I Can’t Escape This Vest
The waistcoat, or the vest as it’s come to be called in our current day and age, was once a staple of the proper gentleman’s everyday attire; a necessary accompaniment to an expertly tailored blazer, slacks, and tie. But in 2024, the garment has been transformed from a stuffy piece of men’s suiting into the platonic ideal of a going-out top.
In 2021, Bella Hadid stepped out almost daily in a different designer or vintage vest, repeatedly wearing an oversize Big Smith quilted vest layered atop even more baggy tops and collecting an assortment of black leather motorcycle vests from Sami Miro Vintage. Since then, brands have taken note: New York label Kallmeyer’s Bodice Suit vest has quickly become the low-key uniform of cool women the city over, followed closely by Staud’s more menswear-inspired Brett vest. (Recent collections from such brands as Khaite, Sergio Hudson, Coperni, Miu Miu, and Prada all featured the humble button-up top, most often worn with nothing else underneath.) And with the warmer weather, it’s only more apparent — at least on the streets of NYC — that the vest has officially become the must-have top of the summer, supplanting the once ubiquitous elasticized off-the-shoulder top of 2016 as the metropolis’s most oversaturated piece of apparel.
Back in the aughts, every “It” girl worth her Tumblr salt at one point graced Mark the Cobrasnake’s home page wearing a thrift-store vest layered atop some ironic graphic tee. Corey Kennedy was photographed slouching around New York and London Fashion Week in updated takes on the jerkin; The City star and professional socialite Olivia Palermo had never met an oversize vest she didn’t love; and American Apparel was selling thousands of cotton versions of the top to every indie-scene kid across the country. Hollywood’s biggest stars of the decade, like Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, and Nicole Richie, likewise couldn’t get enough of these reappropriated menswear pieces, wearing very fitted vests that showed off a ton of cleavage and midriff. These tops would most often be paired with the decade’s extremely low-rise jeans or teeny-tiny shorts, creating the perfect ensemble for clubbing at Les Deux. A look perhaps best exemplified by that iconic 2005 paparazzi picture of Kate Moss traipsing through the mud-soaked fields of the Glastonbury Festival.
Twenty years later, these trendy sleeveless tops are still just as sexy as ever, but they’ve also gotten much more casual. Instead of the previous decade’s skintight styles, people now wear their vests with a much looser silhouette, pairing them with oversize jeans and trousers to create a more laid-back, tomboy aesthetic. The vest’s return to the Zeitgeist can also be credited in part to this year’s western trend ushered in by Beyoncé and her Cowboy Carter–inspired wardrobe filled with ten-gallon hats, American flags, assless chaps, and lots and lots of denim. Plus, as anyone who has watched a single episode of Deadwood will tell you, the Wild West is not really the Wild West without a ton of handlebar mustaches and pin-striped waistcoats. And it isn’t just the pop star who has begun channeling her inner Calamity Jane via her wardrobe. Last month, Katie Holmes was spotted running errands in a dark-blue denim vest and matching wide-leg jeans from Banana Republic.
While all of the above can certainly explain why we now find ourselves returning to our old millennial indie-sleaze ways, eternal trendsetter Hadid isn’t the only one to blame for our current vest obsession. That summer, Kendall Jenner ran errands in a style from Daniele Alessandrini, while Kaia Gerber clearly discovered her signature date-night look, wearing a variation of avest top on multiple evenings out with both Jacob Elordi and Austin Butler. Other celebrities quickly followed suit, like Jennifer Lawrence, who was spotted last summer in a Polo Ralph Lauren linen button-up vest, and Elle Fanning, who wore a cropped Stella McCartney vest to last year’s Hollywood Reporter “Power Stylists” dinner. Sofia Richie even wore a tunic-style one by Posse on her wedding weekend in the south of France. A quiet luxury look that has now trickled down to the masses and become totally inescapable.
But lest you think this trend is yet another of fashion’s flash-in-the-pan looks destined to be relegated shortly to the back of your closet along with those Von Dutch trucker hats of yesteryear, don’t break out the storage bins just yet. While the fact that we’ve been sporting the vest since the 17th century should be proof enough of the true staying power of this particular garment, if you need any further evidence of its stylish longevity, look no further than Lenny Kravitz. The musician has spent the last 35-odd years almost exclusively rocking this top and is living proof that a good vest and a leather pant will never lead you astray. Even when you find yourself wearing them while pumping iron at Equinox.
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