Are Vests Appropriate for Work in 2024?

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Here’s something I’ve been wanting to talk about for a while: are women’s vests appropriate for work in 2024? If you’re wearing them, are you wearing them as styled on every site (i.e., by themselves) or are you layering shirts beneath them? Which of the myriad types of vests out there is your favorite — knit, waistcoat, longer/split hem, double-breasted, belted, or something else?

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

woman wears brown knit vest from MM LaFleur
M.M.LaFleur
woman wears white linen vest from J.Crew
J.Crew
woman wears double-breasted sleeveless vest from Reiss
Reiss
woman wears blue split-hem vest in a blue tweed; her pants match
Tuckernuck

I think they’re an interesting trend because they’re more structured/tailored than a lot of the clothes we’re seeing out there, especially for WFH or business casual offices… yet I also feel like for a lot of conservative offices, going sleeveless can be dicey, as can showing a bit of midriff (know your office!) They’re also a quickly changing trend (as you’ll see below), adding yet another 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 kind of the new “shorts suits” in that they seem work-appropriate but probably are not (know your office, of course)…

Recent Trends in Women’s Vests

It’s funny because I feel like vests have been trending for a while now, but they keep changing the exact style — we’ve gone from the drapey knit vests, to cropped sweater vests, to the fitted waistcoat look (still in, I think!), to the latest looks, with longer vests that can be double-breasted, belted, or split hem and intended only to be buttoned at the very top.

(Weirdly enough, we haven’t swung back around to the men’s-vests-over-drapey-blouses à la Labyrinth and Heathers (lousy photos here and here), so clearly that’s going to come next…)

Some of the looks from recent years…

woman wears slouchy knit vest for work
brown knit sweater vest on top of a white blouse
long knit sweater vest

In fact, when we last discussed vests in 2015, this was the little collage I put together…

collage of 4 women wearing vests
 Smythe / Limited / Bop Basics / Rag & Bone

So trends are definitely moving quickly with women’s vests!

My $.02…

For my $.02, I think this is very much a know your office situation. I absolutely adore the waistcoat vest-with-blazer-and-suit look, but in my experience those vests can be pretty low cut, and the buttons can be gapey, also… so in practicality they’ve never 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 look (vest + pants) in general, but I think it’s at its best when there actually is a matching blazer that you have with you in the office.

woman wears gray seasonless wool suiting vest
Argent
woman wears navy blazer and pants with a matching vest
Banana Republic
Mango
woman wears blue vest with matching suit pants
Reiss

Of course, you often see these styled as separates also, and I really like that look also — but I usually see it styled with jeans or matching shorts, and I tend to think those are looks best left to the weekend… but that may be me. You can see examples from J.Crew Factory, Loft, Open Edit, Target, and of course J.Crew.

woman wears beige linen vest with blue jeans
J.Crew Factory
woman wears cobalt vest with matching shorts
Loft
woman wears pink vest with matching shorts
A New Day / Target
woman wears white linen vest from J.Crew
J.Crew

I think the longer belted vests are my next favorite for work — they can be a sleek and polished look, and are usually meant to have something worn beneath them. But I know a lot of women feel that a belted, wrapped look isn’t the most flattering, along with the fact that they’re usually styled sleeveless, so I think we’re only going to see it in practice on a few number of people. Ann Taylor has a bunch of these, as do Aqua and M.M.LaFleur; Spanx has a similar asymmetrical option that’s somewhat between a double-breasted look and this longer vest look.

woman wears brown knit vest from MM LaFleur
M.M.LaFleur
longer black vest belted
Aqua / Bloomingdale’s
beige vest belted with a bow and plaid pants
Ann Taylor
woman wears long black asymmetrical vest with matching shorts
Spanx

I’m biased against double-breasted looks because I almost never feel like a double-breasted jacket is flattering, on anyone. With double-breasted jackets, those are often meant to be unbuttoned when sitting because they gape in weird ways — but if you’re wearing it as a top by itself that’s going to be hard to do. As noted above, Reiss has one of these at the moment, as do Ann Taylor, Argent, and Banana Republic Factory.

woman wears double-breasted sleeveless vest from Reiss
Reiss
woman wears black double-breasted suiting vest
Banana Republic Factory
woman wears black double-breasted suiting vest
Argent
woman wears double-breasted sleeveless blazer from Ann Taylor
Ann Taylor

The split hem looks are, IMHO, the ones that are best left to weekends… the Tuckernuck version above is one of the most work appropriate I’ve seen (Ann Taylor is down to lucky sizes in this one, but it’s another option) — but in stores I’m most often seeing them like this or this, with the midriff exposed.

woman wears blue split-hem vest in a blue tweed; her pants match
Tuckernuck
woman wears split-hem tweed vest with matching shorts
Ann Taylor
woman wears split-hem vest with exposed midriff
Anthropologie
woman wears split-hem vest with exposed midriff
Alex Mill / Nordstrom

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