The banker’s uniform now seen in every City job

Ride the Jubilee line from Westminster to Canary Wharf or Canada Water during the hectic commuter hours and you’ll clock them everywhere.

Young men on their way to work in their new City boy business uniforms: plain black lace-up shoes or smart athleisure sneakers (Hogan, Tod’s etc), grey flannel pants cut Euro-style (low-rise waist, narrow on the ankle and snug around the seat), a white or pale blue shirt, and perhaps a V-neck sweater or merino tank. All worn, somewhat incongruously, with an outdoorsy Patagonia gilet — either the lightly padded Nano Puff model or the fleecy Better Sweater in marl grey.

The showier banker bros will have the sleeveless garm proudly embroidered with their power employer’s livery — Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, et al — just above the all-important Patagonia logo. A few of the banks even offer branded ‘merch’ on their company websites, so that staff members can pair a vest with a tote or a duffel for their lunchtime gym sesh. Luckily for those lacking in work-life balance, the look works well on the weekends, too — street-facing tables on the Westbourne Grove strip  of cafés in Notting Hill are now a live-action, outdoor apparel catalogue on Saturday brunchtimes. In the US, banker gilets have been at the centre of a cult novel — the fallen hedge funder protagonist in Gary Shteyngart’s excellent Lake Success wears a Patagonia sleeveless all the way through the story. And they have spawned an Instagram feed, @MidtownUniform, with 159k followers posting pics of Manhattan financial analysts all dressed in the same grey Patagonia Synchilla vest, on their way to lunchtime sushi or a post-work SoulCycle spin session.

You can see more subtle, stealthy versions of City vest luxe across the HBO series, Succession, with various male members of the bloodless billionaire Roy family in private jets, at mountain conferences and swanky hotel lobby get-togethers, all donning premium gilets — Zegna, Brunello Cucinelli and Loro Piana in among the interns’ North Face and Uniqlo — as they plot hostile takeovers over Negronis and $10,000 flower arrangements.

Back in Europe, the World Economic Forum at Davos in January will deliver peak power vest action, with every hedge funder, banker and Busson trying to affect the bland, wipe-clean sartoria of a venture environmentalist or Silicon Valley one percenter. Even the Tories’ shambolically attired political strategist Dominic Cummings seems to be on-message for this ensemble.

From pinstripes to Patagonia, from Master of the Universe to Geek of the E14 postcode, is an unlikely route for any man’s working wardrobe, but the City’s new look may well have its origins in ski-resort conference chic. Logo-emblazoned vests have long been the much-prized, goody-bag booty at forums like Davos and the recent Fortune Global Tech Forum in Guangzhou, China. Accessorised with an all-access lanyard and a forearm of wristbands (maybe even one of those skin-toned Lady Gaga/Ted Talks face-mic bobbles), conferences are where the City boys can meet Bono and Bill Gates, learn how to connect with tech and assume interest in normal people’s woke causes such as the environment or alternative fuels.

The blazer and the Patek Philippe watch are left in the hotel room — you can’t convince anyone that you want to ban fossil fuels and buy into recycling plastics if you’re dressed from head-to-toe in bespoke Savile Row or Brioni. But gussied up in a simple Patagonia vest, a rich-list capitalist can reinvent himself as a kind of caring, sharing, sleeveless philanthropist… an every-billionaire.

‘At one of these conferences, a banker can be what he believes to be his best self,’ explains writer, commentator and management consultant Peter York. ‘In his Patagonia vest, he is adopting a disguise. Rich but nice. No longer a con man in a sharp suit. He’s now taken that look to the office back in London.’

Certainly, says York, the robotically available, order online cachet of the gilet-centric wardrobe has come as a great relief to Canary Wharf and the Square Mile. ‘Remember dress-down Fridays in the 1990s? That was all very confusing for the City because it required a degree of imagination. Anyone could wear a suit but the casual code is all about flare and individuality. All too scary! Eventually the City ended up adopting a rather dull chinos and button-down collar shirt uniform. I get the impression that they are much happier with the shiny, modern tech conference vest.’

But the previously benign and made-from-recycled-materials Patagonia vest is biting back. Earlier this year the brand announced that its corporate sales programme would be focusing on ‘mission-driven companies that prioritise the planet’. Translation: corporations that adhere to widely accepted social and environmental standards. So, if your big bad bank is investing in fracking, fossil fuels and rainforest destruction, your team of analysts won’t be allowed to rock a Patagonia vest at the office any more. ‘For each order, we require disclosure as to the type of company whose name will appear on the Patagonia product and how the product will be used. We reserve the right to refuse service,’ warns its corporate sales catalogue.

Will Patagonia’s boycott of the City end its love affair with the gilet? Not a chance. The Bezos, Zuckerbergs and Roys of this world will just change brands… luxe up the look a bit. Maybe even mount a hostile takeover of Patagonia. ‘Nice vest, Wambsgans,’ Roman Roy says to his Moncler-clad doofus brother-in-law Tom at a high-altitude business social. ‘It’s so puffy. What’s it stuffed with… your hopes and dreams?’