Had enough of flimsy cotton canvas tote bags that get sopping wet through at the first sprinkle of rain? Well, we've got the antidote right here. This roomy tote hails from famously soggy Denmark, and is in fact made by a company called RAINS – which should give you some clue as to its unique selling point. It's constructed in a special matte-finish PU-coated polyester, making it waterproof while remaining surprisingly lightweight. Even the top zip is coated to keep the moisture out. Inside, they haven't felt the need to over-complicate things, with a generous 24-litre capacity and a smaller zip pocket. It's comfortable to carry too, with the usual long webbing tote straps plus a shoulder strap that you can adjust or detach as preferred.
There can’t be many outdoor brands gracing the runways at Paris Fashion Week, but RAINS is one of them. Fear not though – stylish as they are, the unisex jackets and bags from this up-and-coming Danish company are firmly rooted in heavy weather and Scandi heritage.
The Danes know a thing or two about rainwear, after all. Copenhagen gets an average of 170 rainy days a year, and since time immemorial, the classic rubberised cotton slicker has been the nation’s wet-weather armour of choice. When RAINS co-founders Philip Lotko and Daniel Brix Hesselager met at one of Denmark's largest textile and design schools, they wanted to take this Viking icon and turn it into something more contemporary. They started out in 2012 with a rain poncho, and quickly expanded into a range of raincoats and water-resistant bags – all in their signature ‘neo-Scandinavian’ style.
They’re textile designers at heart, and that’s where RAINS really shows its class. The specially developed matte-finish PU fabrics are lightweight and waterproof, with ultrasonically welded seams and ventilation carefully designed in.
Fashionable this stuff might be, but fast fashion it certainly isn’t. RAINS’s commitment to ethical and sustainable working stretches from the conditions in their partner factories to their transport logistics and even the lighting in their offices and shops. And at the heart of that, of course, are products that are built to last. If you do eventually manage to wear them out, RAINS will even trade you store credit when you return them for recycling.
