MOVE OVER Gareth Southgate, The Press has its very own waistcoat devotee in arts editor, Charles Hutchinson.

England manager Southgate’s sartorial choices (namely, that M&S waistcoat) have been one of the big talking points of the World Cup, so much so that the Museum of London is hoping to purchase one of his waistcoats for its permanent collection.

But Charles, who has worked at The Press for 30 years, isn’t jumping on the bandwagon.

He has long had a fashion love affair with the not-so-humble waistcoat and has amassed an impressive array over many years, all of them well-worn. 

Charles said: “I’ve always worn waistcoats, I like them more than I can possibly say. For me, it’s never been a fashion item, it’s just something that I love wearing.

“Gareth Southgate looks like a different form of England manager. It may seem shallow that a waistcoat can make that much difference, but it suits him.

“Where he goes next with his fashion is a question. If this becomes his signature, without being rude to M&S and their £65 waistcoat, he’s probably going to move through the gears of waistcoat wearage, taking it to the next level.

“I can’t wait for the headline when we lose. After the ‘wally with the brolly’ for dear Mr McClaren from York [former England manager Steve McClaren], after his defeat, ironically to Croatia.

“I’m trying to think of lines involving a waistcoat, but I haven’t yet come up with any that are printable.”

It is Charles’s pronunciation of waistcoat, however, that has caused heated debate in the office, much more so than England's fortunes. Controversially, he says it is “westcot, as in Ascot”.

We put the question to you in our poll on the Press website and Twitter and you do not agree with him.

From more than 100 respondents, Press readers on both sites resoundingly prefer the more straightforward 'waistcoat' rather than 'westcot', with a late surge from those who just don’t care and are optimistically backing England to bring the Jules Rimet trophy home.