Norwegian Rain + COAL, The Harvey Nichols Rain Project – by Silvia Bombardini

Dear Shaded Viewers and Diane,

 

Norwegian Rain is coming to London! Hooray! Thankfully, that's not to be read all too literally: we hardly need a wetter weather here. What we need instead are drier suits, and if Harvey Nichols' pop up Rain Project is anything to go by, we'll be able to see some of the very best ones very soon indeed.

Freshly launched yesterday morning, the Project is a showroom/exhibition space in the Lower Ground floor of the legendary department store, that warmly welcomes in the UK the Bergen-based brand along with fellow members of the recently established collective The COAL Project: Lotho eyewear, Super Duper Hats, and Sebastian Dollinger's special-edition Eton shirts. A curated selection of the dapperest menswear you could possibly find, enough to make a proper English gentleman swoon.

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And if we happen to resent at times our British winter, Norwegian Rain's co-founder Alexander Helle would remind us that just the other day has rained in Bergen 1/10 of what rains in London in a whole year. There never was, hardly ever will be, a damper city than the one up in Norway where Norwegian Rain is based. Still, that's no excuse to laze in bed all day or resign themselves to get soaked from head to toe. With "dry living" as their motivation, Alexander Helle and T-Michael have perfected an exquisite tailored approach to high-performance rainwear, for it to be waterproof, windproof and breathable without ever compromising on sartorial elegance. In the clip below, T-Michael talks me through it, and also offers an unlikely demonstration on site.

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Later,

Silvia

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