This is a paper given to the International Conference on Euopean Historic Clothing and Textiles, organised by the University of Latvia, 26-28 February 2026.
From the fifteenth century to the middle of the seventeenth
century men’s waistcoats were a hidden garment. In north-western Europe they
were worn between the shirt and the doublet for warmth. Being an undergarment,
they rarely appear in. It is
possible to get occasional glimpses of a waistcoat, as here, where a doublet has been left undone.
[Slide 2] The waistcoat appears under his doublet over his shirt, and
also just shows at the neck and cuff.
Starting with the terminology, when do waistcoats first
appear in the English language and what is meant by the word. First the word petticoat was applied to a men’s clothes from around 1420. In c.1475 Russell
has “Se that youre souerayne haue clene shurt & breche, a petycote, a
dublett, a longe coote.” (Russell, 1867) Those are the layers, shirt, then petticoat, then doublet,
then long coat. The first English reference to a waist coat seems to be in 1519
when there is payment for the
“makyng of a waste cotte.” (Stevenson, 1885 p. 354) Petti means small,
and the waistcoat reaches to the waist, no lower. When Andrew
Borde recommends that, “in wynter, Next your sherte use to were a
petycote of skarlet,” he is talking of a waistcoat. (Borde, 1870 p. 249) This apparently interchangeable
usage of petticoat and waistcoat continues through the sixteenth century and
into the seventeenth. Junius’s 1585 Nomenclatur has, “..a waste coate,
or wollen peticoate.” (Junius, 1585 p. 163) As does
Holland in his 1606
translation of Suetonius, “his Wastcoate or Peticoate bodie of woollen.” (Suetonius, 1899 p. 149) By
the end of the seventeenth century in a book of English words not generally
used, John Ray commented, “A Petticoat; is in some places used for a Mans
Wastcoat.” (Ray, 1691)
So by the end of the seventeenth century, the word waistcoat has more or less
completely replaced petticoat.
When were
waistcoats seen? There are mentions of waistcoats at executions. In
1601 Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, was executed, “… the Prisoner, who came
in a Gowne of wrought Velvet, a blacke Sattin sute, … opening and putting off his doublet, he was in
a Scarelet Wastecoat.” (Stow, et al., 1631 p. 1408)
Forty-eight years later King Charles also wore a waistcoat
on the scaffold.
In a report of his
execution. it says “Then the King put
off His Dublet, and being in His Wastecoat, put His Cloak on again” (Anon, 1649 p. 13) This is supposedly
the waistcoat that King Charles worn at his execution, it is knitted and could be pulled over the head, and not buttoned at
the front, there is a comment in Brittons Bowre Of Delights of 1591, which has
“he puts his armour over his ears like a waistcoat.” (Cunnington, 1970 p. 101) There are survivals
of knitted waistcoats in museums across Europe, there is a very good paper by
Maj Ringgaard. (Ringgaard, 2014 pp. 73-103) A second report of
the execution states that, [click] “the Bishop [that is Juxon, the
Bishop of London and then Archbishop of Canterbury] put on his [the king’s]
night-cap, and unclothed him to his Sky-colour Satten Wastecoat.” (Sanderson, 1658
p. 1137)
A satin waistcoat would not be knitted, there has been less attention given to
woven textile waistcoats, which may have been more common, but there are less
survivals. King Charles I purchased lots of waistcoats, no less than seventeen
in one year, 1633, the majority of these were in woven silk fabrics, for
example “a skie cullor sattin wastcoate with one gold and silver lace in a
seame lined with plush, with a nightcap suitable wrought all over in rich
workes with gold and silver lace. (Strong, 1980 p. 81)
The King also had waistcoats made
to match with chamber gowns, that is a gown he could wear around a bedchamber
when informally dressed. This gown belonged to Francis Verney of Claydon House,
but the description here is of one of Charles I’s matching gowns with a waistcoat,
being: A waistcoat of
carnation sattin to the same gown with two silver laces with coller and wings
to it lined with plush. Plush or shag is a fabric with a long pile as you can
see on the Verney gown, that is not fur that is a silk shag. (Strong, 1980 p. 87) Charles’s elder
brother Henry, who died in 1617, [click] also had some heavily decorated
waistcoats, his 1608 accounts show “two waistcoats of fine camericke, [a fine
linen] wrought verie curiously in color silke, [embroidered] lined with taffeta
sarsenet, bound with silver lace, £50” To put the
cost in a financial perspective, an ordinary working man might expect to have
an income of £5 or £6 a year, so one waistcoat is five years income.
