CA S’APPELLE ‘LE FISHING’ A trendy adherent sports a vest at Paris Fashion Week.Photo: Getty Images
IN “THE FAREWELL,” a recently released film about multiple generations of a Chinese family, an elderly character named Mr. Li shuffles around his apartment wearing a cropped, abundantly pocketed fishing vest over a polo shirt and khakis. The Saturday afternoon I saw the movie in Brooklyn, I wore a nearly identical vest over my T-shirt.
Mr. Li is on-screen for maybe five minutes total so we never learn what, if anything, he’s got stuffed in those pockets, but I’d like to believe that he and I could bond over the practicality of such a thoroughly compartmentalized vest. For my trip to the theater, I’d stashed mine with a crossword puzzle, two pens, a camera, my phone, my wallet and a pack of pretzels to smuggle past the attendant (concession prices being what they are).
This summer, my vintage vest has basically become a wearable storage locker and it’s in good company. Hoity labels like Gucci and Louis Vuitton offer pricey zip-up vests with prominent pouches. Los Angeles streetwear brands like Stussy and John Elliott market fishing-style vests with a breathable mesh lining or vintage-esque distressing. Even the elegant Australian tailoring specialist Patrick Johnson makes a natty all-navy version in a crisp cotton blend.
IT’s NOT POCKET SCIENCE
Some of our favorite stashers, from standard to sumptuous
From left to right: Authentic Angler Vest, $85, orvis.com; Tailored Topper P. Johnson Vest, $285, pjt.com; Refined Reeler Vest, $120, stussy.com; Pouchy Pocketeer Vest, about $615, nemen.it.Photo: F. Martin Ramin/ The Wall Street Journal, Styling by Anne Cardenas
These designer vests are the affluent descendants of the humble gilets that fly fishermen use for stockpiling lures and the cotton canvas vests that deer hunters throw over camo-printed jackets. A fishing vest may feature a mesh pocket for straining water or a fuzzy patch on the chest for drying flies; a hunting vest, meanwhile, may have a large game pocket, but generally the shapes are quite similar.
The pockets on my own circa-1950s vest were no doubt designed for considerably more rugged contents than my pretzels. Wearing it, I rather feel like someone Norman Rockwell would have sought out to paint—if his subjects had worn Nikes.
Utility vests are part of the wave of functional outdoorsy trends that has infiltrated fashion, from hiking sneakers designed for traction to pouchy cargo pants. Colin Smight, 27, a graphic designer in Brooklyn, N.Y., purchased one of these vests—in his case, a black “cheaply made” number—for $14 in New York’s Chinatown after admiring the practical style on locals of that neighborhood. “If you have a lot of stuff in your pockets it ends up pulling your [pants] down,” said Mr. Smight, who was so smitten with his vest that he’s since purchased two more to wear with shorts in the summer.
‘Having pocket room to spare is a luxury akin to possessing a two-car garage when you only own one sedan.’
But does anyone need 10 or 12 or even 15 pockets running up his sides? Probably not. I rarely fill my own vest’s array of pockets beyond half capacity. The main thing that David Gandionco, 39, a medical device engineer in San Francisco, keeps in his hunting-inspired vest from New York label Engineered Garments is his phone. He particularly likes how its chest pockets make the device easily accessible, especially as smartphones continue to bloat, expanding beyond the scope of pant pockets.
Having pocket room to spare is a luxury akin to possessing a two-car garage when you only own one sedan. Will Bordewyk, 23, a financial analyst in Louisville, Ky., would rather slip on a vest to hold his camera, headphones and notebook than stuff his “pant pockets to the brim.” He currently owns four vests—two modern iterations from Japanese brands and two vintage pieces passed down to him from his “avid outdoorsman” grandfather.
His woodsy vests do turn heads when he wears them in the city over a T-shirts and jeans. “Some of my closest friends and complete strangers, they question me and really think I’m crazy,” he admitted.
Like me, San Francisco engineer Joseph O’Bryan, 23, views his vest as an important ally when it comes to sneaking snacks into a movie theater (“You can bring in the whole candy store”). He wears Engineered Garments’s brown utility vest in the city over wide trousers and T-shirts. “It makes you feel like you’re ready to go conquer the wilderness,” he said, “when you go pick up your prescription from CVS.”
The Wall Street Journal is not compensated by retailers listed in its articles as outlets for products. Listed retailers frequently are not the sole retail outlets.
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