Unless you work at legendary emporium James Smith & Sons, Umbrellas aren’t exactly the most beloved of design objects. We stuff them in bags, leave them on buses, and hurl them away when they inevitably blow inside out. But it was the humble umbrella that formed the foundations of a collaboration between Swedish fashion label Filippa K and Italian performance wear experts Monobi, who have teamed up on a men’s outerwear collection available from the 8th of September.

Whilst Filippa K Man centre their approach on sustainability and typical Scandi minimalism, Monobi have carved themselves a niche as frontrunners in fabric innovation. The concept for the collaboration itself arose from design director of Filippa K Man Alexander Schaper’s fascination with the aforementioned rain-protectors; in his words – “They’re simple and easy to understand, they combine premium and natural materials with functionality, and they have a beautiful architectural shape.”

Setting out to create a new symbiosis between functionality and style, it’s the materials and structural aesthetic of each piece that takes precedence. The collection itself features a limited run of five pieces: a spacey silver foiled anorak, a crew neck hybrid sweater that doubles as outerwear, a three layer constructed field jacket that combines craftsmanship with cutting edge innovation, a bonded double breast trench coat and a polyurethane padded blazer – in other words, all pretty high tech stuff. The result? Functional, wearable outerwear, accented with Scandinavian design traits. Each piece is versatile, durable and designed to last – so an upgrade from your bargain brolly, then. 

@filippak_man