{"id":8423,"date":"2021-08-31T07:30:48","date_gmt":"2021-08-31T07:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=8423"},"modified":"2021-08-31T07:30:49","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T07:30:49","slug":"simply-the-vest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=8423","title":{"rendered":"Simply the Vest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Rab C Nesbitt\/Daily Record<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

High summer seems like a good time to complete my trilogy of blogs on warm clothing. I\u2019ve done cardigans and dressing gowns, now, as you have guessed from the picture of style icon Rab C Nesbitt, it\u2019s the turn of the vest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years I disdained vests. They were for children \u2013 wool in winter, aertex in summer \u2013 and once I had reached the coming-of-age milestone of getting a bra I wanted nothing to do with them.  How I mourn those lost years! How could I have willingly put myself through those chilly winter, autumns and springs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I now can\u2019t remember what drove me back to vests \u2013 an over-airconditioned office? The realisation that a jumper felt much nicer with a T-shirt under it? Enter one of the earliest, high-spec Next catalogues, featuring a very neat lace-trimmed number that wasn\u2019t so long you had yards of fabric to tuck into your jeans \u2013 and I knew I was home, clothed in the garment I was born to wear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be honest, I\u2019m so \u2018nesh\u2019 that I was probably born to be rubbed all over in goose fat and sewn into my undergarments for the winter, but we\u2019ll draw a veil over that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there is the question of whether the vest is categorically an undergarment that should remain out of view (setting aside the fact that in the US a vest is a waistcoat, and in French \u2018veste\u2019 means jacket). As your friendly fashion fascist, I maintain that a small amount of lace may be permitted at the neckline, and for men (though if you want a small amount of lace at the neckline, guys, that\u2019s absolutely fine by me) the American style of having a white vest visible under a checked shirt is acceptable. (Note: unless you are Rab C Nesbitt himself, such a vest has to be clean, with the neckline not stretched out of shape \u2013 I\u2019m talking to you, Only Connect<\/em> contestant with a brain the size of a planet but without a clue).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vest nearly went the way of the sock suspender, doomed to extinction, when the classic US screwball comedy It Happened One Night<\/em>, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, was released in 1934. When Gable took off his shirt to reveal that he was bare-chested underneath, vest sales plummeted. What a tragedy it would have been if they had passed into extinction. In fact, it\u2019s occurred to me that Bruce Willis ought perhaps to have received some sort of honour for services to vest conservation, given that he spends most of Die Hard <\/em>in his vest. (But can you think of a screen goddess ever being seen in her vest? Yet another symptom of inequality!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re not already a convert, I hope I\u2019ve persuaded you of the life-changing power of a vest (or rather, two vests \u2013 one to wash and one to wear). I\u2019m already looking forward to a winter spent in the company of my greatest-ever holiday trophy. Monoprix, France\u2019s answer to Woollies (as was), inexplicably sell fabulous wool and silk vests in various styles. I\u2019ve bought a beautiful lace-trimmed, long-sleeved charcoal-coloured one, and now feel prepared for anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here endeth my trilogy of warm garment blogs \u2013 and I hope and pray that it will be a good few years before I feel moved to write one on knitted bedjackets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bruce Willis deserves a medal for services to vest conservation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,205,239,67,55,60],"tags":[229,396],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8423"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8423"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8440,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8423\/revisions\/8440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}