The winter holidays may have come and gone, but it is still winter, even if the groundhog saw his shadow last week. That means it should be pretty cold, so grab yourself a sweater.
This Christmas, I not only had the joy of receiving several pairs of argyle socks (seven to be exact), but I also received an argyle sweater and a sweater vest.
I have always held a high regard for the “Christmas sweater”; my father gave me a red sweater vest while I was in high school and I would wear it on Christmas, as he wore his.
Now that I am in college, my family goes to Chicago every year for Christmas to make up for the fact that I don’t have spring break at the same time Easter falls and can’t visit then — I usually forget the vest at home in this case.
However, my new vests reminded me of how much I enjoyed the old one and, since they are argyle, gave promise of working well with my extensive, and still growing, argyle sock collection.
Argyle vests don’t have to be a holiday item; they look wonderful anywhere. I didn’t have a suit with me when I went to my cousin’s graduation this break, but one of the sweaters worked perfectly.
I have some general comments in promotion of sweaters and vests. I personally feel that it is not fashionable to wear a “button-down shirt and tie” combo, which is exactly what it sounds like — a white button-down shirt and a tie.
I bring this up because, occasionally, when men attend a formal gathering and wear two-piece suits or blazers, they get hot and take off their jacket to be more comfortable. This leaves the tie hanging out and falling into the salsa dip at the buffet table and more than likely, after sitting on a couch, the shirt becomes untucked in the back and begins to look like a large welt. It’s just tacky.
I say if you have to take your blazer off, at least have a vest. A close friend back home, who always dresses very well (he should probably be writing a fashion column instead of me), wears vests with button-downs and says that they are quite comfortable year-round.
Instead of looking like a slob with your shirt bunching up around your middle, you could keep a trim and sleek image by wearing a vest. Also, when wearing a sweater with a normal neck, you don’t have to wear a tie because it won’t be easily seen.
However, this rule does not apply for V-neck or wide-neck sweaters. After that presentation, you might be asking: “Where should I get my vest? The last time I had a vest was when I had to get one that matched my date’s dress at prom.”
Fear not; the color choices may overwhelm you, but gray is the easiest way to go — it works well with white button-down shirts and most dress pants.
Three piece suits default to the color of the suit — black jacket, pants and vest. I wouldn’t recommend a gray vest with your typical blue blazer; skip the blazer and just wear the vest. If you want to be a little more exotic, a maroon color works well for a first.
Sorry to single out an a cappella group, but the All-Nighters’s concert attire is comprised of a range of colored vests that works well and looks very professional.
I will mention prom vests once again; to save money on a rental, you might have picked up one of the vests that lacks a back. These are nice if you plan on wearing your jacket all night. However, when you took it off when it got warm on the dance floor, didn’t you look silly?
I would warn against buying one of these; they don’t work very well if you are wearing them to a social gathering, let’s say, a corporate event for your place of work, because they seem incomplete.
Vests should be complete; the back will be black or another dark color and the front will be whatever color you decided to go with. Also, your prom vest probably had a distinct sheen to it, like silk or certain polyester blends.
This is perfectly fine, but you might want to keep setting in mind. If you were attending a funeral, it would be undesirable to be wearing a gleaming vest. A flat color and material would work better . . .
I’d like to take a moment and mention a few brands of sweater vests. Cremieux, which by my investigation seems to be of very high quality, provides a large selection of fine sweater vests. Those of you who read my argyle socks article last semester might have wanted me to include my favorite brand. Sadly, I forgot at the time (it’s not written on the socks, but on the packaging).
The name is Merona, which is an exquisite name for an exquisite sock. Merona also made my other sweaters, which are just as soft and sleek as the socks.
I will recommend that you match argyles and argyle sweaters. I now have a sweater vest of Hopkins colors to match the argyles I mentioned last time. It might be a tad harder to find a matching pattern rather than just a matching color, as explained in my polo-argyle matching guide — if all success is for naught, having at least one color match is preferable.
If you are still wary about buying a vest, there are other applications. If you look up “Ralph Lauren Vests” on the Internet, the most common picture shown is a guy in golf attire and a sweater vest. Surely you don’t need to play golf, but it’s how modern day has us portraying “rich and relaxed.” Remember Animal House?
The villainous yet stylish fraternity members wore sweater vests. I’m not in a fraternity myself, but I’ve heard and appreciate that some of our Greek life members take pride in how sophisticated they look during their Date Parties.
Either way, fraternity or not, you can look stylish and appropriate when you remove or decide not to wear a jacket, and instead wear a vest or sweater to offset the bland awkwardness of a simple dress-down and tie.
