c. 1858-1875

Man's Waistcoat

In the nineteenth century, waistcoats remained the most decorative article in the otherwise sober masculine wardrobe, giving the man with a taste for pattern and embellishment some scope, as these two waistcoats show. The grapevine embroidered on the blue-violet satin waistcoat accents its fashionable shawl collar and straight-cut waistline, while the double-breasted example, furnished with six pockets, is in bold red and green stripes filled with ornate plumes and twisting ribbon.