I Can’t Escape This Vest

Back in the aughts, every “It” girl worth her Tumblr salt at one point graced Mark the Cobrasnake’s home page wearing a thrift-store vest layered atop some ironic graphic tee. Corey Kennedy was photographed slouching around New York and London Fashion Week in updated takes on the jerkin; The City star and professional socialite Olivia Palermo had never met an oversize vest she didn’t love; and American Apparel was selling thousands of cotton versions of the top to every indie-scene kid across the country. Hollywood’s biggest stars of the decade, like Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, and Nicole Richie, likewise couldn’t get enough of these reappropriated menswear pieces, wearing very fitted vests that showed off a ton of cleavage and midriff. These tops would most often be paired with the decade’s extremely low-rise jeans or teeny-tiny shorts, creating the perfect ensemble for clubbing at Les Deux. A look perhaps best exemplified by that iconic 2005 paparazzi picture of Kate Moss traipsing through the mud-soaked fields of the Glastonbury Festival.

Paris Hilton in 2006.
Photo: David Lodge/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Twenty years later, these trendy sleeveless tops are still just as sexy as ever, but they’ve also gotten much more casual. Instead of the previous decade’s skintight styles, people now wear their vests with a much looser silhouette, pairing them with oversize jeans and trousers to create a more laid-back, tomboy aesthetic. The vest’s return to the Zeitgeist can also be credited in part to this year’s western trend ushered in by Beyoncé and her Cowboy Carter–inspired wardrobe filled with ten-gallon hats, American flags, assless chaps, and lots and lots of denim. Plus, as anyone who has watched a single episode of Deadwood will tell you, the Wild West is not really the Wild West without a ton of handlebar mustaches and pin-striped waistcoats. And it isn’t just the pop star who has begun channeling her inner Calamity Jane via her wardrobe. Last month, Katie Holmes was spotted running errands in a dark-blue denim vest and matching wide-leg jeans from Banana Republic.

While all of the above can certainly explain why we now find ourselves returning to our old millennial indie-sleaze ways, eternal trendsetter Hadid isn’t the only one to blame for our current vest obsession. That summer, Kendall Jenner ran errands in a style from Daniele Alessandrini, while Kaia Gerber clearly discovered her signature date-night look, wearing a variation of avest top on multiple evenings out with both Jacob Elordi and Austin Butler. Other celebrities quickly followed suit, like Jennifer Lawrence, who was spotted last summer in a Polo Ralph Lauren linen button-up vest, and Elle Fanning, who wore a cropped Stella McCartney vest to last year’s Hollywood Reporter “Power Stylists” dinner. Sofia Richie even wore a tunic-style one by Posse on her wedding weekend in the south of France. A quiet luxury look that has now trickled down to the masses and become totally inescapable.

From left: Jennifer Lawrence last year. Photo: Robert Kamau/GC ImagesElle Fanning last year. Photo: Donato Sardella/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images

From left: Jennifer Lawrence last year. Photo: Robert Kamau/GC ImagesElle Fanning last year. Photo: Donato Sardella/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty I… more
From left: Jennifer Lawrence last year. Photo: Robert Kamau/GC ImagesElle Fanning last year. Photo: Donato Sardella/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images