Rainwear Central Rainwear Forum

I grew up in New Jersey (born in 1963) and remember wearing my older brother's yellow rain slicker with the “astronaut” or helmet hood for the first time at the age of 4. It was a cold December downpour and I rode with my parents who were house hunting. I loved the smell and feel of schoolboy raincoat rubber and my love for rainwear began. Upon starting school, I got my own raincoat and remember wearing that yellow slicker and astronaut hood during the second week of school - it was a flooding downpour. My friend wore similar a green slicker with the brass clasps and red rubbers.

Subsequently, the rain slicker was only worn when it was really raining heavily before school or a remnant of a hurricane was in the forecast. My mom thought the raincoats were hot to wear, so it really had to be a downpour for it to come out of the closet. I was jealous of those days when many others wore their raincoats to school and I didn't. Even then I felt the urge to enjoy raincoats. When I was home alone, I would open the closets and smell the raincoats of other members of the family as well as my own and was taking in the wonderful aroma of my rubber coat and ZEPEL treated cloth of my older brother's single breasted balmacaan made by Aqua-Haven, a brand of the Robert Hall stores. He wore this coat with a coat and tie to school. He worked part-time after high school in a local library and I remember him coming home through a pouring rain and coming upstairs with the raincoat thoroughly saturated and shining wet. He complained about the "monsoon" but the sight and smell of his wet raincoat was wonderful.

I remember being hustled off to church and Sunday school in the yellow raincoat, feeling very conspicuous as I jostled down the aisle to the pew in my slicker. One time when visiting my grandparents, my great aunt took me to church on a humid drenching day. Since I did not bring a raincoat, my aunt cut a vinyl adult's Pac-a-mac to the right length to fit. The rain and the humidity were equally unrelenting and as I sat on the bus with my great aunt I delighted in the interior sweatiness of the opaque vinyl raincoat.

That Christmas my great aunt gave me a traditional tan balmaccaan made by Briarcliff. It had a thick plush winter liner and I wore this coat to school more often. With the leather legal briefcase that was my schoolbag, I looked like a little lawyer, going to school or so my classmates told me. I loved that raincoat then even more than the slickers it replaced. My mom liked to warm the raincoat up in the morning in the furnace closet. It was nice and toasty when you put it on and you could smell the chemical water-repellent which made it more effective - the heat from the furnace made the renewal of the chemical waterproofing come out the same as when after you gave it the recommended touch-up ironing. As I stepped out that morning into heavy steady rain I could watch the rain bead up and roll off my coat.

When I outgrew my original tan coat, I took over my older brother's black Aqua-Haven balmaccaan, which I nicknamed my "soaker." Then the raincoat fun really started. By that time I was about 12 and I had a mile walk each way to a new school. That September was exceptionally rainy and I remember walking home in heavy rain every day one week and frequently thereafter through the fall. I hated umbrellas and the rain came down relentlessly soaking the cloth raincoat - hence "soaker."

My mom saw the need to purchase heavy vinyl football team logo ponchos for my younger brother and I for the long walk to school one night at Sears Roebuck and that opened a whole new chapter of raincoat fun........

Football season is a wonderful time to see pvc "logowear" everywhere in poncho's, rain jackets, etc. It is always socially acceptable even if you are 'attracted' to the rainwear! Being a sports fan and a tailgater I have a robust supply of pvc based waterproof teamwear! Several years ago there was a line of rain jackets and poncho's in clear pvc made by Pro Player as well as Reebok. Anyone recall?

In the 90's I went to a football match (English not American and NOT "soccer"). I paid no attention to the game and to this day can only recall the reaction of the crowd AFTER the two goals because I was transfixed by a woman in front of me wearing a clear plastic jacket with an Adidas Logo in blue. I loved it when she stood up to cheer and always seemed to adjust the jacket before sitting down when the action calmed. She had long black hair that dropped into the hood. I think that helped my liking for plastic jackets! By the way, tailgating in the U.K. Is when someone follows too close behind another car!

Thanks for sharing, Joe. My affinity for wearing raincoats and rainwear started in my youth as well. One notable raincoat I remember from my childhood was a Looney Tunes rain slicker bought from the Warner Brothers Store during the 1990s. It was a shiny bright yellow, had a zip front with buttons, and a detachable hood. It was made out of a heavy duty vinyl so it creaked loudly if you moved around in it. There are quite a few photos of me in the family photo album donning this yellow slicker. For the first half of my youth up to about age 12, my family lived on the west coast, so it didn't rain very often, rarely did I get to enjoy wearing a raincoat out in the rain. Around age 13 we made the move to the east coast where it rained much, much more. Sadly, I don't have any stories of walking home in the pouring rain during middle or high school like you do, nor did I see many of my peers wearing raincoats. During my teenage years I did start to build up a collection of rain gear. During the late spring, all throughout the summer, and early fall I would put my rain gear to the test in heavy downpours brought about by thunderstorms!

