Men's Waistcoats and Vests

Waistcoats, also called vests, were ubiquitous in the nineteenth-century Western male’s wardrobe. They are a vestige of the three-piece suit – coat, waistcoat, and breeches – worn throughout the eighteenth century. While men’s suits could be very colorful in the 1700s, by the turn of the century men opted for neutral colors for coats and breeches. Waistcoats were the only place to experiment with color. Since men rarely removed their coats in public, only the front of the waistcoat was made of a good fabric. The rarely seen backs featured undyed linen or a tan-brown cotton.

Men’s waistcoats are hard to date because menswear changed slowly in the 1800s. They reflect the shifting silhouettes and styles of coats and the changeover from breeches to pantaloons and trousers. The dominant style in the early nineteenth century was the tailcoat, which had a high collar echoed in the similarly-high collars of waistcoat. As tailcoats became the go-to coats for evening wear, frock coats and trousers emerged as the daytime suit. By the second half of the 1800s, the informal sack coat became popular for daywear. The ditto suit – one in which the sack coat, waistcoat, and trousers matched – emerged in the last two decades of the century as the look for the common man. This three-piece suit continued well into the twentieth century.

The waistcoats included here represent styles worn from the early nineteenth century to World War I. It is hoped that the descriptions will help others to date their own vests and waistcoats.