What's worse than rain? Wind and rain. The two together equal blustery showers that for umbrella owners mean eye poking, collapsing and flipped out brollies that is altogether quite hazardous really. Surely it's time for a change.
There is a talent to umbrella holding when walking down a busy street in London. One eye has to focus on the approaching umbrella, the other on its owner. Quickly, one then has to decipher body language as well as height and size measurements to predict who is going to ‘duck' and who is going to ‘raise' their brolly.
For many this reaction has become second nature as the inevitability of rain in England means most of us rarely leave the house without one tucked in our bags. You know the ones, small, ultra light and easy to carry, but for the British weather you may as well hold a plastic bag over your head as a strong breeze soon results in bins filled with long, shiny spokes- the sad story of failed umbrellas.
Hope may be in sight though as Dutch company Senz have come up with a sleek, smart and practical umbrella that can withstand winds of up to 100km/ph. The aerodynamic design began its life after a mutual frustration for inside out, eye-poking, breaking brolly's that meant buying them became as frequent as buying milk! After a good year of head scratching and designing the first model was ready in October 2006 and following production of 10,000 umbrellas, the Senz umbrella sold out in an incredibly fast 9 days.
Its popularity and demand has led to Senz recently winning the Oscar equivalent of the design world- the iF Gold Award. It has also added trophies to cabinets from the Good Design Award and the Deshima Award for the most successful Dutch product introduction in Japan.
Both industry and commercial success for this rather simple but extremely useful product makes one wonder how the umbrella had escaped better design until only now. For years we have become a nation that continues to fight with a contraption that lets face it, unless an oversized golf umbrella (highly impractical to carry around), is suitable only for a light, gentle shower.
Lets hope the aftermath of brolly war carnage will soon see roadsides clear of sorry tales of twisted metal and instead see non-flipping, non eye-poking, long-lasting umbrellas bring a sense of calm and dignity to protecting ourselves from the ever-present rain. 
Hussein Chalayan exhibition at Design Museum in London
Unseen Guy Bourdin
Sunday, 05 April 2009
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