The Best Sweater Vests Help You Come Out Swinging

Looking for the best sweater vests for men, huh? Figures. What is it about those sleeveless, prep-coded jumpers that folks just can’t seem to quit? Whatever it is, it’s helpful that the best sweater vests for men have come a long way from their “nerd-alert” days. Once the domain of golfers, grandpas, and football coaching legends like Jim Tressel and Mike Ditka, the sleeveless knit has officially entered its leading man era.

Because what was once sartorial shorthand for dweebdom is now a five-alarm hunk-hugger seen on everyone from Jeremy Allen White and Harry Styles to Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal at Cannes. (Okay, technically Pascal’s in a T-shirt, but you get the idea.) Tyler, the Creator, too, has made it part of his signature look.

And hey, if that crew can pull it off, why can’t you? With both transitional weather and the great prep revival upon us, we’ve rounded up the best sweater vests for men right now—proof that you don’t need to be chasing a PGA tour card to free your arms and keep your vitals warm in style.

The Best Men’s Sweater Vests, According to GQ

The Best Overall Sweater Vest

Land’s End School Uniform Sweater Vest

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The Best Wool Sweater Vest

Uniqlo Merino V-Neck Vest

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The Best Patterned Sweater Vest

RRL Fair Isle Sweater Vest

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Best Overall Sweater Vest: Land’s End Uniform Sweater Vest

Land’s End

School Uniform Sweater Vest

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Pros

• Laughably unbeatable price
• Modal-cotton blend is soft but not flimsy
• Thin, fine-gauge knit is ideal for layering

Cons

• Armholes are cut high for a cozy, shoulder-hugging fit; size up accordingly if you’re rambunctious
• Fine gauge won’t provide a ton of warmth

Available in a few different seasonal colors, Land’s End’s signature sweater vest is proof that sometimes the most reliable thing in your wardrobe isn’t a splurge—it’s a sleeper hit. For the “low risk, high reward” price of just 40 bucks, you can end your layering quest right here. The cotton-modal blend keeps this vest in shape no matter how many times you wear or wash it, and the red, black, or forest green colorways are already dying to be worn at all holiday events. So whether you want to flex your inner finance bro with a more fitted cut, or size up over a T-shirt for that “cool substitute teacher” energy, this vest has got you covered in more ways than one.

Best Wool Sweater Vest: Uniqlo Merino V-Neck

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Pros

• Lightweight and made for layering
• Soft, drapey feel that’s comfortable against skin
• Clean, true-to-size fit that looks sharp on its own or under a jacket.
• Great for mild weather and those in-between seasons.

Cons

• A bit delicate — can snag or show wear with heavy use.
• Too light for real winter, so you’ll want a jacket on standby.

Uniqlo remains the quiet overachiever of the knitwear world. Its V-neck sweater vest is the sort of piece that makes you wonder why you’d ever spend more elsewhere. Spun from ultra-smooth merino, it’s light enough to layer, polished enough to pass for designer, and resilient enough to survive a spin cycle. At thirty-nine bucks, this is democratic luxury.

Best Cotton Sweater Vest: Gap V-Neck

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Pros

• Soft, breathable 100% cotton that feels easy and natural.
• Clean, classic design with a flattering hip-length cut.
• Offered in both regular and tall sizes

Cons

• Sleeveless cotton only keeps you so warm — great for layering, not for blizzards.
• Cotton can shrink or lose shape if you get careless in the wash.

We’ve been whispering it for a while, but Gap is right now making pieces that are as strong as they were in the brand’s high-kicking khakis heyday. Case in point: this unassuming sweater vest, knit from a mid-weight cotton that’s as light and airy as it is easygoing. It’s the kind of piece that feels vintage without the hunt — simple, versatile, and better than it needs to be. Throw it over an Oxford, under a blazer, or with nothing but a T-shirt, and you’ll realize why everyone used to live in Gap.

Best Upgrade Sweater Vest: John Smedley Hadfield Slim Fit Merino Wool Sweater Vest

John Smedley

Hadfield Slim-Fit Merino Wool Sweater Vest

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Pros

• High-quality merino yarns, made in England
• Slim fit delivers a sharp, tailored silhouette
• Backed by John Smedley’s two centuries of expertise in fine materials and craftsmanship

Cons

• Premium quality comes with a premium price tag
• Fine merino needs gentle care to stay pristine
• Some may find the slim fit too constricting

Quality has always been paramount for Derbyshire’s John Smedley, which has been making fine knitwear for over 200 years. The ‘Hadfield’ sweater vest is spun from extra-fine New Zealand merino—often considered the gold standard of wool—from sheep so pampered their fleece rivals cashmere. Designed with layering in mind, the Hadfield’s slim cut sits close to the body, slipping neatly under a blazer or jacket without adding bulk. Bosh!