Oddly enough, my time so far in college is where I have stories of wearing one of my many raincoats out in the pouring rain. One experience I always think back to is from one of my night classes I had in my undergraduate years. It was a 3-hour long class. That day, heavy rain was forecasted for around the time class would get out, but it was something like a 30-40% chance. As I prepared to leave for class that day, I went back and forth between bringing my above-the-knee yellow Grundens raincoat or not. It really boiled down to whether or not I wanted to spend a few seconds taking the raincoat off the coat rack in my room and folding it into my backpack. I decided to bring it just in case I got lucky. Sure enough, as class was about 45 minutes from ending I saw the all too familiar flash of lightning off in the distance when I was looking out the window. Class ends and I head to use the restroom. While I'm washing my hands,heavy droplets of rain begin to pelt the window with ferocity. I peek out the blinds and see that there is a full on downpour going on outside. I rush down the stairs to the ground level, put on my raincoat, and headed out into the pouring rain. My car was about a 5-minute walk. I had absolutely zero intention of spending 5-minutes in the rain though. I turned a quick walk to my car into a leisurely stroll around campus in a heavy, lashing downpour. I tightened the hood as much as I could around my face and had the wrist snaps done up. My face and legs below the knee were absolutely soaked though. My raincoat glistened in the light from the lamps around campus. I witnessed many students that were totally unprepared for the weather that night. About a minute after I entered my car and started driving home, the rain died down.

thanks for this hystory

Just came across this forum post.
I know I’m a few years behind but I wondered if I could share with you how I became who I am today.
Back in the late 60’s/70’s, as a young boy, I was living with my parents and an older brother (by 6 years) in a north London flat that was part of a three storey townhouse.
The ground floor flat belonged to an elderly couple, I believe there were the owners.
We had the first floor flat and top floor flat was occupied by a single mum and her young daughter Susan.
Susan was a couple of years older than me but we developed a very good friendship and would play together regularly at weekends, evenings and school holidays.
It was not unusual for Susan to join us on day trips out during school holidays, allowing her mum to go to work. My brother didn’t like Susan but it was great for me because it felt like I had a sister! Once or twice on these day trips, Susan would bring her shiny black plastic raincoat with coloured spots on it. I noticed it but didn’t pay too much attention to it. More shortly….
We were virtually inseparable and we also used to do sleepovers before sleepovers became ‘a thing’. More on this shortly.
Aside from the usual board games, puzzles and jigsaws, it was not unusual for us to role play games, typically mums and dads, doctors and nurses plus any other variation you can think of.
Susan being older than me, always decided on who was who in these games. When it came to doctor and nurse games, she always wanted to be the doctor! I would argue that I couldn’t be a nurse because nurses are girls.
And then it happened! She said I could one of the doctors that did operations, a surgeon. Susan insisted that I wear her plastic raincoat back to front like an apron! Again I objected but knew I wasn’t going to win this argument.
She held the coat open inviting me to hold my arms up in front so she could slide the coat around me.
Within seconds of being enclosed within this coat, and she started to button it behind me, I started to feel a tingling inside me. This was a new feeling for me but I couldn’t tell you what it was! I know now, of course.
We played for ages with me wearing this raincoat. At one point I pulled the hood up over my face and my senses were overwhelmed by the plastic smell! I was hooked!
Every time, thereafter, I would look for an excuse to wear the coat in any game we played!!
I even wore it to bed when we had sleepovers.
Because we lived in the same house effectively, our sleepovers were quite regular.
But there was one problem that I had when it came to sleeping. I was also a bed wetter!!!
On those occasions when I went to sleep in Susan’s bedroom my mum made me wear plastic knickers.
I used to beg her to not to make me wear them, but her response was always the same!
‘When you can sleep through consecutive nights without wetting the bed, then I will stop but until then, the plastic pants remain!’
This actually continued until I started secondary school!
I was always worried that Susan would find out and take the Mickey out of me! When she did find out, having seen me pulling my pyjama bottoms up, she asked me about them.
When I explained, her response was surprising!
‘I used to do that but I grew out of it. It happens all the time and you too will grow out of it.’
At this she hugged me and I was never worried about it and her knowing again.
But over time of our playing together, I used to associate the plastic knickers and the raincoat together.
So it was that the seed was sown and from that day I became hooked on plastic and ultimately PVC wear.
As we got older Susan and I drifted apart. Not surprising really. I inherited the coat because Susan put a growth spurt on and developed a very ample chest!!
Susan and her mum eventually moved away, up north I believe, and was never heard from again.
As I got older, I continued on the plastic and PVC route, which in turn developed into a cross dressing fetish.
Today, I still have a large collection of raincoats. My wife knows of my dressing and raincoat fetish. She thinks I’m weird because she doesn’t understand what it is about raincoats. I’ve tried explaining and she’s even worn some for day to day as well as for play nights but she finds them cold and clammy to wear.
Fortunately, I do meet with like minded folks who also enjoy the plastic and pvc wear. I also ‘experiment’ with some ABDL dressing, the link to plastic being obvious. Not into nappies and soiling etc. just love the role play and having a daddy or mummy to play with!!
I now go by the name of SuzySue, in tribute/deference to my childhood friend Susan!
I invite comments and thoughts.
Kind regards
SuzySue

Lovely story. And got me excited reading this one .