Castelli Emergency Rain Jacket

Castelli has hit the design brief for its Emergency Rain Jacket absolutely dead centre. It's light and easy to scrunch into a pocket, and once on it proves comfortable with a superb slim fit, excellent windproofing and waterproofing, and well-judged breathability.

This jacket both looks and feels very well made. Castelli's Deluge Light 2.5 layer fabric is light but feels tough, and it's waterproof to a 10,000mm rating. That means the fabric resists a 10 metre water column without leaking, which equates to around 14psi of pressure. Basically, rain's not getting in.

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The seams are sealed to stop it sneaking around the edges, and the zip is waterproof too – yet mercifully easy to slide and adjust, unlike some.

The crosshatched threads of the fabric give just a little bit of stretch, which is useful given the slim cut. This size large is for 100cm chests (about 39in, if you insist), and mine is exactly 100cm. The Emergency Rain Jacket gives a pleasingly slim fit over a baselayer and a typical winter jersey, but anything bulkier – such as a windproof or water-resistant softshell jacket – tends to need that stretch here or there.

To be fair, Castelli only recommends this down to 5°C, where you're unlikely to be wearing anything too thick, but really the only thing limiting it in lower temperatures is the cut. If you like thick layers, consider sizing up.

Castelli also only rates this as two out of five for breathability, which seems very fair. I found it took around 20 minutes of reasonable effort before starting to feel actively warm and sweaty, but once there it seems to stabilise at a perfectly acceptable level. Even over the course of an hour in mild (10°) air temperatures I never felt the need to adjust the zip lower than the neck.

It folds down easily into a centre pocket, and at 159g it's barely noticeable. The shaping neatly accommodates whatever remains in your jersey pockets once you put it on, too – even the bulk of spare gloves, a Buff and a phone didn't cause any tightness across my stomach.

The tail is really well dropped, the neck is pleasingly high and slim, and the sleeves are just the perfect length for me. The slim, elasticated cuffs work very well with gloves, and the 'gutters' around 10cm above stop rain running down your arms and into them.

Two similar gutters angle down the back, and while they appear to function – the water is leaving dirt in the channels – they only really send it down where it's going anyway.

My only gripe is personal – this matt black looks fantastic, but is just too low-vis despite the reflective logo. But that won't bother anyone else who feels the same, as the Emergency Rain Jacket also comes in fluoro yellow and a truly lovely crimson red.

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At £160 this jacket is hardly an impulse buy, but it's reasonably priced against its quality competition. The Bioracer Kaaiman Jacket is £178 and heavier at 403g, for instance, while the Gore Gore-Tex PacLite Jacket is £169.99, is slightly less packable, and proves a little too generous in its sizing. It's also heavier at 222g.

Something like the excellent 7Mesh Copilot Jacket is more still at £220 and 261g, but you can of course get cheaper – the Altura Nightvision Storm Waterproof Jacket is £79.99, for instance, but you're sacrificing even more in terms of breathability and fit at this level.

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The Castelli Emergency Rain Jacket is very well designed, very well made and very good at what it's supposed to do. It even looks good as it does it. I'll have a red one, please...

Verdict

Very capable, comfortable protection that's lovely to wear, if a little slim for the bulkiest mid-winter layers