Journal

The umbrella started as a sunshade for royalty, spent centuries as a status symbol, and only became rain gear a few hundred years ago. The short version of a very long history.

They look nearly identical folded up, but a parasol and an umbrella are built to solve opposite weather problems.

It isn't bad luck and it isn't a cheap umbrella — it's basic aerodynamics. Here's what's actually happening in the two seconds before your umbrella flips.

Most people treat an umbrella as an afterthought grabbed at the door. Here's how to actually dress it like the rest of the outfit.

Two very different answers to the same problem. Pasotti and Fulton rarely compete for the same buyer — here's how to tell which one you actually are.

The months an umbrella spends forgotten in a closet do more damage than a full season of actual rain. How to store one properly between uses.

Gold-plated brass rewards the right care and punishes the wrong kind. How to keep an Il Marchesato handle looking new for decades, not seasons.