This image is of a surviving
waistcoat that belonged to Charles, Prince of Wales (later Charles II). The information we have is that it and a pair
of slippers and a matching nightcap were left with Colonel Thomas Veel when the
Prince was sent in 1645, at the age of 15, to command the Western forces of the
King in the Civil War. I it passed down the family and from there to the
Burrell. It is quilted and has a red silk satin outer.
Men of the status of gentlemen often had silk
waistcoats. In 1649 James Master paid “for 3 ya of watchet sattin to me a
waistcoat £1 13s” (Robertson, 1883 p. 185) However linens and
mixed fabrics were also used for waistcoats. The 1641 accounts of the Marquis
of Hertford record, six ells holland at 6 shillings the ell to make three
waistcoats. (Morgan, 1945 p. 17) In 1656 Matthew Wilson, esquire, owned
“…three dimity wastcoates.” (Brears, 1972 p. 115) The composition of
dimity is debatable. Florio in 1598 described Italian dimito as “a kind of
coarse cotton or flannell,” but his 1611 edition he refers to it as “a
kind of course linzie-wolzie.” (Florio, 1598 p. 103) (Florio, 1611) By the time of
Samuel Johnson’s 1755 dictionary dimitty is “a fine kind of fustian or cloath
of cotton.” (Johnson, 1755)
Below the social levels of
nobility and gentry, waistcoats appear in the wills and probates of yeomen and
artisans, and even those below them. Looking at the examples here you have a husbandman, that is a small
farmer, a plumber and a mariner. (George, 2002 p. 70 &103) Samuel Browne, had
an estate worth less than £2. (Williams, et al., 2007 p. 15) Richard Saunders’ waistcoat
was “Strood water red” and George Weston’s was a “playne white fustyane
waskote” Giles Moore, the rector, that
is the vicar, of a village in Sussex had several waistcoats made, including one
of serge paying one shilling for the making. (Bird, 1971 p. 145) The most
common textiles used below the level of gentry were woollen based fabrics such
as serge, flannel, cotton and baize, or mixed fibre fabrics such as fustian and
linsey-woolsey. The most common colours were red and
white. It shows that
waistcoats were worn across all levels of society, with costs, textiles and
decorative choices changing with the status of the owner, even though the
garments were not regularly seen. Already by the 1630s they could be purchased ready-made.
A Kent grocer in 1637 had 40 waistcoats in stock, ranging in price from 1s to
2s 6d. (Kent Archaeological Society)
Silk knitted waistcoats have been
mentioned, but there is less evidence for wool knitted waistcoats for the lower
classes. The image here is of one of the Lindisfarne fragments, and Ruth
Gilbert has suggested that this may have come from a waistcoat or jacket. (Gilbert, 2015) There is also a
tantalising reference in a life of Sir Philip Sidney, which says, “His wast-coat … not unlike the best
sort of those wollen knit ones, which our ordinary watermen row us in.” (Greville, 1907 p.
20)
Beyond this is very little evidence, though other archaeological fragments
across Europe have also been interpreted as possibly from waistcoats
When did the waistcoat come out
of hiding, and was it still a waistcoat? With the putative beginning of the
“three-piece suit,” comprising coat, waistcoat and breeches, replacing cloak,
doublet and breeches, waistcoats became more visible and changed in shape and
appearance.
However, when the change starts
to be made the garment under the coat is not referred to as a waistcoat. It is
referred to as a vest, because it is not to the waist, it is long. While
vestment is the older word, usually referring to a garment worn by a priest, or
by a king or official on some ceremonial occasion. The shorter word vest first
appears in English in 1613. The brothers Robert and Anthony Shirley travelled
to Persia in 1598. The painting is of Robert Shirley in Persian dress. When Anthony
Shirley finally returned England, he published a book a Relation of his travels
in Persia, and here is the first reference to vests. “We were forced to send
his maister three verstes [sic] of cloth of gold, for beholding his
person.” (Sherley, 1613 p. 20) Another traveller
Thomas Herbert went to Persia in 1626, he also wrote a book published in 1634,
in which he writes of a Persian outer garment, being a vest. (Herbert, 1634 p. 146)
When in 1666 King Charles II
decided to change fashion, Samuel Pepys wrote “The King hath yesterday in
council, declared his resolution of setting a fashion for clothes... It will be
a vest, I know not well how. But it is to teach the nobility thrift.” and few
days later he wrote, “This day the King begins to put on his Vest..being a long
Cassocke close to the body, of black cloth and pinked with white silk under it,
and a coat over it.” So again, unlike a waistcoat it is long. John Evelyn’s
Diary also comments on the 18th October, 1666 he wrote, “The first time his
Majesty put himself solemnly into the Eastern fashion of vest, changing
doublet, stiff collar, bands and cloak, into a comely dress, after the Persian
mode, …resolving never to alter it.” (Evelyn, 1854) This portrait may
show this type of vest. This is taken as the start of the three piece suit, but
the term vest for what was worn underneath the coat, disappears very quickly
and the word waistcoat is used.
