Wearing the Garden; A post by Althea Mackenzie, Curator of Costume for the Charles Paget Wade Costume Collection The history of the waistcoat goes back to the period of the Restoration when Charles II introduced it as part of ‘correct dress’. The style was derived from the Persian vests and in 1666 John Evelyn wrote: “To Court,…
Category: 18th Century Waistcoats
Eighteenth century waistcoats from the Snowshill Collection of costume.
The Incredible and Incroyables!
Whilst showing my friend Kimberley images of the waistcoats below she exclaimed ‘these were worn by men? They’re very girly!’ Indeed the rich embroideries, jewelled and sequinned designs of eighteenth century waistcoats would most certainly be considered appropriate for the sartorial predilection of the raffish dandy today, but certainly not every man. Althea Mackenzie writes…
Gorgeous Georgians…The Court Waistcoat
It was not until the 1750’s and 60’s that sleeves on waistcoats were abandoned by the upper classes. The lower orders continued wearing the sleeved waistcoat as a jacket until the end of the 1700s. Stand collars started appearing from the 1760s and by the 1790s waistcoats finished at the hip (‘square cut’) as opposed…
The Hidden Wardrobe 