Simply the vest - designing the best wildish lifestyle vest

Minimalist, utilitarian clothing is here to stay. And what sums up this functional, everyday style better than a utility vest? Perfect for layering without covering up your outfit, as a place to pop things when you’re fishing, gardening or running errands, and with enough pockets for when your jeans pockets can’t fit your wallet, keys and phone all at once, the vest sums up functional fashion.

Which is why we made one.

It’s called Simply The Vest, and we think it really is the best.

You might be thinking, why has a British bag brand designed a vest? With its multiple pockets and simple design, Simply The Vest is the closest an item of clothing can get to actually being one of our bags. It’s made for both wearing and carrying, which is exactly what our waxed canvas bags are for too. For when you want to keep things simple and leave your bag at home, but still need enough pockets for the bare essentials.

Here’s how we designed the ultimate vest.

The Material

Simply The Vest is made from a dry-waxed flax material, with a bit of added cotton for flexibility. Not only is it dyed and waxed by Halley Stevensons, a fantastic UK manufacturer based in Dundee, it’s also made from one of the most environmentally responsible fibres in the world.

Flax can be produced in Europe with little to no irrigation required. Where cotton requires on average 10,000 litres of water to produce 1kg, flax needs far less, and also doesn’t require the use of pesticides. 

Flax is also a zero-waste crop, as all parts of the plant can be used to produce fibres for material, seeds and straw.

The fibres it produces are much more durable than cotton, so last much longer - flax can significantly increase the lifespan of cloth and clothing it’s used in, and just gets better the more you wear it.

As it’s waxed, it’s also water resistant, so you don’t need to worry if you forget your rain jacket.

So, the flax fabric for our vests is environmentally responsible, uses fewer resources, lasts longer than clothes made out of cotton, and will keep you drier in an unexpected downpour. Read more about the benefit of waxed materials here.

The Design

We spent over a year designing, testing and wearing this vest to make sure it stands up to anything and everything life might throw at you. It works worn over a summer dress or linen shirt, layered with jeans or thrown on top of a chunky knitted jumper - it’s designed for your lifestyle, whatever that might look like.

One of the main things we wanted to get right was the pockets. We needed to make sure it had enough of them (without overwhelming the look of the vest), and that they sat at the right height for you to easily pop things in and out.

The two large front pockets sit just below elbow height, so you can easily dip your hand in and out, or rest your hand inside. They also have an internal divider so you can keep everything organised. The two large back pockets are just as big, and have space for a paperback book, a large sandwich, or anything else you might want to grab at a moment’s notice.

Unlike lots of utility or fishing vests, Simply The Vest isn’t covered in patch pockets or other accessories. The clue’s in the name - we’re keeping things simple.

The Manufacture

We’re aware that anything we make has an impact on the world, which is why we only make 25 waxed cotton canvas bags per week. It’s also why we limit vest production to batches of 10, once a month.

They’re made by hand in the UK, which makes our vests not only British by design, but also by manufacture. We’re super proud to be able to support independent makers and designers.

The Name

Unfortunately, we can’t claim the name Simply The Vest. After asking our newsletter subscribers and followers what they thought, we had some incredible suggestions, including ‘Wild Wild Vest’, ‘Har-vest’ and ‘Vest-ibular’, all better than our original idea: A Wildish Vest - a bag for when you don’t want a bag, but we ended up going with ‘Simply The Vest’ which sums up everything our vest, or gilet, or waistcoat, or whatever you want to call our first item of clothing.

And we love it.

Shop Simply The Vest here.