Rains: How Functional Brand Became a Cultural Atmosphere

"There’s a quiet confidence in RAINS that no longer feel the need to explain themselves. By creating space for curiosity instead, they shift from being worn or used to being experienced; it’s less about the product but becoming an atmosphere."

Born From Rain, Designed for the City

Rainy weather is usually treated as an inconvenience but RAINS saw it as a chance for a design brief. Founded in 2012 in Aarhus, Denmark by designers Daniel Brix Hesselager and Philip Lotko, the brand started with a singular mission: elevate the raincoat from functional necessity to modern essential.

Image: Rains Co-founders Daniel Brix (R) and Philip Lotko (L)

Inspired by Denmark’s notoriously drizzly climate, the brand reinterpreted the classic waterproof coat through a contemporary, minimalist lens where function meets a cultural relevance. This wasn’t about reinventing weather wear, it was about reframing it for modern urban life.

Images: RAINS Instagram Account

What truly sets RAINS apart isn’t just the product that they make, but how rigorously protects its brand identity. Its’ success lies in disciplined brand coherence; consistency across product, visuals, messaging, and experience. RAINS doesn’t advertise loudly, it lets curiosity do the work. 

In one standout moment, RAINS sent out an SS24 fashion show invitation that appeared blank at first, but once it’s held in the rain the message revealed, playing directly into the brand’s identity. The activation aligned product, purpose, and storytelling so precisely that it generated organic attention without ever asked for.

"It forced us to think in ‘’hooks’’, creating something visually arresting and compelling."

-RAINS Brand Marketing Director, Design Week, November 6, 2025.

Rain, Paper, and a Little Time

In a world obsessed with speed, RAINS chooses to slow things down. The brand understands the quiet power of tactile experiences. Not every moment needs a screen, some just need a pause.

Projects like “Getting Dressed Should Be Fun” sticker book transformed minimalist product imagery into an interactive, nostalgic format, inviting consumers to engage with the brand. Similarly, the “For When It Rains” booklet, filled with crosswords and word searches, reframed bad weather as an invitation to pause. These printed pieces are not merchandise in the traditional sense. They function as memory devices designed to slow the audience down, deepen the recall, and extend the brand experience beyond the moment of purchase.

By choosing tactile, time-based engagement, RAINS strengthens long-term brand equity through emotional familiarity rather than short-term visibility.

Images: Moments from the ‘For When It Rains’ booklet

The same restraint carries over to social media. RAINS’ Instagram doesn’t chase virality, it cultivates an atmosphere. Slow-motion rain, fabric under water, restrained compositions that feel closer to a design.

Physical retail follows the same logic. Store openings are treated like set design, often featuring site-specific installations inspired by rain, reflection, and movement. The space becomes narrative, encouraging organic sharing while reinforcing RAINS’ quietly cinematic worldview.

Images (from left to right): RAINS Store, Amagerto / RAINS Store, Williamsburg. Home to ‘Winded’, created by Gustavo Barroso / RAINS Store, Stockholm

After the Storm, RAINS Comes for Your Living-room

And because even main characters evolve, RAINS is now stepping beyond wardrobes into living spaces. With collections like HOME AWAY, modular homeware pieces from brushed steel tumblers to everyday kitchenware, reflect the same clean aesthetic and functional brand DNA. 

Nothing feels designed to impress. These are objects designed for real moments like a rainy Sunday breakfast, a late-night glass of wine, a kitchen that feels calm when the weather isn’t. HOME AWAY doesn’t expand RAINS’ product universe, it expands its emotional territory.

What makes this characteristic development compelling is its emotional logic. Rain changes how we live. We stay in, we slow down, we notice the details. HOME AWAY translates that understanding indoors, extending RAINS from something you wear outside to something that quietly lives with you inside. It’s a bold play in brand extension, transforming RAINS from a fashion protagonist into a holistic lifestyle universe that invites consumers to live the brand. Whether on the city streets or in their own living rooms.

Images (from left to right): HOME AWAY Campaign / At the event, the ‘R’ from the blurred RAINS logo was turned into the menu

RAINS proves that in a saturated lifestyle market, brands don’t need to shout loudly. It reminds us that when your world feels worth stepping into, you don’t need to chase attention.

"I actually think it’s the tiny details that our community notices most, and we take great care to bring the same stylistic and conceptual approach to all those ‘smaller’ creations."

-RAINS Brand Marketing Director, Design Week, November 6, 2025.