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created 11 months ago | Tagged: |
Winky Dink
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Combine an umbrella and lettuce, and what do you get? Tokyo Noble’s Vegetabrella! … An umbrella that looks like a fresh head of a lettuce when closed.
The Vegetabrella adds color to Japan’s gloomy rainy season, all the while doing what it is made for: protecting people from the rain. When rolled up, especially after use, others might really believe you’re carrying around a head of lettuce.
In the store where the Vegetabrella is sold, you can see these funky-looking umbrellas in custom-designed cardboard boxes, even stamped with their prices. However, these heads of lettuce will cost you a hefty 4,725 yen (just under US$60). But that’s a small price to pay to keep your head dry
The Vegetabrella from Japan's Tokyo Noble is as green and wrinkly as a fresh head of lettuce, and the resemblance grows even stronger when it's rolled up. Just be sure you leave the lettuce in the fridge and take the Vegetabrella along on stormy days or you'll end up as soggy as an un-spun salad. It's hard to say exactly what inspired the designers at umbrella emporium extraordinaire Tokyo Noble to look to the lettuce when brainstorming a new brolly. Was it the sight of relaxed "Zen Cats" like Shironeko blissfully sporting lettuce-leaf sun hats? Did some lazy staffer roll up and fasten their travel umbrella loosely, thus wrinkling it beyond repair? If said bumbershoot was green, the connection is easy enough to make though as for Shironeko, pretty much ANY vegetable (or parts thereof) placed on his head looks as natural as can be
Regardless, the Vegetabrella adds a dash of wit and whimsy to Japan's gray, gloomy rainy season while performing its main task with admirable aplomb. It even looks good wrinkled, as it remains even when fully opened. When closed, folded and fastened, however, the Vegetabrella's salacious salad mimicry really comes into its own – the effect is enhanced even further if the Vegetabrella is still wet from use. Roll it up loosely and you're ready for the pièce de résistance: an integral contrasting color fastening strap that looks like a supermarket produce department's rubber band, right down to the bar code.
