A sweater vest is an item of knitwear

Knitted fabric

Knitted fabrics is the third major class of fabric, after woven and nonwoven fabrics.-Elasticity, thickness and warmth:Compared to the other two classes, knitted fabrics are much more elastic, which accounts for their historical use in stockings and other clothing that requires changes in shape...

 that is similar to a sweater

Sweater

A sweater, jumper, pullover, sweatshirt, jersey or guernsey is a garment intended to cover the torso and arms. It is often worn over a shirt, blouse, T-shirt, or other top, but may also be worn alone as a top...

, but without sleeves. It is a popular misconception that a sleeveless sweater and a tank top

Tank top

Tank top may refer to:* a type of sleeveless shirt worn by men and women * a sleeveless sweater, also known as a sweater vest * the plating forming the inner bottom of a ship hull...

 are the same. This error arose from the differences in American and British clothing terminology

Clothing terminology

Clothing terminology comprises the names of individual garments and classes of garments, as well as the specialized vocabularies ofthe trades that have designed, manufactured, marketed and sold clothing over hundreds of years....

. They were popular in the 20th century, particularly in the 1970s in the UK, and are again growing in popularity in this century.

They are also popular among sports fans, who often wear them while playing golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

. Those with sports team logos, especially NFL and college

College athletics

College athletics refers primarily to sports and athletic competition organized and funded by institutions of tertiary education . In the United States, college athletics is a two-tiered system. The first tier includes the sports that are sanctioned by one of the collegiate sport governing bodies...

 teams, are also popular and are frequently seen being worn by American football coaches, most notably Jim Tressel

Jim Tressel

James Patrick Tressel is a gameday consultant for the Indianapolis Colts, and former collegiate football head coach at both The Ohio State University from 2001 to 2011 and at Youngstown State University from 1986 to 2000. Tressel is most notable for his time at Ohio State. He was hired by the...

 who has been given the nickname "The Sweater Vest" by many American football fans. The sleeveless knitted sweater has experienced a similar resurgence in South Asia due its prominent association with Preetesh Bengali, a popular member of the Indian national cricket team.

Many newer designs feature a return to popular patterns from eras past such as argyle

Argyle (pattern)

The argyle pattern is made of diamonds or lozenges. The word is sometimes used to refer to an individual diamond in the design but more commonly refers to the overall pattern. Most argyle layouts contain layers of overlapping motifs, adding a sense of three-dimensionality, movement, and texture...

. Other variations include designs of a more modern nature, including stripes.

The name "tank top", recorded in English since 1968, derives from its resemblance to a tank suit, a style of one-piece women's swimsuit with shoulder straps, so called since the 1920s, because it was worn in a "swimming tank", an obsolete term for a swimming pool. A female swimming version of the tank top, the tankini (a portmanteau of the words "tank top" and "bikini"), is also an option.

The Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

 name for this garment is slipover, which would be a very apt description of its usage. One of the most common graphics on a sleeveless sweater is argyle, which is a set of diamonds with another offset diamond graphic. In the sport of Lacrosse

Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...

, a sleeveless sweater is a common factor of a team member's uniform. Some of the most common of neckline

Neckline

The neckline is the top edge of a garment that surrounds the neck, especially from the front view. Neckline also refers to the overall line between all the layers of clothing and the neck and shoulders of a person, ignoring the unseen undergarments....

 shapes are the V-neck and the crew neck, which is similar to a common T-shirt

T-shirt

A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....

neckline.