The accomplished gardener, Gerald Stratford shot to fame during the pandemic, when he introduced the world to his vegetables, his garden and himself. A Twitter account meant for friends, went viral and Stratford now has a collective following over 500,000 across the platforms.

Know as the King of Veg, Stratford has featured in publications across the USA, Canada and Europe including The New York Times, every major newspaper across the UK; podcast and TV appearances on Gardeners World, James Martins Saturday Morning and as a regular guest on Steph’s Packed Lunch. If that wasn’t impressive enough, in 2021 he was a model for an advertising campaign by the luxury Italian fashion house Gucci.

Stratford’s growing advice is commendable, his vegetables are spectacular, but the magic ingredient for his success is simply seeing someone happily growing produce in their garden. Those who garden know of the elementary, but profound joy from working the soil. Stratford, generously oozes that joyous contentment through the social screens. In a world where everything is so complicated, that natural merriment of seeing Stratford proudly harvest his vegetables is irresistible and it shows. In an interview with Samuel Osborne in the Independent, he described it aptly “I think a lot of it is the younger people, especially the American younger people, seem to like the old English man who’s happy and growing veg”.

Remarkably, despite his vast following, he really only came onto our radars when we spotted the cabbage-camouflage coat with matching red cabbage…

Turns out, working with all those uber fashionable models has rubbed off on the veg king. That’s no ordinary coat, but an Alexander McQueen. Stratford explained that McQueen filmed a shoot with Stratford, for their Grow Up clothing range. The designers, were so inspired that not only do the clothes look like Stratford’s produce, but the good man’s name is on the label.

There you go. Grow some veg and you may just become a designer’s muse and supermodel.