A gilet is a sleeveless, often padded or quilted jacket, worn as a mid-layer over a jumper or shirt for warmth without the bulk of sleeves. The word comes from the French for waistcoat, though most gilets today are built for outdoor warmth rather than tailoring.

What's the difference between a gilet and a body warmer?

Nothing meaningful, they're the same garment. Gilet tends to describe the smarter, more fashion-led versions, while body warmer is more often used for the practical, outdoorsy end of the same idea.

Where can I buy women's gilets in the UK?

We stock gilets from Olsen, Barbara Lebek, Doris Streich, Tribal and Claire Desjardins at Experience Boutique in Fleet, Hampshire, both in store and online.

What should I wear a gilet over?

Gilets work best over a jumper, shirt or fine knit, since the point is to add warmth to your body while leaving your arms free. A quilted gilet over a chunky jumper is the classic combination for colder days.

How do I care for a quilted gilet?

Most quilted and padded gilets in our range are machine washable on a cool, delicate cycle, though some reversible and printed styles do better hand washed to protect the pattern. Always check the care label on the specific style, since fabrics vary across brands.

Women's Gilets

A gilet earns a strange amount of loyalty for something so simple, and we understand why. Ours come from brands like Olsen and Barbara Lebek who treat the sleeveless shape as a proper design problem, not an afterthought, in quilting, hoods and reversible fabrics that actually vary. Once you own a good one you reach for it more than the coat.

September through into spring, there's a stretch of weather that a jumper doesn't quite cover and a coat overdoes. That's gilet weather, and we keep a proper range in for it: quilted and padded styles from Olsen, Barbara Lebek, Doris Streich, Tribal and Claire Desjardins.

Olsen leads the quilted end, several styles including one reversible between navy and taupe. Barbara Lebek's hooded version and Doris Streich's padded pink both lean sportier, built for dog walks and school runs as much as anything smarter.

For something with more presence, Tribal's boucle longline gilet and Claire Desjardins' reversible print work as a genuine outer layer over a knit, not just a warmth add-on. Most styles here sit somewhere between casual and smart, so they layer over both a jumper and a shirt without looking wrong either way.

A gilet earns its keep in that stretch of the year when the weather can't decide what it's doing. Sleeves are the first thing to overheat in; a gilet is the fix.