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Kingfisher blue rain suit from Hamilton & elsewhere.

Posted: October 24th, 2017, 8:10 pm
by MacRobin
Hamilton offer this rain suit, rubberised blue satin, although I got one in Feb/Mar of this year on eBay, advertised as new and the photo was the same as Hamilton’s. I paid about £90 and that was reasonable. I note the price has pushed up to almost double that now and we are entering difficult times for traditional rubberised rainwear.

The suit was advertised as US origin, but it had all the hallmarks of Rajkumar Indian. It came with a pouch, very rajkumarish. It has a rather under-engineered zip and Velcro to fasten the front. It also has a hood with drawstrings and the end of the drawstrings are fitted with a weak cone to tug on, but which pulls loose unless you tie an extra knot in the cord. Also rajkumarish.

Although XXL the trousers were more suited fir a slender bummed Indian than a typical Englishman, Id say L to XL and they could do with being a size up on the jacket. Having said that, the disparity between the size of the jacket and trousers was small compared to my first rajkumar purchase through Lorraine in Lancaster, where the trousers fitted but the jacket was XXXXXXL.

We all know that the fabric itself is paramount. How thick is it? What does it smell like? Can you sleep in it? Compared to my first Rajkumar purchase years ago, which was as thick as thieves, the blue satin here is nice and middle of the range rubberised satin, equivalent to what you saw on the streets decades ago, The one I bought was clearly new, it was dusted in fine white powder. The dusting made the rubberised garment smell very astringent and industrial. It fades with wearing but being unsure what the powder was, and what it might do to me, I gave the whole of the rubberised surface several wipings with a barely damp sponge until the astringency faded. The end product after such wipings has a faint smell and if it is Rajkumar, then they have learnt how to remove the heavy industrial tyre smell, which some of us like.

The overall feel of the fabric is classic. Not so light and flimsy as the wave of Asian raincoats, synthetically rubberised on synthetic fibre, with so little weight that you could not tell you were wearing one, and not so heavy as a first generation Rajkumar. Yes, it does feel good when the trousers are adjusted and I can sleep through the night with the window open and 10C outside without a cover and there is minimum condensation although I do like waking up at 3am with serious condensation.

These days men and women alike wear bright red or blue rain jackets so there is absolutely no reason why a male should not go walking on Wilmslow Moss or part way up Snowdon or especially Blinau Festiniogg in the drizzle wearing one of these without feeling self conscious.

If we are to continue to be able to enjoy the delights of a rubberised coat or suit or whatever as an adjoint to latex, then we rely on outlets like Hamilton and their owner, whom I do not know, although I came to be on good terms with Lorraine before (s)he sadly disappeared off the Mackintosh radar. At the same time, Hamilton rely on us to be customers if they wish to be in business, one which I would have loved to be part of, and this ambience will continue as long as the price is right. India can produce what we want at an affordable price provided their eyes don’t rotate like one arm bandit wheels.

In summary, I can’t fault this rainsuit for its rubberised feel. I like wearing it. I like sleeping in it. For the price I paid, less than £100, I divide the price by the number of happy wearings and when this drops below a £1 or even gets to 10p, I feel I have got my money’s worth.

I recommend go easy on the zip and don’t yank. Likewise, the hood is not strongly stitched on and fortunately, my mother taught me how to sew and I restitched the hood on the full width.

Re: Kingfisher blue rain suit from Hamilton & elsewhere.

Posted: June 8th, 2018, 6:22 am
by spitfire617
good clear precise review