Hillary Day聽is a skier, but she didn鈥檛 feel like advertising it every time she walked around her hometown of聽Portland, Oregon.聽Back in聽2008, when she founded , there were just two main types of raincoats: waterproof shells designed for hiking and skiing, and gorgeous all-cotton Burberry trenches that shunted the job of weather protection to umbrellas.聽
The technical hard shells were functional, but garish and and monostylistic. “Everybody wore exactly the same jacket, whether it was from Patagonia or The North Face or REI,”聽says Day. That bothered her. As an apparel designer who had worked for the likes of Vera Wang and Ralph Lauren before becoming a senior designer at Adidas, she wanted a nice coat that was also waterproof.
So Day determined to bridge the gap. Her urbane has a structured wrap collar and an empire waist. It looks and feels like a high-end wool topper, but it uses Schoeller鈥檚 C_change聽fabric, which pairs wool with a waterproof laminate that adapts to the wearer鈥檚 body temperature. The coat feels toasty when you鈥檙e chilly, and becomes more breathable and heat-dumping when you鈥檙e warm. “There is a performance element to the fabric, but it鈥檚 invisible,”聽says Day.
Her collarless uses a lighter-weight fabric that鈥檚 not technically waterproof (though it鈥檚 kept me perfectly dry in practice), and it鈥檚 packable enough for air travel. “I aim for femininity, which is different than making something female,”聽she says. “Most companies make men鈥檚 clothing and adjust it for a female buyer. That鈥檚 totally different from designing for a woman鈥檚 body from the start.”聽
Day isn't alone. Recently, more designers have entered the technical-urban outerwear space. Witness Aether鈥檚 new , made of a cotton blend that's waterproof (and even seam-sealed, like rain shells). The is also waterproof down to the zippers. That's fitting, as the company鈥檚 stronghold is sailmaking. (Its apparel line came to the U.S. in spring 2016.)聽Even though the Jill looks worthy of Paris sidewalks, this hooded, lightly insulated coat can handle gale-force storms.聽
And , a Vancouver-based startup that launched in September 2016, makes a whole range of city-ready rain jackets for women. My personal聽favorite is , a moto jacket with wide lapels and fat metal zippers鈥攅xcept it swaps out the traditional leather, which can get ruined by rain, with a waterproof/breathable fabric. It鈥檚 hoodless, so you should still carry an umbrella. But it sheds rain and snow and it鈥檚 at home on city sidewalks, whether they're in Steamboat or New York.聽