SEASON WELL

Sunday magazine’s packed with style, recipes and the ultimate holiday gift guide

“Gardencore” – the latest in fashion’s niche trend identifiers – combines countryside whimsy with down-to-earth practicality, a floral-heavy aesthetic that works whether your idea of gardening is a sprawling rural field, lot in a city community garden or a small pot plant. It’s an intense hyper-floral print (and there are lots of those around this summer) that could be paired with a gin cocktail, or a pair of secateurs – such as Juliette Hogan’s latest flower-heavy collection, photographed with sturdy boots at Hands in the Dirt, a 4.8-hectare farm with flower fields in Ahuroa Valley, Auckland. It’s floral or earthy scents such as Gucci’s new Flora fragrances or Flamingo Estate’s Garden Essentials line. It’s local brands and stores such as Garden Objects and Hydrangea Ranger, which combine useful things – a trug, wildflower seeds – alongside things that are ornamental, like a dandelion paperweight. And it’s Karen Walker’s latest jewellery collection, a witty offering of pendants including a watering can, gnome, carrot and a tiny gumboot that is so Kiwi it hurts.