Monthly Archives: July 2011

My boyfriend’s mum told me about a recent spread in Vogue titled America the Beautiful. We thought it was funny how prevalent Grundéns raingear was in the bit on Maine. Coated canvas coveralls, hats, and jackets are primarily worn by fishermen and lobstermen in Maine and all over the world. But here in the Vogue pages, they appeared to be quite fashionable when paired with a Moschino skirt or a Cucinelli cable knit sweater. I thought it would be fun to dive into the history of this brand which has been a staple in foul weather gear.

In 1926, Carl A. Grundén founded a collection of the highest quality foul weather gear, primarily to be worn by sailors, fishermen, in a small fishing village on the coast of Sweden. Before the 1930′s this sort of gear was made out of unbleached canvas which was sewn, dipped into barrels of linseed oil, hung up to dry for a fortnight, taken down and painted by hand, followed by another fortnight of air drying, and then the whole shabang was repeated three more times. In the later half of the decade, the first rubberized materials were introduced which were much lighter, flexible, and comfortable. Finally, in the 1950s PVC coating changed the foul weather gear industry providing the ultimate weather protection and durability. To this day Grundéns produces the heavy duty skins that are staples in the commercial marine industry – it’s the “no-nonsense, no-glitz gear that does exactly what it is designed to do.”

Images via Grundéns