“If There Was Ever a Time to Make Some Noise, Now Is It”—How Rains Outerwear Conquered Copenhagen Fashion Week

In 2012, three friends launched a business built on necessity and practicality. Philip Lotko, Daniel Brix, and Kenneth Davis debuted their niche outerwear brand Rains that year with minimalist waterproof jackets aimed at the streetwear-obsessed contingent. They started with straightforward raincoats—it rains nearly five months out of the year in Denmark, after all—then eventually added winter jackets and puffers to the mix. Fast-forward to 2020 and Rains has 25 stand-alone stores across the world and is stocked in retailers like Farfetch and Net-a-Porter. But how far can you push the envelope with raincoats?

Last week at Copenhagen Fashion Week, Lotko, Brix, and Davis proved that, actually, there are no limits. Rains staged its very first runway show inside a lime-green-splashed indoor sports and recreation arena, and the excitement was palpable. Industry locals were psyched not only to see their homegrown outerwear label on the runway, but also to discover what a sportier Danish fashion concept looks like. Copenhagen isn’t really known for technical, athletic style. Athleisure isn’t really a thing in Denmark.

Despite the links between Scandinavians and minimalism, what’s putting Copenhagen on the worldwide fashion map is much more maximalist, with loads of nostalgia, mixed prints, and eccentric styling. The new Rains collection, in contrast, is loosely tailored, with monochromatic black, beige, white, and green tech-fabric button-down shirts, trousers, puffer vests, and overalls. Pernille Teisbaek, Copenhagen’s most famous fashion export, styled the show with results that felt fresh in the context of this particular fashion week.

As the brand’s head of design, Tanne Vinter, explained, the collection is about “setting the tone for slowing down.” She added, “When we first started to approach the collection, we couldn’t avoid the fact that many of us are living complex, fast-paced lifestyles.” The Rains team, Vinter noted, wanted to create “a collection built under this sense of a time shelter, and we wanted to design silhouettes with longevity and develop an earthy color palette that will continue to work for seasons to come.”

The aim here wasn’t to take Rains in an entirely new direction, but to build on its humble beginnings. “Rains will forever provide rainwear,” he said. “But we want to grow from wet-weather specialists to an all-weather brand. If there was ever a time to make some noise, now is it.”