Best Raincoats for Autumn: Fashion Insiders’ Rules for Staying Dry, From Detachable Hoods to £80 Jackets

The best raincoats, it turns out, are rarely chosen by looks alone. In a Guardian fashion feature published at the end of October 2026, three people who work in and around style describe a shared aim: stay dry without looking as though you have dressed for an expedition. Their answers range from a detachable hood to a recycled poncho and a jacket that has lasted two decades.

The case against looking “aggressively practical”

Jess Cartner-Morley, the Guardian’s associate fashion editor, sets out the problem bluntly. Hotel doormen with giant umbrellas are not an everyday option. She also dismisses the umbrella as a solo strategy: good ones are cumbersome, and the flimsy handbag kind are, in her words, “profoundly depressing”. Her approach is to be rain-ready without advertising it, on the logic that a 50% chance of showers is not an emergency.

Her main fix is a coat whose hood detaches, paired with bellows pockets that can swallow the hood when the sky is clear. She says hoods can make coats look juvenile. Her own is an old Barbour, similar to the current Carville style. She also advises setting a Vinted alert, because a similar Barbour appears on the current series of Celebrity Traitors, which she expects to send demand up.

Footwear gets the same practical treatment. She prefers a low block heel to a flat sole, since it keeps jeans hems out of puddles, and a cleated sole for grip and durability. A pull-on M&S Chelsea boot, she notes, works with tights and skirts as well as trousers.

Ponchos, rainbow umbrellas and going low maintenance

Writer and sustainability consultant Aja Barber takes a looser view. She doesn’t want her rainy-day look to differ much from her dry-day one. When it pours, she reaches for a recycled, colourful Ponch poncho, or a rainbow umbrella from Roka. The umbrella, she says, has a social upside: it can be shared with a friend or partner.

She often skips waterproof footwear altogether. In a real downpour she wears a decades-old J Crew rubber Chelsea boot, bought before she gave up fast fashion. She buys much of her wardrobe secondhand, including baggy shorts from Egg, which are expensive new. Her most distinctive tip concerns hair. Since moving to the UK she has dropped blowouts and straighteners, so there is nothing for the weather to ruin.

Longevity over novelty

Author and editor Luke Turner dresses by location. For proper countryside walks he wears a Berghaus Cornice waterproof he has owned for about 20 years. It keeps him dry and breathes well, though he admits it is “pretty ugly”. The company still sells an updated version. In the city he wears an old black rubberised-cotton railway jacket from Levisons. It is solid and waterproof but, he says, a bit like a portable sauna. He also owns a compromise Barbour for occasions in between. The source text cuts off before he finishes describing it.

What the shopping edit costs

The accompanying gallery of this autumn’s gear shows a wide price range. Items credited include:

• a Tretorn rain jacket at £80
• a Lululemon jacket at £198
• a Didriksons hat at £25
• Wellipets wellies at £150
• socks at £14
• a Boden dress at £89

There is even a Barbour dog raincoat at £49.95, modelled by a canine called Percy. The Guardian notes it earns a commission on purchases made through affiliate links.

The takeaway

Across the three contributors, the best raincoats share a few traits: details that adapt, such as a hood that can be tucked away, materials that last, and a willingness to buy secondhand. Cartner-Morley and Turner both favour Barbour, while Turner’s trusty Berghaus shows that function can outlast fashion. Barber’s low-maintenance philosophy may be the most transferable advice of all. Accept that some downpours can’t be avoided, and dress so you’re not upset when one arrives.

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