Men's Waistcoats & Vests - What They Are & How to Wear Them

Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette! Today's video is all about men's waistcoats and art vests. So first of all, what's the difference between a waistcoat and a vest? The answer is nothing. It's exactly the same thing. I'm wearing one right here and you can see one here. Most of the time, men wear three-piece suits which means it's a matching vest and it's the same fabric as the pants and the jacket. Now while it's easy, in today's video, we want to discuss art vests. What's an art vest? It's basically a contrasting waistcoat or vest that is different than the jacket and or the pants. Let's start with art vest history. It has been around since the 1800s and it was always an elegant way to add color to your outfit and to stand out. Often, they had artistic buttons and intricate detailing. Interestingly, some people even wore two waistcoats on top of each other simply to get a different look. Sometimes, you can see this idea of having two waistcoats in formal morning wear when you add a slip which is a piece of fabric that is buttoned behind your waistcoat and it's like a piped border on the inside of the waistcoat which adds a formality and interesting contrast. So why should you wear art vests? Why should you invest in them? Let's say you have two jackets and one suit in your wardrobe, adding another jacket gives you another outfit. Instead, if you take that same money and invest in three art vests, let's say in a red one, burgundy, maybe blue and green, all of a sudden, you can create 27 outfits. That's a huge increase in what you can do and if you just change the vest, it's a small capital investment but it has a huge visual impact on the feel and look of your outfit. So first, let's talk about lighter colored art vests. They're really easy to combine with a darker suit or darker garments simply because they add this contrast. Ideally, you don't want the vest to be the same color as your shirt otherwise, it all blends in. That being said, a lighter colored waistcoat looks great with so many different things and it will almost certainly be a winner no matter what you have in your wardrobe right now. Historically, dapper gents would wear white day wear vests and you can still do that today but ideally, you go with maybe a striped shirt or something that's slightly contrasting otherwise, you'll just lose it and it looks like a white block. In terms of material, I like a white or off-white velvet or mole or doe skin simply because it's warm in the winter, it adds an extra layer, and it looks magnificent with any kind of dark suits where it's gray, blue, or brown. Alternatively, a buff waistcoat or a light gray waistcoat looks really dapper as well. It also is appropriate for business suits as well as formal morning wear. You can exchange the vest with a stroller suit which is the equivalent to a tuxedo for formal day wear or with a morning coat which is the equivalent to white tie when it comes to day wear. To learn more about morning dress, please check out our in-depth morning dress guide and it'll answer any question you might have about this wonderful dress coat. If you get a waistcoat in let's say a sand color or a buff color, you can actually wear it with the most formal outfits as well as striped suits, semi-formal suits such as brown suits, as well as tweed jackets, and combinations. It's probably one of the most versatile color for vests you can get. Now a vest is a lot easier to fit than a jacket simply because you don't have sleeves and all that matters is the proper length in the front and the back as well as your chest and ideally, you should have a deep cut armhole because unlike with a jacket, there are no sleeves and so a deeper cut provides more comfort for your movement. The back of a vest is usually lined with the lining fabric of the suit jacket or if it's a standalone piece, it may be a contrasting fabric that can be quite bold or quite subtle and very similar in color. If you take it a notch up and you go with a custom vest, sometimes they can use the same fabric in the front and the back. Now that may make you feel warmer but it has the advantage that you can take off your jacket and wear just the vests in case you overheat and you'll still look very dapper. The most important thing when wearing a vest is that you never combine it with a belt. Why you might wonder? It adds a little layer underneath your vest and makes a gap between the pants and the vest and it looks cheap and odd. Therefore, I don't go with side adjusters on your pants or with suspenders but never a belt. If you want to go with vests for your business suits, I suggest you go with single-breasted suits because double-breasted suits will only show a very tiny bit of the vest on top of it. Also, with a double-breasted suit and a vest, you have lots of layers which makes you quickly overheat especially in an office situation. When you start, I suggest to go with solid colored vests for business suits such as gray, maybe buff, light blue, or something darker. Let's say you have a light gray three-piece suit, you can also use that vest and combine it with a charcoal or navy suit. At the end of the day, you have to experiment and see what works for you and your situation. For example, in this outfit, I'm wearing a charcoal brown suit. To learn more about charcoal brown, please check out the article on our website. Overall, it's a little less formal than let's say a charcoal or a navy suit. However, I increase the level of formality by adding a white double-breasted waistcoat. When you have a striped three-piece business suit, it's much more difficult to combine the vest with other outfits simply because a stripe usually requires you to wear at least the same jacket. A great way to split up your three-piece suit is to wear the matching waistcoat and jacket with a different pair of pants. I suggest you don't do that with a striped suit because that's usually a little more formal but you can do it with small pattern suits such as a houndstooth suit. If you like to wear sport coats or tweed jackets, you can basically go with any kind of fabric under the sun and every pattern you want. For example, the mannequin here has a regatta silk and it's quite formal so I try to pair