Local Designer's Versatile Coat Sports A Minimalist Look

Rita O'Boyle tries to market her stylish, light-as-a-feather, water-repellent coats as "travel" coats on the theory that a surprising number of women - including those in soggy Seattle - like to pretend that they don't need raincoats.

Unlined, roomy enough to wear over heavy jackets and sweaters, machine washable, dressy enough for business and virtually impossible to wrinkle, O'Boyle's line of RTO label coats are indeed perfect for traveling. But because they're made of a medium-weight, tightly woven, coated nylon, they're also raincoats.

"I joke that in my mind, RTO meant `rainwear to order,' " says O'Boyle, who's original foray into the coat business allowed customers to special order colors. "But people don't like to think about rain, and don't like to buy something they feel they'll only use in the rain. So it's better to associate them with traveling and having a good time."

Her label really stands for her initials, Rita Therese O'Boyle. And at more than a dozen boutiques in the Seattle area and more in Portland and California, it is becoming popular with women who need a sophisticated, easy-care coat that can be worn for several seasons a year.

"Her coats sell well," said Michael Smith, co-owner of Totally Michael's, a downtown women's boutique that has been selling the coats for more than a year. "I've had women from out of town who tried one on but for whatever reason didn't buy it, then call back when they get home and say they really want it after all. There's nothing else like them out there. I've shipped several out of town."

The coats are loose and designed with an untrendy, minimalist simplicity suggestive of such Japanese designers as Issey Miyake. They close with heavy-gauge snaps and come in five styles which vary slightly in the fullness of the silhouette. There are four sizes available: the smallest would fit a petite, the largest a woman sized 16.

O'Boyle believes in a neutral color palette, and makes most of her coats in black, cream, an olive tone she calls loden and a paler green she calls sage, although she has used bright colors in the past and is planning a red coat in future seasons. Retail prices are just under $200.

Maybe it takes a woman who's lived in rain all her life - and in several countries - to design what strikes some as a perfect raincoat. A native of England who lived in Vancouver, B.C., before moving to Lopez Island in 1984, (she now shuttles between Lopez on weekends and her studio in Seattle), O'Boyle has had a flair for apparel design and construction ever since she was a little girl.

"We used to go down to the outdoor market once a week where they had piles of fabric though you never knew what it would be," said O'Boyle. "You had to be very creative."

As an adult she studied art and was an art teacher when she and her family lived in Canada. When her husband moved his company to the United States in 1984, O'Boyle decided to go back to school to earn the necessary credentials to teach in the U.S.

But along the way she got sidetracked by her old hobby - sewing. And in the late '80s she enrolled in Seattle Central Community College's textile and design program. Within a few years she was designing private label apparel for Opus 204, a Capitol Hill boutique.

Two years later she decided to strike out on her own. She bought an odd lot of drapable, coated nylon and made herself a coat. Besieged with compliments, she decided to try to sell some. Now she has a sales representative marketing RTO coats on the West Coast and has just designed her first line of summer apparel, which will be in stores next spring.