Frocks, Flowers, Gardens, Glamour – and The New Pant-less Style That's Dominating Spring Fashion

No pants? No worries, says Vogue, as we enter a new era of (semi-naked) style.

On a gentle day in May 2022 (which seems very long ago now), I made my way to the Chelsea Flower Show. It was the first Chelsea Flower Show after two years of hiatus during the Covid pandemic and there was a palpable sense of anticipation in the streets of SW3. Many people had made a great effort to dress their flowery best. One couple, holding hands, were dressed as glamorously as any celebrity at the New York Met Gala – he in a navy suit with a petal-pink bow tie, and she in petal-pink silk palazzo pants and a pink-and-white silk top with flowers blooming at every stitch and buttonhole. She also carried a bag made of embroidered flowers. I followed them through the front entrance, marvelling at their sartorial effort – and feeling slightly underdressed.

Elsewhere, clusters of females looked like sprouting tulips, with dainty skirts in shades of hot pink, purple and mauve. Two fabulist gentlemen in their eighties walked slowly through the Show Gardens, arm in arm, wearing waistcoats in dandy-esque hues of delphinium blue (for the first gentleman) and geranium leaf-green (for the second). They carried matching umbrellas. They also looked fantastic.

The people watching at the show was as spectacular as the gardens.

Fast-forward to May 2025 and the Met Gala in New York, the images of which have just hit the world’s media. Now I am no fashion commentator – I have been known to wear my garden boots while travelling in England because they are comfortable and it rains a lot in the UK – but I’m not quite sure what I’m looking at, here on Fifth Avenue? There is gaiety and glamour and celebrities galore, but there also seems to be a lot of missing fabric? Indeed, some witty journalists at Vogue have called it ‘The New Pant-less Fashion’. Link here – Vogue on Met Gala

“No pants?” says Vogue. “No problem.”

Cynthia Erivo – who is utterly wonderful when she is wearing clothes – opted for bloomers, explaining that it was a nod to Prince (the singer, not Prince William), and his famous frock coats, bloomers and frills. “We have essentially deconstructed the Rococo style of dandyism,” she said. Now while I love the creativity on display, something about tossing a tuxedo jacket on and calling it a day doesn’t really sit with me. And I wonder how it sits with them? Is it strange sitting there without any pants on? Clearly not. And clearly it is a lot easier going to the bathroom, too. (Or is it?)

Whatever you think of the pant-less fashion at the Met Gala this year, one thing is for certain: there will be another fashion trend around the New York corner any minute now.

In the meantime, here are some beautiful bits and bobs to celebrate spring and all its beauty, grace, and new-season style.

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NEW BOOKS ON GARDENS, GLAMOUR AND STYLE
I saw some of these beautiful new books at Galignani Bookstore in Paris two weeks ago, and desperately wanted to buy them. The Dior book is the latest in a series of glorious insights into Monsieur Dior’s love of gardens, while Cordelia de Castellane’s second book is a lovely look at her Normandy gardens, including its cutting garden and its lush flower beds.

The book, Glorious Gardens, meanwhile, is a glimpse into the lives of some of the world’s best interior designers, produced in collaboration with Frederic magazine.

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THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS
If you are a gardener, you may have heard of of Isabel and Julian Bannerman, the talented couple responsible for some of the most remarkable, most memorable gardens in England. I had the great fortune of spending a wonderful morning with them at their Somerset garden, Ashington Manor, a year or so ago, where I interviewed Isabel for my new biography on roses. We spent a few hours in the garden, listing all the roses. The borders were looking spectacular even then, though the garden was still in its infancy.

Now, two years on, it has matured, and House & Garden magazine has captured it beautifully for their June issue. The story is here – H&G. And the images by Andrew Montgomery are incredible.

(Google House & Garden and the Bannermans if you’d prefer not to use the link.)

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AND JUST LIKE THAT – SEASON 3

If you’re looking for something light and frivolous to watch that doesn’t have a dark storyline involving murder or other such frightening subjects (which almost everything does now, it seems), then tune into And Just Like That – Season 3. AJLT has been criticised for many things but fashion is not one of them. And the new season lifts the sartorial standards to even higher New York heights. Often I’ll watch the previous seasons on long flights, to remind myself of how flamboyant New Yorkers can be. This new season shows women in their fifties, and most of the clothes are actually wearable. I love the pink skirt, above, and the dress with roses ‘growing’ inside it.

Premiering May 30, on MAX.

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Every year, the fringe festival to the Chelsea Flower Show, Chelsea in Bloom, puts on an astonishing display of flowers, encouraging boutiques and businesses up and down King’s Road in London to create elaborate window displays of incredible blooms. This year, the theme is ‘Flowers in Fashion’, and the windows around Chelsea are set to dazzle with dresses, gowns, handbags, hats and outfits made entirely of fresh petals, stems and foliage.

See the Chelsea in Bloom website for details of the map and the entrants.

Link here – Chelsea in Bloom

ANOTHER SIMPLE FAVOUR – ON CAPRI

I didn’t enjoy the 2018 film A Simple Favour (showing on Netflix), which was a black comedy that was more grey than black in parts. But the sequel, Another Simple Favour, set on Capri, may be different? It stars Blake Lively and a huge hat (which was bought from a tiny store on Capri), and involves a wedding, a murder or three, and a convoluted plot.

The New York Times’ review is here – link: Another Simple Favour

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STRIFE – THE SERIES BASED ON THE MEDIA WORLD OF MAMMA MIA
I could watch Asher Keddie act in anything, even a paper bag. This new series, Strife, based on the world of Mamma Mia (the media company, not the ABBA song), is fantastic. It follows Evelyn Jones (based on the real-life Mia Freedman and loosely based on her memoir), who is an ambitious but flawed publisher who develops a media company from a living room blog to one of the most important enterprises in Australian women's media.

The first series dropped in 2023, and this second series is apparently just as riveting. It’s on Binge now.

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