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Here’s a thing I’ve been wanting to speak about for a even though: are women’s vests suitable for perform in 2024? If you are wearing them, are you wearing them as styled on just about every website (i.e., by themselves) or are you layering shirts beneath them? Which of the myriad varieties of vests out there is your preferred — knit, waistcoat, longer/split hem, double-breasted, belted, or a thing else?

Just to set the stage for you, these are some of the vests I’m seeing out there proper now…

I believe they’re an intriguing trend since they’re extra structured/tailored than a lot of the garments we’re seeing out there, particularly for WFH or organization casual offices… but I also really feel like for a lot of conservative offices, going sleeveless can be dicey, as can displaying a bit of midriff (know your workplace!) They’re also a immediately altering trend (as you will see beneath), adding but a further layer of “know your office.”

So I’m curious — are you wearing vests, readers? Are you seeing all of the vests in your offices, or are these sort of the new “shorts suits” in that they look perform-suitable but in all probability are not (know your workplace, of course)…

Recent Trends in Women’s Vests

It’s funny since I really feel like vests have been trending for a even though now, but they retain altering the precise style — we’ve gone from the drapey knit vests, to cropped sweater vests, to the fitted waistcoat appear (nonetheless in, I believe!), to the most recent appears, with longer vests that can be double-breasted, belted, or split hem and intended only to be buttoned at the really prime.

(Weirdly sufficient, we haven’t swung back about to the men’s-vests-more than-drapey-blouses à la Labyrinth and Heathers (lousy photographs right here and right here), so clearly that is going to come next…)

Some of the appears from current years…

In reality, when we final discussed vests in 2015, this was the tiny collage I place together…

So trends are surely moving immediately with women’s vests!

My $.02…

For my $.02, I believe this is really a lot a know your workplace circumstance. I totally adore the waistcoat vest-with-blazer-and-suit appear, but in my knowledge these vests can be fairly low reduce, and the buttons can be gapey, also… so in practicality they’ve never ever worked for me. Argent has a bunch of vests with matching suits, as does Reiss, Mango, White House Black Market, and Banana Republic. I also like the monochromatic appear (vest + pants) in common, but I believe it is at its finest when there basically is a matching blazer that you have with you in the workplace.

Of course, you usually see these styled as separates also, and I truly like that appear also — but I generally see it styled with jeans or matching shorts, and I have a tendency to believe these are appears finest left to the weekend… but that might be me. You can see examples from J.Crew Factory, Loft, Open Edit, Target, and of course J.Crew.

I believe the longer belted vests are my subsequent preferred for perform — they can be a sleek and polished appear, and are generally meant to have a thing worn beneath them. But I know a lot of females really feel that a belted, wrapped appear is not the most flattering, along with the reality that they’re generally styled sleeveless, so I believe we’re only going to see it in practice on a couple of quantity of individuals. Ann Taylor has a bunch of these, as do Aqua and M.M.LaFleur Spanx has a related asymmetrical choice that is somewhat among a double-breasted appear and this longer vest appear.

I’m biased against double-breasted appears since I practically never ever really feel like a double-breasted jacket is flattering, on any person. With double-breasted jackets, these are usually meant to be unbuttoned when sitting since they gape in weird strategies — but if you are wearing it as a prime by itself that is going to be tough to do. As noted above, Reiss has one particular of these at the moment, as do Ann Taylor, Argent, and Banana Republic Factory.

The split hem appears are, IMHO, the ones that are finest left to weekends… the Tuckernuck version above is one particular of the most perform suitable I’ve noticed (Ann Taylor is down to fortunate sizes in this one particular, but it is a further choice) — but in retailers I’m most usually seeing them like this or this, with the midriff exposed.