Rainwear Central Rainwear Forum

How many of you remember these great shops, possibly the forerunner of such modern stores as Primark. They were wonderful places to find plastic rainwear at low prices.

In the mid sixties, they had solid colour plastic macs, usually mini length. I bought a lovely clear mac with white edging to the hems collar and pocket flaps. They also had the trendy black and white mixes so popular then. The mac worn in Steptoe & Son
http://www.rainwearcentral.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9427
is a good example.

In the mid seventies, the long see-through macs with drawstring hoods appeared, and C&A always had a wonderful selection. They continued to stock lovely macs well into the eighties; on a rainy day in 1985, my wife ( who I had never told of my 'fetish') bought a lovely green hooded plastic mac in the Southampton branch, while I stood quivering with excitement alongside her. She later surprised me one night by wearing it to bed, which started a whole new episode in our sex life! Now my fetish was in the open, I collected quite a few more to add sparkle to our nights.

I'd love to hear more from any of you who enjoyed visiting the great stores. They are sadly missed these days.

Do they still exist in Europe?

Yes I was in a C & A store in Vigo, Spain just a couple of weeks ago. Great bargain clothes, didn't see any pvc macs but did spot some nice puffy down coats

C&A were a really decent shop for some considerable time, not only for rainwear but for clothing in general. Sadly like a lot of other shops they lost direction and it got to the stage of who the hell were they trying to appeal to, it turned out to be nobody and they closed down

We have still got a couple of 70's macs from C & A Yellow rubber on blue cotton and White rubber on blue cotton. Still very wearable and looking good.

My parent's took me to C&A in the 60s to get a nylon mac for school, and they had men's PVC trench coats in a variety of colours- in jest they asked if I wanted a yellow one. I have ever since regretted not asking for a black one!

Croydon C&A and Debenhams in the 70s. I to had a white rubber on blue cotton reversible mac form C&A. Also Debenhams always had a good supply of PVC macs. Another good shop was Allders, which also had larger sizes, but a more up market price.
Oh how times have changed.

I have so many memories of C&A stores, sometimes just to walk through the store and glance at the big rack of multi coloured plastic macs would get me excited. My most vivid memory is being with my girlfriend in the Guildford store. The deal was, as it usually was, I would buy her a new dress or something and also buy a plastic mac. She must have been in a 'wind-up' mood that day as she tried on all of the colours, six or seven I think? Another woman was also trying on a semi-clear one and told my girlfriend the blue one suited her, so that's the one we went home with. That evening the sight of her wearing nothing but the blue plastic mac suited her even more!

Phil

Our local C&A had a rail of long macs in the various colours and in 1989 they were £6.99.
Yes I bought one for my then girlfriend.
I gave her the bag that it was in the following day.
And the next time we met she wore the Blue transparent mac!
And as everyone has said the looked hot and sexy!

Yes the C&A shop was the place to visit , just to see smell and feel the lovely Plastic Macs my local one was in Canterbury.....