Opening up her beautiful Tudor farmhouse in Kent for this week's HELLO!, Kelly Brook tells how she’s finally reaping the benefits of a 10-year labour of love that has seen her transform the once wild and overgrown five acre grounds into a truly magical country garden. But it’s not just outside that the 37-year-old model and actress has been pruning.
Now more at home in jeans, a t-shirt and her trusty gardening gloves, keen horticulturist Kelly, who has spoken of her hopes to present her own TV gardening show, has set to work on trimming back her once bulging designer wardrobe – the result being that a bumper crop of high end dresses, handbags and shoes are up for grabs on the designer-recycling website hardlyeverwornit.com. "Looking glamorous is so far down my list of priorities these days," Kelly tells HELLO! "I had wardrobes and storage units full of beautiful pieces and I just felt it was grotesque that they were sitting there, gathering dust.
Kelly Brook spoke to HELLO! about her new passion for gardening
"Gorgeous as they are, I don’t live that lifestyle anymore: I don’t really go expensive restaurants, I don’t go to nightclubs. I’m not going to lie, it was hard saying goodbye to some of them. I guess it’s all part of accepting your 20s are over, your 30s are coming to a close and I’m hurtling towards the next decade.
"But it was also cleansing and cathartic and I do believe my home feels better for it," continues Kelly. "I realised that I’d bought a lot of the pieces when I needed a pick-me-up. I was like, 'Wow, I got that the day I found out about that...' and 'I remember the day I splashed out on that, I was feeling so down on myself'.
"If other girls who are having a rough time can have a bit of a splurge and feel better about themselves, that’s great. Similarly, they’re for girls who are perfectly content and just fancy treating themselves."
Kelly Brook is selling a selection of her designer clothes online
Amongst the beautiful dresses available are an £1800 blush dress by Roland Mouret which Kelly wore to Ascot – now available at less than half the original price, at £830. There’s also a pretty Kenzo floral day dress that’s £300 less than its RRP of £415, at £115. With a harvest of designer heels and handbags ripe for picking too, fans will have to be quick to get their cream of the crop, as the 'Yikes, sold!' signs are flashing up fast.
"Kelly’s choice of clothes and accessories is quite exquisite," says the site’s founder Sharon Wolter-Ferguson. "But many of them are not appropriate for her new love of gardening!"
Check out Kelly’s blooming good designer bargains at www.hardlyeverwornit.com.