The move in terminology between
waistcoat and vest, is it a waistcoat, is it a vest and what was the
difference, can be seen from these accounts of the Ferrers Family of Tamworth
Castle, from the period 1669-70, where vest and waistcoats are referred to
alternately, and one is referred to as a short vest. (Ferrers Family of Tamworth
Castle)
The other thing that happened
because waistcoats lengthened and became more accessible, is that they
developed pockets, as in this example from around 1710-20, this is a damask
silk lined with fustian. But while in the 1660s and 1670s, gentlemen are having
vests made for under their coats, merchants are selling waistcoats on their
own, not as part of a suit. A mercer Sylvester Widmere in 1668 had in stock 66
waistcoats of various types. Where a colour was mentioned, they came in red or
white, and ranged in price from 5d to 3 shillings. (Reed, 1988 p. 35)
Those
waistcoats worn under a coat become less hidden, more visible as the fashion
became to wear your coat open, so as to show your waistcoat, as in this
portrait of an unknown gentleman by John Michael Wright. As well as pockets,
waistcoats developed embroidered decoration on the visible areas. For the
common man this suit of coat, waistcoat and breeches was worn throughout
society, but they were not necessarily matching garments. John Dale a Wiltshire
yeoman had in 1680 a suit comprising, “one woosted camlett cooat, one cloth
paire of britches, one sarge wascoot 10s” (Williams, et al., 2007 p. 165) While Timothy
Burrell’s footman was promised a livery coat and waistcoat every two years. (Blencowe, 1850)
There may be still “hidden”
waistcoats, underwaistcoats. In 1680 Buckinghamshire man, John Thornton had in
his shop, “..linnen cloath..underwaistcoates, bodys, stockings, caps, semsters
waire...£66 11s 10d” (Reed, 1988 p. 150) Semster’s ware is
anything made by semsters or semstresses, not tailors, semsters work in linen. This
image is probably an underwaistcoat. It is a plain white linen waistcoat, you
may have noticed that all these waistcoats have had sleeves. The reason that
this waistcoat has one sleeve tied with bows, is because in March 1702 King
William III fell from his horse and broke his collarbone, so the sleeve of his
waistcoat was cut open to allow easier access. The King died two weeks later. A sign that a waistcoat is of the “hidden”
variety is that they appear with other items of underwear, for example the
coffee seller, John Kimber in 1681 has “9
pair of drawers & 3 wastcoates £1 0s 0d” (George, et al., 2005 p. 120)
And there are still hidden knitted waistcoats. This one,
also belonging to William III, survives in the collection of the Royal Historic
Palaces. So by the end of the seventeenth century we have two types of
waistcoat, those that are seen and those that are hidden.
I want to finish by examining the
issues of terminology, which have come up quite a bit. Two years ago, there was
an article which resonated with me as a researcher. It was entitled, “I’m Not
Searching the Right Words”: User Experience Searching Historic Clothing
Collection Websites. (Kirkland, 2023) The experiment involved ten students of
historic dress and ten fashion professionals, so no ordinary members of the
public. This garment was excavated in London. It is sixteenth century and in
the London Museum. The headline information says Undershirt/Vest.
Members of the general public will get that, but for me in modern usage
American English under shirt, and UK English vest implies that it is worn under
not over, the shirt. The idea of a vest being worn under a shirt does not seem come
in until the nineteenth century. What would this have been called at the time
it was made? The museum description says “Knitted shirts or
vests are mentioned in a list of knitted items in an Act of Parliament of 1552.”
Except they are not. This is what the Act says, it refers to
knit petticoats, which as seen at the beginning of this paper probably means a
“Wastcoate or Peticoate bodie
of woollen.” So when researching any garment we have to think carefully about
what it was called then, and it is called now.
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