First look: Scandi outerwear brand Rains opens its first store in Ireland
The flagship Dublin store is part of the Danish brand’s global retail expansion strategy
Danish outerwear brand Rains has entered the Irish market with its first store opening in Dublin.
The 60 square foot space on Wicklow Street, Dublin 2, is part of the brand’s global retail expansion strategy for 2024 which includes 10 store openings across Europe and North America. Its new, flagship Dublin store is the brand’s 26th store opening worldwide, with openings in Stockholm, Milan, Paris and New York to follow suit.
“Our stores in London are the best performing locations worldwide. Considering proximity and similar weather, Dublin made sense. The team also has a special affinity for the city, the people are warm, welcoming, and down to earth – much like the Danes,” head of marketing, Joshua Bredehoeft told Irish Tatler.
The store offers a curated edit of the brand’s outerwear, bags and accessories such as its new spring-summer 2024 collection, which offers outerwear styles like quilted and puffer rain jackets, ponchos, fleeces, trousers and mac coats, alongside its statement backpack styles in updated colourways, alongside travel bags, crossbody bags and its recently-launched luggage styles.
Founded in 2012 by creative Danish duo Philip Lotko and Daniel Brix Hesselager as a rainwear-focussed collection, the brand taps into the space between fashion and function: reflective of the Scandi’s clean, minimalist aesthetic yet crafted with technical fabrics to provide practical, waterproof and water-resistant garments.
The founders met as students while at the design and business college TEKO in Denmark, and started the brand as a side project to their studies. Their first product was a poncho, made using a lightweight polyurethane (PU) fabric, a textile that is coated in polymer which gives a leather-like effect.
From there, their unisex range was conceptualised around this fabric, creating an offering of outerwear and bags that offer the matte-looking, water resistant benefits of PU fabric.
Its store concepts, including that of Dublin, are fashioned around this cool, clean-lined yet functional approach: the store is a uniquely-built design from long-time Rains collaborative partner, artist Jacob Egeberg.
From custom lighting specifically designed for the store to stainless steel hardware, the space is the ultimate destination for weather-ready outfitting.
You can shop Rain’s spring-summer 2024 collection in-store now, at 21 Wicklow St, Dublin 2
