Search This Blog

Wednesday 20 March 2019

Waistcoat

A waistcoat is a sleeveless upper-body garment. In Western countries it is often worn over a shirt and necktie, and below a jacket as a part of most men's formal wear. It is the third piece of the three-piece male suit.

In America the garment is often referred to as a vest. To some, a vest is considered an informal garment and a waistcoat a more formal garment to be worn with a tie.


Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, wore a waistcoat during the winter made from otter skin which covered shoulders and chest.

The word "waistcoat" derives from the cutting of the coat at waist-level, since at the time of the coining, tailors cut men's formal coats well below the waist. It dates back to 1519.

Waistcoats were first introduced to England by Sir Robert Shirley (1581-1628), who had seen them worn at the Persian court of Shah Abbas.

King Charles I was recorded to have worn a waistcoat at his execution.

Waistcoats first became fashionable in England after being worn by King Charles II in the 1660s. His brightly coloured silk waistcoats popularised were inspired by exotic Turkish, Indian and Persian attire acquired by wealthy English travellers.

Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary on October 8, 1666 that King Charles II had started wearing a highly patterned waistcoat. Underneath his waistcoat he wore a Persian coat and lace cravats. The diarist and civil servant wrote: "The King hath yesterday in Council declared his resolution of setting a fashion for clothes, which he will never alter. It will be a vest, I know not well how." He went on: "It is to teach the nobility thrift, and will do good."

King James I of England wore double-quilled waistcoats for fear of being stabbed.

Man's sleeved waistcoat of silk woven to shape, 1747. By Anna Maria Garthwaite

The waistcoat of Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803), the leader of the Haitian revolution, had 18 buttons that were decorated with reproductions of Agostino Brunias's paintings.

Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert originated a fashion for wearing a watch chain across a waistcoat from one pocket hole to the other.

Edward VII of the United Kingdom popularized the habit of leaving a waistcoat’s bottom button undone. Apparently, he grew so rotund that he was unable to fasten the bottom button of his waistcoat and jacket. To not offend the king, those associated with him started doing the same.

According to the sartorial rules of British Dressage, "A fitted waistcoat may be worn when permission has been granted not to wear coats."


Source Daily Express

1 comment: