I appear to be the only Mum at school without a padded gilet . . .

[ellenrosethenotsosecretpirate]

am I missing out?

(tis much easier to drive in a gilet than a jacket)

Ah - but I get too hot with arms on ! Maybe it depends on where our cold spots lie ?

Gilets very hot round here - Hampshire - very horsey area, must say that dd and I both wear gilets a lot - sometimes Boden shaggy ones and sometimes quilted down ones ! When are those fur ones going to go out of fashion - I didn't buy them 3 years ago as I thought they would be over before I got one - and now I am regretting it I think !

Mrs B,
Take the jacket off and turn the heating on!

oh I don't get them - if it's cold enough to wear a padded thing against your body don't your arms deserve to be warm too?

GDG has a couple, they do look nice but I go for practicality and I'd need my arms to be warm

gilets are very good for doing physical work in - e.g mucking out the horses - keeps your arms free for wielding a pitchfork, and stops you getting sweaty underarms.

Not so practical for standing around at the school gates though.

my hot-air blowers are so puny they could barely warm a hamster, and besides, need to be permanently pointed at the windscreen to avoid fogging and subsequent frantic wiping with duster and resultant wild swerving across the lanes...
better to be chilly in a gilet methinks

so if I'm understanding this right the gilet is actually the fashion equivalent of the 4x4

arf

Although I don't dislike 4x4 per se, I really don't people driving them for the sake of. Unfortunately, (part of me daren't say this) but I think all too often it's woman who don't know how to drive them; I'm always getting cut up on roundabouts, almost driven across and generally pushed around by woman in 4x4.

Anyway, my gilet is gorgeous. It's a Musto and I wear Argyll wellies, not for any other reason than the fact that they are great for doing what I want them to do.

It's 'towny' folk who don't understand how useful gilets are

I must admit to buying a cream one a couple of years back from Per Una, a highly impractical colour as my foundation would rub off my face onto it!
I also saw someone quite a few decades older than me wearing the same one and it hasn't seen the light of day since.

i'm wearing one now, dare i admit it came from New Look at least 10 years ago, it is very cosy! But it is black and quite sleek looking.

LOL at this thread - most sniggerable.

They look great on some men, particularly tall ones w/slender build.

One of the professors is wearing one today and he looks great in it.

Message withdrawn

Its very horsey around here & all the mums wear them.Mostly Musto or Joules.I am considered horsey as I take dd to pre school in my wellies & waxed jacket,I am always being asked how many horses I have (none).

I saw loads of people in Rome,wearing quilted nylon jackets,like the ones old ladies wear in the countryside.Are they going to be the latest thing?

Horses honk, people!

Livestock is pongy.

Eeewwww.

Good post Expat!

Mirage - for some reason Italians of a certain age love 'le style Anglais' - the whole check shirt, cashmere sweater, wax jacket look on men and the horsey pearls look for women.
Every year Benetton (of all places) sells thousands of those quilted jackets with corduroy collars to Europeans who think they're English and therefore somehow classy...

As last pathetic vestige of my French degree centuries ago,I can only refer to them as 'zheelay' thus evoking looks of derision and horror.

Agree that horses honk-had a horrd morning at a stable yesterday as dd insists on riding.

Car is a mess too.

huge confession:

i own a boden 'shaggy' gilet

i have no idea why i got it. have worn it once.

if anyone would like it they are welcome to it - not that they'd declare so here

Mrs Badger,thanks for the explanation. Perhaps they thought I was classy-I wore my waxed jacket as it is the only coat I possess.Now theres a first!

God, I love mine. I bought them in Milan so they can do no wrong.

DH is in the army (away in Afghanistan boo hiss!) and it's a very "posh officer's wife" thing to wear. The padded gilet, the knee-length skirt, the knee high boots (not too high a heel, you understand) the pearls, the Joules rugby shirt with the collar turned up... I could go on and on