Johnnie and Sophie Boden Cultivate Their Respective Visions in Their English Garden

"In every relationship, even a long and happy marriage, there is a line that cannot be crossed, and for Johnnie and Sophie Boden, it is drawn at the top of the wide stone steps rising from the terraces surrounding their country house in Dorset, southwest England. Stretching out beyond are Johnnie's wildflower meadows, an area in which he is free to do what he pleases. But from here down is Sophie's fiercely guarded territory, a profusion of romantically billowing shrubs and perennials."

"The couple, who have three grown-up daughters, bought the 500-acre estate in 2005 and come down from London for half the week; Johnnie has an office in the farmstead's 18th-century former threshing room for his eponymous company, Boden, one of Britain's most successful clothing brands. His first catalog was published way back in 1991 and soon came to epitomize a very exportable British lifestyle of comfortably-off folk with cheery good manners."

"Now in his mid-60s, at an age when many of his contemporaries have retired, Johnnie shows no sign of doing so and remains Tiggerish in his enthusiasms and energies. Setting off at a cracking pace to inspect the meadows, accompanied by Janet the Welsh terrier, he admits, in the apologetic manner that a certain sort of posh Englishman speaks, 'I'm pathetically driven,' as if ambition is a bad thing."

Johnnie and Sophie Boden own a 500-acre countryside estate in Dorset, England, where they divide the landscape into separate domains reflecting their individual interests. Johnnie, founder of the successful British clothing brand Boden, maintains wildflower meadows on the upper grounds while Sophie oversees the lower terraces with romantically billowing shrubs and perennials. The couple, who have three grown daughters, divide their time between London and the estate, where Johnnie operates his business from a converted 18th-century threshing room. Known for his meticulous attention to detail in both fashion and property management, Johnnie remains actively engaged in his company despite being in his mid-60s, demonstrating the same precision in selecting paint colors and maintaining the estate as he applies to his clothing designs.

Read at Architectural Digest