Smoking vests?

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DWSmith

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While searching this forum I came across a mention of a smoking vest. I've seen old movies and TV shows where a character wore a smoking jacket but I don't remember ever seeing a smoking vest.

Anyone have one?
 
The closest I've seen is a Pendleton 49er jacket, adapted from the great selling, and better known, women's version. It's basically a Pendleton shirt, but cut with sport coat cuffs and button down. Really, it looks like a cross between a chore coat and a sport coat. The pockets are without flaps and are lined with a durable material. I did know a guy who sometimes used a hunting vest for a smoking vest. A customer and fellow pipe trader at a shop where I worked. One might have mistaken him for a hunter, but from an accident, one lower arm was mechanical.
 
A vest seems like it would kinda defeat the purpose.
 
I've read that the purpose of a smoking jacket is to provide a barrier so that your clothes don't smell of smoke. (I've seen some people wear a fez with their smoking jacket so their hair doesn't absorb the smoke.) I can see wearing a smoking jacket if you smoke cigarettes but if you smoke a pipe a vest might be more appropriate than a jacket. Who doesn't enjoy the faint smell of pipe tobacco smoke on their clothes an hour or two after finishing a pipe? That might be the reason for a smoking vest instead of a jacket ... or maybe not. :)
 
I had always thought the main purpose of a smoking jacket was to prevent your 'good' clothes from getting holes from hot ash. If that were the case, a vest wouldn't give as much protection to the upper part of the shirt. As for the prevention of smelling of the smoke, since the jackets were usually worn at home, I don't know if it would really make a difference to your home environment unless you were wealthy enough to have a separate part of the house for smoking.
 
I thought it was more like a utility belt sorta deal. Pockets. Lots of pockets to put stuff. That's how I've seen it used. I remember seeing a number of fanny packs at pipe shows as well, but this was when it was more about showing collections and trading than a gathering place for pipe makers and new goods. In other words, it's been a while.
 
Preventing the clothes from absorbing smoke was what I always understood to be the purpose.
 
I've read that the purpose of a smoking jacket is to provide a barrier so that your clothes don't smell of smoke. (I've seen some people wear a fez with their smoking jacket so their hair doesn't absorb the smoke.) I can see wearing a smoking jacket if you smoke cigarettes but if you smoke a pipe a vest might be more appropriate than a jacket. Who doesn't enjoy the faint smell of pipe tobacco smoke on their clothes an hour or two after finishing a pipe? That might be the reason for a smoking vest instead of a jacket ... or maybe not. :)
I find the leftover smell of pipe smoke to be as unpleasant as cigar or cigarette smoke. Stale tobacco smoke is stale tobacco smoke, according to my nose holes.
 
When I had a beard and smoked latakia often, one of my favorite things was getting in a hot shower and getting a strong whiff of latakia coming off my beard.

Room note is an interesting thing. When eating roasted broccoli, I love it. If not eating it, the smell is awful, and the longer it lingers in the house, the worse it gets.
 
I tried on a smoking jacket at one of the Boulder, CO smoke fests a few years back. It was really nice but not $350 nice. Those events remind me of the Saprano's shows when they say, "I tried to get out but they keep dragging me back in." Something to that affect.
 
When I had a beard and smoked latakia often, one of my favorite things was getting in a hot shower and getting a strong whiff of latakia coming off my beard.

Room note is an interesting thing. When eating roasted broccoli, I love it. If not eating it, the smell is awful, and the longer it lingers in the house, the worse it gets.
Same with sauerkraut. Love it on reuben sandwiches but hate the smell wben it's cooking.
 
Eating sauerkraut and later taking a hot, steamy shower makes me think of another smell I won't go into. I'd rather smell pipe tobacco smoke. :D
 
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I’ve settled on the LL bean ultimate flannel for my smoking jacket. It looks nice, but isn’t fancy. It has pockets like a jacket, and buttons up like a dress shirt. I think if I need more than four pockets for pipe supplies, I need to reevaluate my load out. I’ve come love it over the years.
 
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