Niwaki Unveils a Camo Collection in Collaboration with Natsko Seki
The British garden-tool maker’s first design-led release pairs a layered landscape with a happi coat, an apron, cult arm covers and more
For more than two decades, Niwaki has been a quiet fixture in the toolsheds of serious gardeners—a British company built on Japanese craftsmanship and an unhurried belief in doing things properly. Founded in the early 2000s by Jake Hobson, a former sculptor whose fascination with Japan’s cultural reverence for nature led him to a job in an Osaka tree nursery, the brand emerged from a simple realization upon his return to the UK: the traditional tools he’d brought back were unlike anything available at home.
“I thought, quite unwittingly, I’ve got the best tools in England,” Hobson recalls. What he began as a modest operation selling pruning tools to friends has since grown into one of the most respected names in the field.
Now Niwaki is stepping beyond its hardware and basic workwear with a limited-edition Camo collection in collaboration with Natsko Seki, the London-based Japanese illustrator who has shaped the brand’s visual identity for the past six years. The release signals a quiet but meaningful shift. “It’s definitely the first time we’ve done something specifically based around the design rather than the product,” Hobson explains.
The pattern itself bears little resemblance to military camouflage. Developed over two years, Seki’s layered, semi-abstract composition reveals tree branches, trunks, hillsides and an abstract peak that nods to Mount Fuji, all printed on heavy 16-ounce tan canvas. The collection includes a traditional box-cut happi coat cut to a universal fit, tote, a split-front apron, hats and the brand’s quietly beloved Japanese-style arm covers.
For Niwaki, camouflage is a matter of belonging rather than concealment. “The idea that a lot of camo, when it’s worn outside of military, is not about hiding. It’s about fitting in to kind of your posse, your group, your gang, identifying yourself. So in a way it’s a way of saying I’m Niwaki,” Hobson says.
The Camo collection, available for pre-order now, launches in May to coincide with the Chelsea Flower Show, and Seki’s artwork will serve as Niwaki’s overarching visual theme for the year—an invitation to step further into the world the brand has spent twenty-odd years cultivating.
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