Hot debate: is vest the best?

Everyone should be allowed to kick back a bit on holiday. After all, unless you proffer your snaps around the office, nobody will see your slob-out gear. The fact that your holiday role model is Homer Simpson can be your guilty secret.

Unless you are Tony Blair, of course - a man who never gets a day off from the cameras, even in Barbados. His long white vest with palm-tree motif is slob-out gear in the extreme, and was probably picked up at a local Bajan stall for a few dollars.

If Tony were a woman, we would commend him on his ultrafashionability: vests, after all, are the hot fashion story of the summer.

Alexander McQueen gave us ribbed ones with natty cut-out side panels, Stella McCartney did chiffon ones with delicate gold embroidery, while Top Shop has been churning them out in every colour of the rainbow for £4.99.

Vests are also the off-duty uniform of the celebrity. Kate Moss, Cameron Diaz and Rachel Stevens know you can't really go far wrong in a simple vest, and are frequently pictured on the streets of London and LA in jeans and a black or white vest.

On a woman, a vest looks effortlessly cool. On a man, it looks effortlessly awful. This is why it should be kept where it belongs: hidden beneath your shirt.

A white vest is a particularly dicey garment. Unless you have a gym-honed, perma-tanned body and an affection for Soho's gay bars, a white vest will simply send out the wrong message, and will be picked up by gaydar long before you have reached the bus stop.

In Barbados, though, uptight British rules do not apply. In this most laid-back of Caribbean islands, you will be hard pushed to find a man who doesn't wear a vest - any other garment would simply make you look overdressed. We commend Mr Blair for his willingness to get down with the locals - and approve of his new vest friend.

Meanwhile, in London today, Gwyneth Paltrow illustrated how women can wear a vest with style by teaming hers with a short skirt and Roman sandals for a scooter shopping trip to New Bond Street.