A good friend of ours was in Copenhagen recently. Sophie is from Bordeaux and she is a designer who owns a cool, French brand of rain clothes called NOOC. In the photo, above, by a Copenhagen canal Sophie is wearing one of her rain ponchos.
While we here at Cycle Chic are rather sceptical about all these "urban cycling clothes" we're seeing cluttering up the market, rain gear is a universal need and, often, in desperate need of an injection of style. Sophie and NOOC have succeeded in bringing some panache to the often geeky world of rain gear for cyclists and pedestrians.
Here's Sophie in NOOC's Perfecto jacket.
Here are some shots from NOOC's catalogue, taken in Bordeaux where the brand is based.
NOOC's products are a classic European mix. A French company acquires recycled material from Belgium and gets the clothes produced in Portugal. Which we find to be very cool. China often gets a bad rap. There are quality factories, not just crappy ones that exploit workers. But an all-European product is definately something that gets our attention and respect.
NOOC's website is currently only in http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifFrench, but the brand is growing faster than fast and an English version will hit the internet tout suite.
It's not all girly clothes, either. Dapper gentleman have great rainwear options in the NOOC range.
All in all, Cycle Chic is fond of NOOC. And we're looking forward to handing out some cool NOOC products to the chic'est cyclists in Barcelona on June 17th, when we'll be photographing the most fashionable cyclists in the city during the Cycle Chic Bloggers Conference, in assocation with BAAC.
