Rainwear Central Rainwear Forum

Just realised I should have said Wilson, not McMillan'
Something to do with age again !!
These youngsters - don't know what you missed ! What i miss most are the 'proper' oilskins with a lovely feel and smell about them. Also the 'proper' rubber mackintoshes, again with a lovely smell and feel and look about them.What is called oilskin or even rubber these days bear no resemblance to the original.

I am pretty sure they were made in a suburb of Leeds named Arndale , by a company named Kagan Textiles. Available in various colours for male and female wearers , they were quite pungently rubbery .
One of the bosses where I worked wore a Gannex coat , but whenever he left the office he took the coat with him so I never got the chance to examine it closely . One Friday night however he did forget it , and as I was the last person in there I took the chance to try it on. It was quite heavy with an overpowering rubbery aroma and I was just getting used to the feel and the smell of it and getting quite excited too, when I looked out of the window and saw his Rover 3.5 Coupe returning to the car park.
I managed to quickly replace it on his coat stand , hanging it up on its' hanger and got out of his office before he came back in . Luckily he wasn't aware of me trying his Mac on .
Several years later I bought one of my own from a second-hand shop - it still had that overpowering rubbery aroma and I liked it very much . Happy Days !!