Every man has his gilet avatar, his sleeveless idol, his waistcoat warrior. Sartorial inspiration may come by way of Robert Redford, resplendent in a dreamy cream three-piece, double-breasted suit in the 1974 film The Great Gatsby , or Michael Douglas’s fearsome financier Gordon Gekko, matching a Wall Street waistcoat with a fat Cuban stogie. Or Sir Gareth Southgate, all shirt sleeves and Peaky Blinders styling in the dug-out for England’s 2018 World Cup campaign. Perhaps Woody’s cow-print number in Pixar’s ‘Toy Story’ series, Tom Kitten’s hand knit, German artist Joseph Beuys’s fly-fishing vest or, if you don’t mind going trouserless, the fetching, plum-toned option favoured by New York alley-dwelling Top Cat?

When I was 14, back in the 1970s, the waistcoat GOAT du jour was one Francis

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