3-foot-long observation tool in one swift motion, delicately placing the 2-inch mirror beneath the drooping petals.

“You can see what’s underneath without having to bend down, so it’s a fantastic tool,” she said of the peeping stick, noting she first saw it in use at the renowned Hidcote Manor Garden in the Cotswolds. “And it’s so English and it’s gardeny and it’s so weird. I love it. I love it!”

Ms. B.’s handsome tool is just the tip of a fashionable trend: gardeners everywhere are swapping out dingy jeans and rubber clogs for slim britches, tailored jackets, stylish boots and other accessories straight out of the British manor, according to a report recently published in the Wall Street Journal, which included input from Ms. B., an arbiter of style who runs the website diannebbest.com, which is stocked with her 12 favorite chic garden tools.

According to Ms. B., and a few of her gardening cohorts, gardeners want to look good, too, even if they’re knee-deep in dirt.

“While many dress for the garden in only what is comfortable or expendable, the English do not, with the explanation that gardening is their most costly and favorite activity,” textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen, who is the founder of LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton, wrote in an email last week. “My best gear is British, including books, knickers, jerseys and jackets.”

When Ms. B., who is a good friend of Mr. Larsen and the president of LongHouse, began transforming her own home’s wooded acre about 10 years ago, she knew nothing about plants, she said. But she did know that she wanted to look like English author, poet and gardener Vita Sackville-West while doing it.

“How much better can you possibly look than Vita? You can’t look any better,” Ms. B. said. “It was always my principle that it’s ridiculous to wear your worst clothes or most ill-fitting in the garden. There’s no reason. Gardening, it’s not a dirty thing. I like nice things in every part of my life, so I like to wear nice things in the garden, too. It’s in my blood.”

Beginning with her feet, the gardener first had to have knee-high, hand-laced riding boots, à la Ms. Sackville-West, but quickly learned her lesson. She conceded that pull-on rubber boots are the way to go—though not the heavy, flat variety. She prefers a panther print with 1½-inch heel.

Made by the classic French house of Sarraizienne, Ms. B. first spotted them in Biarritz, right across the street from the Hermès store. She said she only regrets not buying them in every color. After a decade of continuous use, the boots have never let her down.

The same applies to her Pikeur riding breeches. At nearly $350 per pair, she rationalizes that the quality matches the cost.

“I can show you pairs I’ve had for 15 years and they’re as solid as a rock and they have a European fit and they come in really great colors,” she said. “I wear them all the time and I have lots of pairs—eight or 10. They’re not cheap, of course, but you get a pair and they never wear out and they fit fantastically.”

In the garden, and during the occasional visit to the store or post office, Ms. B. primarily dons J. Barbour jackets and vests, an English manufacturer also worn by Queen Elizabeth II, and typically dresses up her outfits with Ted Muehling jewelry. Recently, she chose to wear earrings sporting tiny flies.

“We’re all looking at her as a beacon of style,” LongHouse Reserve Executive Director Matko Tomicic said of Ms. B. last week during a telephone interview. “She’s a style guru. It’s singular. It’s very personal.”

Though no matter the day, Ms. B. is always sporting her custom-made tool belt, which makes grabbing her two essential tools—the Felco pruner and her clippers—a cinch in the garden.

“This is my favorite thing,” she said, patting her accessory. “When you’re in the garden and you’re behind a tree or down on your knees or under a bush and you see something that you need to do, you have your tools right there. You can’t stop, get up, go over to some pretty little basket or little cart because you get completely distracted.”

Despite her love for garden style, Ms. B. became disenchanted with the fashion world and closed her Manhattan boutique shops in the 1990s. She couldn’t stand to go to another fashion show, she said. She would rather be planting tulips.

“I get so taken with this,” she said of her garden. “When you really work in the garden, you really have a relationship with them that’s sort of emotional. Sometimes I get mad at them, or sometimes I feel so grateful and proud of them.”

She laughed, and toyed with a mahonia shrub as Magnolia angled for attention at her owner’s heels.

“Oh poochieface, look how cute you are. Yes,” Ms. B. cooed, and then turned back to her flowers. “I get very, very caught up with this beginning. On the least nice day, this is a great time to prune or rethink the shape of bushes or trees. I’m out here every day, weather permitting. I don’t torture myself. I bring my music out and the dogs come visit. I’m just as happy as I can be.”

And she always looks fabulous.

For more information, visit diannebbest.com.