Do utility vests work in everyday life? We put the trend on trial to find out...
As you'll probably know, utility vests have emerged as one of the hottest trends of the season. But although the likes of Virgil Alboh and Skepta are on board, I wasn’t fully convinced – I just couldn’t really imagine how you’d wear one in every day life without looking like you were going fishing, working on a building site, or worse, about to embark on some criminal activity!
But as some of my favourite Student High Street brands were stocking them I decided there was only one thing for it - I had to try the trend for myself. I chose two utility vests – Jehu-Cal’s unisex utility vest in orange (it also comes in black, but I thought I’d step out of my comfort zone with a bit of colour), and Triple B’s TYCBT utility vest - and took them for a test run.
So it was Monday morning and I had to put together an outfit with the Jehu-Cal vest. I would say my style can be quite plain (definitely not boring though!), so I thought I would just stick to two colours - orange and black. Quite a safe bet if you ask me!
I already had a couple of orange bits in my wardrobe, so paired the utility jacket with some black jeans with two orange stripes down the side, an orange woven long ended belt, a long sleeve black tee, black beanie, sunnies and Nike TNs. Oh, and I topped it all off with a gold mini medallion, because no outfit is ever complete without some jewellery IMO and gold is my go-to colour.
Not bad for a first go if you ask me.
As the week went on, the days got colder, so I had to add another layer. I was pretty happy with Monday’s look, so decided to just switch up the black long sleeve tee for a white Flaash Apparel hoodie. I think the white hoodie worked perfectly with the vest and really took the ‘fit to a new level – which just goes to show how much one piece can completely change a whole look.
On this day I was travelling light (well, for me) as I didn’t need to take all my camera gear into work, so I really got to put the vest to the test. It has multiple pockets (nine to be exact), and I managed to carry all my essentials – wallet, phone, hard drive, memory card case, drinks bottle and diary – it in, no problems. Yes, this vest doesn’t just look pretty, it's also practical too!
New day, new utility vest, as they say (nobody says that, I just made it up). Triple B dropped this dope vest on site and I must say, I caught some feelings for it.
When I first tried it on it was tiny on me and I looked like I was about to pop out of it; I was ready to throw it out the window until I realised it was FULLY ADJUSTABLE! Amazing right?
Anyway, as I was wondering what to wear with it, I was thinking it's got to be all black, right? So I went with it, and paired it with a black Cultmag tee, plain black jeans and TNs.
So I left my house that morning, got on the train… and you know when you just feel like people are looking at you? Yeah, it felt like that. Where I live is quite a wealthy area I would say, and everyone is on the train in their suits and ties and then there's me, wearing all black and looking like I'm about to do something illegal. I think people on the train were probably scared for their lives to be honest. But oh well, I looked fresh and they didn’t.
Thursday - my last working day of the week (jealous?). After the previous day’s train journey I knew I had to step out of my all black comfort zone and add some colour… so I opted for something white (as you can tell, I don’t wear that much colour). So the white long sleeve tee went on with you guessed it… black jeans! I also ditched the black beanie and shades in favour of a vintage Kangol hat and some pink Y2K slim shades from Basement Six (FYI, this was actually the first time I tried on a Kangol hat and I was digging it!). The hat and glasses definitely switched the look up and gave it a bit more of a funky, retro vibe.
So what's my verdit? Well after a week of trialing out utility vests I actually think I’ve been converted. They’re A LOT more versatile than I’d imagined, and there are so many ways to wear them and make them look amazing. Also, they have loads of pockets and you can never have too many pockets. Fact.
