Unable to find a raincoat that was as fun as it was functional, Johanna Senyk teamed up with her friend Peter Hornstein, an Antwerp Academy-trained synthetic materials specialist, to make one that was the total package. Calling themselves Wanda Nylon, the pair first spent two years prototyping materials with European manufacturers with fashionable protection as their guiding principle. Wanda Nylon’s designs all incorporate unusual, recyclable elements, like scratch-resistant PVC, jet black vinyl, eerily reflective fabrics and iridescent foil that flips from sea foam green to electric blue as it crinkles. “We have a fascination with the look of synthetic materials, but also with the sound, touch and smell,” Hornstein says over the phone from their glass-roofed headquarters in Paris’ historic Le Marais district. “The first thing you do is smell it, and it makes you happy.” After completing a transparent trench with a see-through polyurethane body to show off the wearer’s outfit underneath, Wanda Nylon expanded to offer waterproof biker jackets, aviators and parkas, along with rain-repellant total outfits, lighter gear like trousers and T-shirts for warmer weather and even capes for dogs. “Before, there was not a single product you could wear during the rain that would make you feel good,” Hornstein says. “And nothing looked so good that you would wear it when it wasn’t raining, either.” With mesmerizing, rebellious looks like Nylon’s, unpredictable weather patterns don’t seem so rough these days.
Styling Ian Bradley. Model Natty Rey.