I Need a Cargo Utility Vest

I was into baggy cargo pants in my teens in the 90's, safari cargo jackets in my 20's and 30's, and then into cargo bags when the 90's fashion came back in the 2020's. But what I really need right now is a sleeveless cargo vest! I've been focusing on my health predominately lately, and that means a lot more walking around and taking in fresh air during my free time. My uniform for walking outdoors mostly consists of a loose white tee, black yoga pants, and a pink baseball cap. I realized that even on a casual stroll around the neighborhood, I feel weird without all the essentials in my everyday purse...so I lug around my purse on every walk, which gets annoying as it weighs on my shoulder and flops around when darting from an angry wasp/bee. 

Therefore, I came up with the idea that I needed a lightweight vest with sturdy pockets to hold all my essentials like phone, keys, lip balm, tissues, wallet, etc...

But I would love the vest to look fashionable and not like I'm going fishing, thus the hunt for a fashionable cargo vest.  Unfortunately, I could not find any female fashionistas sporting a chic cargo vest on the web...and no recommendations of where to shop for one.  Although I am inspired by a couple of looks from these male fashions below:

I found the closest vest I had in mind on Amazon: Pesion Womens Packable Military Utility Vests Outerwear Waterproof Windbreaker Jacket Cargo Vest with Removable Hood ($44.99) .  It comes in so many color options! 

I decided to enlist ChatGPT to mock me images of how I might look with the different colors to make a decision. 

Honestly, I would totally wear all these colors, but AI kept telling me the olive green one was the best stylish option. Would you agree?  

Gosh, ChatGPT or any AI app has been a game-changer lately in helping me make styling decisions! So much fun to use them! Are you using them to help with outfits?

Why I love men's style

I admit back in my college days while procrastinating my studies in the library, I would often head over to the periodicals section and pick up some fashion magazines. My guilty pleasure was the GQ magazine. Can't beat hot guys in really nice clothes!

What I admire the most of menswear is how their color palettes and textures tend to be very neutral and pleasing to the eye. It makes us women clothing look like clown-clothes.

It's no wonder I keep gravitating towards the men's section of catalogs and fashion publications (as mentioned previously here, here, and here).

Although the men in my life aren't too fashionable....my dad and my brothers wear the same thing over and over everyday (simple T-shirts and khakis)...they always manage to look better in photographs than me, haha!

For instance, here's my dad's outfit on our father-daughter trip to the East Coast last year:

This is his tourist garb, but I love how his monochromatic ensemble blended so well with the beautiful background. And he also looks vacation-suntanned! This is my favorite picture that I took of him :)

Now this was me on the same trip:

Ughh....baggy old-lady black pants (but comfortable), bulky white nylon bag that looks like a diaper bag, magenta scarf that clashes with the blue denim jacket and didn't match any scenery that we explored. Wish I had worn all black instead to fit in with the Orthodox Jewish folks in the background at least.

Thus, after a few of these vacation photos, I pretty much threw out everything that is bright pink and purple (girly colors) that tend to be too garish in most environments. Although I'm always inspired by girl power in movies like Legally Blonde and my beloved Confessions of a Shopaholic...the reality is...the world is not Candy Land. Plus, I'm probably getting old, more practical, and less dreamy....thus gravitating towards more neutrals. 

What better way to learn how to dress neutral (but not boring) than revel in men's fashion! 

I was so happy to find out about The Style Blogger, now called TSBmen Articles of Style, from Stylepint awhile back. That one perfect picture of Jenilee's outfit seemed to have made a huge impact on every girl's mind....I've seen many great replications of this look since.

So far, TSBmen is the only menswear blog that I follow. Do you know of any other men's style blogs to recommend?  I wish there was a petite-men fashion blog, haha. The closest I found on Google was this one post from Men's Style Pro featuring Chaz Bellinger (very cute for a 5'3" guy).

Still a girly girl at heart, I probably won't be sporting a tie or suspenders any time soon, but I'm definitely interested in wearing more neutral and masculine colors such as blue, gray, and browns. 

How are you inspired by menswear?