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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Ellie Violet Bramley

‘Chore jackets for your feet’: why a pair of gardening clogs is taking over city streets

The gardening shoe made from 100% recycled PVC and hemp, is taking the fashion world by storm.
The gardening shoe made from 100% recycled PVC and hemp, is taking the fashion world by storm. Composite: Penske Media/Getty Images/Plasticana/Straw London

There is every chance that 2026 will be the year you see your first pair of Gardana gardening clogs in the wild. In fact, if you spend much time on TikTok, or live in Brooklyn, you’ve probably already been seeing them for months, if not years. I saw my first pair a few weeks ago. I watched a dad dropping his kids off at school in head-to-toe Carhartt, a pair of Gardanas peeping out from below his trousers like a shy frog.

Pliable, but with a sturdy sole, they go for as little as £25. The work of French “environmental poet” André Ravachol, who founded the Plasticana brand behind the clogs in 1998, they’re made from 100% recycled PVC and hemp, which gives them their earthy-caramel or, as Vogue put it, “bird-pooey” hue. They have since been called “maybe the coolest shoes in London” by one TikToker, as he Lime-biked his way through the capital to try to nab a pair.

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