it with a solid shirt and a solid jacket. On the other hand, the jacket I'm wearing here right now is a tweed jacket in green and I can wear it with another kind of tweed jacket for the vest. All you have to pay attention to is that the scale of the patterns you incorporate into your outfit are distinctly different. So large tartan, very fine stripe, and an even finer fabric differentiation that is just based on the weave. That way, I pair a solid tie with solid pants and everything works well together. Another interesting option that's rather bold for waistcoats is a tartan vest. It has its origins in Scotland and one of the most popular fabrics is probably the black watch tartan. Some people like to pair them during holidays maybe with a velvet jacket and I suggest to only combine bold waistcoats like that with solid jackets, otherwise, it's an overload of patterns and it's not flattering. Another popular waistcoat fabric from England is a so-called tattersall fabric. It has basically small checks or mini window panes in two different colors on a lighter background such as pastel yellow, buff, or sometimes even off-white. Most of the time, it comes in basic colors such as green, yellow, blue, or red for the checks and it's a staple that's very bold but because it's classic, you can wear it without a problem. Now, most vests you find these days are single-breasted and usually, they do not have a lapel just like the one I'm wearing here right now. If you want to be a little different, you can add a lapel to your vest because it just adds another layer of something and it's interesting. If you want to make your waistcoat even more formal, I suggest to look into a double-breasted waistcoat. Unfortunately, they're very hard to find off the rack and so it pays to have them custom made. That aside, I really love double-breasted waistcoats because they add a different look to it and they're just different. Because they're a little more formal and I still want to wear them with tweed support coats, I make sure to get them in fabrics that are a little more casual such as this velvet or doe skin or mole skin. In terms of fit for any waistcoat, it's important that it always covers your waistband, therefore, it's better to pair it with pants with a high rise. There's nothing worse than wearing a waistcoat that has a piece of shirt or tie peeking out from underneath of it. It just looks sloppy and amateurish. In my opinion, a fantastic addition to any man's wardrobe is a knit vest. It's warm, it's as comfortable as a sweater and maybe even more so because you don't have sleeves and you can easily take it on or off and it has a very casual character. Personally, I have a blue alpaca waistcoat that I like to travel with. It keeps me warm, it gives me lots of options in terms of traveling, and it never wrinkles. Another popular sweater rest pattern is the fair isle pattern. It was popularized by the Prince of Wales and it works so well because it uses lots of different colors to create that pattern that is so typical for that sweater or for the vest and because of that, it combines very well with all kinds of casual sport coats because chances are, some of the color in the vest is also in the jacket. When you look at relatively inexpensive wedding outfitters, you can see these intricately woven jacquard silks, flashy waistcoats, and I personally think they're rather gaudy and I wouldn't wear them myself. So unless you really know what you're doing, I would stay clear of those vests and go with solid and classic patterns as mentioned in this guide. So last but not least, where should you buy your waistcoats? That's actually a very hard question to answer because not many stores have really good waistcoats on offer in different materials and patterns. So the easiest route for you will be to go custom. I've also had good luck finding them at thrift stores because back in the day, people would wear waistcoats a lot more especially odd vests. That being said, we're actually working on a line of odd vests so stay tuned for those. At the end of the day, I think every man should have at least five waistcoats in his arsenal because the more of them you have, the more easy it will be to combine different outfits that look unique every time even though they're comprised of the same items in your wardrobe. In today's outfit, I'm wearing a vintage tweed jacket that I picked up at a thrift store for under 20 bucks. It has pockets with flaps that are buttoned so that's why I'm not wearing a pocket square. Because it's a sport coat, it has a center vent and so that's perfectly appropriate even though you don't go horseback riding. I combined it with a lighter colored waistcoat which is made of a tweed which has like red flags but a khaki green undertone with brown buttons. It's single-breasted, I'm leaving the bottom button undone because it's a habit that was introduced by Prince Albert and you can learn more about a tradition and the different theories behind it in our article on the website here. The shirt is red and white striped and it picks up the red from the waistcoat and it goes well with the green. As I mentioned before, the pattern scale has to be different in order for the whole outfit to work together. I'm adding a blue silk knit tie from Fort Belvedere to the mix to even out the bold patterns and I throw in a dark brown pair of corduroys from Ralph Lauren which just make the look warm and fall winter like. The shoes are a pair of Allen Edmonds chukka boots and they pick up the color of the waistcoat. They're contrasting to the pants but consistent because they go with the green and the vest. The socks are blue and red striped from Fort Belvedere and they pick up the red in the shirt and the blue in the tie. My cufflinks are likewise from Fort Belvedere and made out of a tiger's eye which is brown and has a change of color effect when you move it in the light which is quite elegant and it works well with the brown pants as well as the waistcoat. My ring on the other end has a blue stone that goes well with the socks and the tie. That way, it's all tied together without being matchy-matchy. If you enjoyed this video, please make sure to subscribe to our channel and sign up for our newsletter so you get more information like this right to your inbox.