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There is a stretch of October in Montreal — we are in it now — when the forecast stops being useful. Four degrees when you leave for the office, sixteen by the time you think about lunch. A man who dresses correctly at eight is wrong by two, and the one who dresses for the afternoon spends his morning cold. Most men solve this badly, with a coat they carry more than wear. The better answer is the one hanging quietly between our knitwear and our outerwear, and the question of how to wear a vest comes through our door more often this month than any other. It deserves a proper answer, because we think the vest is the most intelligent garment in the store right now.
First, the reputation problem
We know what you picture. A nylon fleece vest in corporate navy, a logo on the chest, handed out at a golf tournament and worn until it dies. That garment did real damage. But the vest itself is innocent; it is the versions it was forced into that are guilty. A vest with a wool face and proper insulation reads as clothing. The conference giveaway reads as equipment, and equipment belongs in the trunk. We said two autumns' worth of posts ago that the vest is the most underrated garment on our racks, and we have not changed our minds — if anything, this season's stock has hardened the position.
How to wear a vest: three rules
Rule one: over a fine knit, in place of a jacket. This is the October uniform for the tie-optional office, and it is the pairing we set up on the table by the fitting room this week. ETON's blue mélange padded wool flannel vest is the argument made in cloth: flannel on the outside, cold-weather construction on the inside — tailoring's fabric doing outerwear's job. That is precisely the trick. The flannel face lets it sit in a meeting without apology; the padding lets it stand on Decarie at 7:45 without regret. Under it, a fine-gauge knit with a collar or a zip — Gran Sasso's light gray wool and cashmere half-zip is the one we keep reaching for, because the gray gives the blue mélange something to sit against. A vest should be darker or quieter than what it covers, never louder.
Rule two: under the coat, later. In three or four weeks, when the fall coat alone stops being enough, the same vest slides beneath it and buys the coat another month of service. One garment, two seasons of work. We make this point every year because the arithmetic is so lopsided: the vest costs less than a second coat and extends the first one further than you would believe.
Rule three — and this one is firm — never over a tailored jacket. The vest goes under layers or stands alone over knitwear. Put it on top of a sport jacket and it crushes the shoulder line and pins the collar, which is to say it ruins the two things a good jacket does best. We watch men try it in the mirror every fall. The mirror always wins the argument.
One more thing the vest does that no coat can: it leaves your shoulders free. For a city of drivers and métro riders — reaching for a wheel, a pole, an overhead rack — that is not a small virtue. It may be the real reason the garment refuses to die.
Fit, and an honest warning
Here is what we tell every man who tries one: a vest is one of the few things in this store our tailors mostly cannot help you with. Zippers, quilting, no seam allowance to let out — there is no rescuing a vest bought wrong, the way we rescue trousers and jackets all week. So buy it right. It should close comfortably over the heaviest knit you intend to wear beneath it, without ballooning when worn over a shirt. The armhole should sit close enough that the garment moves with you rather than around you. The hem ends at the belt — a vest that hangs below whatever covers it looks borrowed. Bring the sweater you'll actually wear under it when you come; fitting a vest over a dress shirt you'd never pair it with tells you nothing. We also have Stenströms quilted wool vests on the rack this fall, including a gray check finished with mother-of-pearl buttons — which tells you how seriously the Swedes take a garment the rest of the world gave away at golf tournaments.
The rest of our fall outerwear is on the floor now, and if the layers you own need adjusting before the real cold arrives, book a fitting — our tailors are in the back, as always. October refuses to choose between morning and afternoon. Wear a vest, and you won't have to either.
