Rainy Days and Mondays: Vintage Umbrellas To the Rescue

As the rain pelts down this morning in London, I'm getting a sense of déja vu. From last summer, and the summer before, when "summer" seemed a hopelessly optimistic term for the ongoing conditions outdoors.

So! You can't change the weather but you can brighten your sightlines with a fantastic vintage umbrella. Pop one of these babies open and the world will know who's great company in a storm:




(n.b. Umbrellas, like suspects, are best shown mug-shot style, profile and head-on)


Top: A graphic beauty with a red bakelite handle . . .




Center: A secret garden umbrella, with the floral riot hidden inside a plain white exterior . . .


Bottom: Umbrella as scarlet petticoat, doing the can-can against the showers . . .


If it ain't gonna rain on your parade, baby, brollies like these are the way to go.

Brolly Good

Another grey morning in Londontown and I'm thinking about how to improve on the forecast. The weather's not going to listen, obviously, but my mood got a lift courtesy of the vintage umbrella department of eBay.

Battenburg lace parasols. Kicky transparent-plastic 60s domes. Victorian bamboo-handled beauties, some a bit tattered, others as fresh as home-squeezed lemonade.

If you like a touch of vintage but don't want to look too costumed, a vintage umbrella is a great halfway house. Shelter under one come the next storm and be a spokesperson for situational advantages.