My home is the sea, wax to waves.
Necessity. It is the pressure of circumstance. If your home is the sea, your environment demands solutions. Living by the sea, working on the sea, finding balance with the sea.
Necessity. For many cycling is a necessity. To get paid, to get free, to get refreshed, to get to see new places, to get to meet new people. Whatever the reason is, whatever the impulse might be, whatever it is about the simple act of turning pedals and spinning wheels, it becomes a necessity.
Necessity. In the 19th century, fishermen around the world needed to find a solution to the regular battering that the meteorology of the ocean delivered. Keeping dry in cold temperatures was sometimes a matter of mortality. The Inuits used seal and whale intestines for the best solution to block water in one direction but permit moisture to travel in the other. In Hastings, one of the oldest fishing villages in the United Kingdom, they were doing the same thing with Oilskins.
Necessity. A bicycle is not a metal cage, it leaves you open to all the elements. That’s one of the reasons to love it, but also why it demands solutions to nature’s elemental offerings. Clothing is the equivalent of windscreens and doors and rooves and temperature control systems.
Necessity. You use what is available to hand. Sailcloth and oils. Linseed and other oils were used to stiffen and strengthen sailcloth to make strong outer layers that were cut into coats. Thicker and thicker cotton was used and the oil penetrated the cotton so that water beads off the surface, just as it does on the Suzette. The result was a waterproof, durable outer skin. But it smelt badly and was slightly sticky to the touch.
Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh doubled up and used the stickiness of the first layer to add a second layer, thus making a comfortable and easy to handle garment. As the first to patent the system, he's commonly referred to as the inventor of the rain jacket.
Necessity. If the act itself is a necessity twelve months of the year then necessarily the odds are that you will ride in the rain. The pressure of the circumstances demands a rain jacket that will allow you to see out the saddle time in comfort. To find the balance between blocking the water coming in and letting the perspiration out. Breathability during the efforts and protection during the rest-in-between or simply for the duration of the long steady distance. These are the rides that make the good high-summer ones even better.
Necessity. When space underfoot on what is known locally as 'The Stade' was at a premium, the fishermen of Hastings came up with the same solution as the developers of Manhattan Island. Build up when you can’t build out. They had to give way for increasing tourism and incoming commercialisation. The result is the three storey high 'net shops' that still stand to this day. They stored not just nets but all the fishermen's materials that would otherwise rot if not protected from the coastal weather.
Necessity. Just like the Hastings 'net shops', a cycling rain jacket cannot take up the real estate of a Humphrey Bogart mackintosh or a Steve McQueen Barbour jacket whilst protecting its contents. It has to be sleek like the rest of the road cyclist's package to cut through the wind and to pack into the pocket. So wafer thin smart membrane fabrics are used, reinforced with rip stop weaving and drizzled with the technical details like fully taped seams, a waterproof zip and specially cut cuffs.
Necessity. Necessity created a unique aesthetic in what are now Grade II Listed Buildings, protected for their appealing form and their historical significance. The beautifully black, beautifully wooden, beautifully maintained ‘net shops’ make up the visual calling card of one of Britain’s oldest fishing villages and have photographers and cinematographers flocking like the seagulls.
Necessity. Function is a necessity but that does not mean that form can be forgotten. It can be found in the history of the rain jacket, in the evolution of the fabrics and in the places where they were born. Suzette, for men and women, comes in classic Lemon Chrome, a hue of yellow to act as a nod to the past fishermen of Hastings and beyond who've been battling the elements for centuries.
Footnotes: Photography : Benedict Campbell, with special thanks to Steve Peak at the Hastings Chronicle for permitting use of the beautiful archive photos of the Hastings fishing community during the 1890s.
22/05