Best Rugged Sweater Vest: Noah Donegal Sweater Vest

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Pros

• Flecked Donegal tweed yard adds visual pop on top of practical warmth
• Great layering piece, but thick enough to wear with just a tee

Cons

• Higher price than some on the market
• Requires delicate hand washing

Noah has been making sweater vests since its earliest collections, when the sweater vest was just a twinkle in Harry Styles’ sartorial eye. Today as always, the brand has sought out some of the best manufacturers and mills around, this time sourcing a Donegal yarn merino wool that’s hardy enough to keep you warm and keep its shape, and looks extra sharp with a pair of wide-leg chinos and a white tee.

Best Patterned Sweater Vest: RRL Fair Isle Sweater Vest

RRL

Fair Isle Sweater Vest

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Pros

• Medium to warm insulation
• Classic fair isle pattern
• Pattern is a statement but also a classic at the same time.

Cons

If you’re confident enough to go with a sweater vest, you’re likely confident enough to make it a patterned one too. RRL’s Fair Isle sweater vest is spun from a hearty wool blend that possesses the very lived-in, hand-knit heft Ralph’s been romanticizing for decades. The pattern, developed in the 19th century in the Shetland Islands, and later donned by the literal Prince of Wales, strikes a balance between rugged and refined, making it just as at home over a denim shirt as is under a tweed jacket. With Ralph, it’s classic Americana done right — warm, weighty, and built to last.

Best Sweater Vest-Cardigan Hybrid: Drake’s Sleeveless Cardigan

Drake’s

Sleeveless Cardigan

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Pros

• Warm 100% lambswool construction
• Made for layering (over dress shirts, under suit jackets, you name it…)
• Dialed-in details (horn buttons, rich colors, grosgrain button placket)

Cons

• High price for a niche item
• A bold style that’s not for everyone

Nothing’s quite as natty as a soft lambswool sweater-vest-cardigan. It’s not the kind of piece most men wake up thinking they need, which is exactly why Drake’s makes such a convincing case for it. With proper details like horn buttons, grosgrain plackets, and tidy patch pockets, it’s equal parts professorial and rakish. The sleeveless cut gives you the ease of a cardigan without the bulk, and will slide neatly under your favourite fall jacket. Go for a contrasting colour, leave the bottom button undone, and you’re suddenly the best-dressed man at the function, without even trying.

More Sweater Vests We Love

How to Style a Sweater Vest

The best part about wearing a sweater vest right now? The layering possibilities, which are about as endless as a CVS receipt but a lot more interesting. You can throw one over a tee, a long-sleeve thermal, a crisp dress shirt, or even rock it with nothing but a necklace underneath if you’re chasing that charmingly-sleazy-nightclub-owner vibe. The choice is yours. And if the sheer amount of layering options don’t get your creative juices flowing, then the prints and patterns almost definitely will. Preppy-cool Fair Isle? Acid-washed argyle? Just-kooky-enough cable-knit? There’s a veritable buffet of cozy, stylish choices on the market these days, and we promise you won’t leave hungry.

How We Test and Review Products

Style is subjective, we know—that’s the fun of it. But we’re serious about helping our audience get dressed. Whether it’s the best white sneakers, the flyest affordable suits, or the need-to-know menswear drops of the week, GQ Recommends’ perspective is built on years of hands-on experience, an insider awareness of what’s in and what’s next, and a mission to find the best version of everything out there, at every price point.

Our staffers aren’t able to try on every single piece of clothing you read about on GQ.com (fashion moves fast these days), but we have an intimate knowledge of each brand’s strengths and know the hallmarks of quality clothing—from materials and sourcing, to craftsmanship, to sustainability efforts that aren’t just greenwashing. GQ Recommends heavily emphasizes our own editorial experience with those brands, how they make their clothes, and how those clothes have been reviewed by customers. Bottom line: GQ wouldn’t tell you to wear it if we wouldn’t.

How We Make These Picks

We make every effort to cast as wide of a net as possible, with an eye on identifying the best options across three key categories: quality, fit, and price.

To kick off the process, we enlist the GQ Recommends braintrust to vote on our contenders. Some of the folks involved have worked in retail, slinging clothes to the masses; others have toiled for small-batch menswear labels; all spend way too much time thinking about what hangs in their closets.

We lean on that collective experience to guide our search, culling a mix of household names, indie favorites, and the artisanal imprints on the bleeding-edge of the genre. Then we narrow down the assortment to the picks that scored the highest across quality, fit, and price.

Across the majority of our buying guides, our team boasts firsthand experience with the bulk of our selects, but a handful are totally new to us. So after several months of intense debate, we tally the votes, collate the anecdotal evidence, and emerge with a list of what we believe to be the absolute best of the category right now, from the tried-and-true stalwarts to the modern disruptors, the affordable beaters to the wildly expensive (but wildly worth-it) designer riffs.

Whatever your preferences, whatever your style, there’s bound to be a superlative version on this list for you. (Read more about GQ’s testing process here.)