The kingfisher of the old story built her nest on the open sea, and for seven days either side of the winter solstice the gods stilled the water so it would hold. Those were the halcyon days: a small calm, arranged on purpose, in the middle of the weather.
That is what an umbrella is. Not armour against the rain — a room. One metre across, held at arm’s length, yours for the length of a street. We think the inside of that room deserves a pattern as considered as the lining of a good jacket: a regimental stripe, a pin dot, a tartan, seen by nobody but the person underneath.
Eight panels, one square
Every Halcyon canopy is printed as a single square and cut into eight panels. We draw each pattern in a wedge-aware way, so the rib seams fall where the pattern turns — the chevron you see where two panels meet is deliberate, the way it is on a sewn striped canopy.
Named, not numbered
Each pattern carries the surname of a European house whose name has outlasted its weather: the Harcourt, the Lusignan, the Villeroy, the Coligny, the Vendôme. The names are shared with our sister house, Talisman Tie. Own the Villeroy tie and the Villeroy umbrella carries the same stripe.
Made to order
Nothing sits in a warehouse. Your canopy is printed when you order it, which is why it takes a little longer to arrive and why we can keep adding houses without ever discounting the last one.
Halcyon is drawn in Belgrade and sold from Croatia to the top thirty economies of the world. Write to us at halcyonumbrella@gmail.com.