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.
References
Anon. 1649. King Charls his speech made upon the scaffold at Whitehall-Gate, immediately before his execution, on Tuesday the 30 of Ian. 1648. London : Printed by Peter Cole, at the sign of the Printing-Press in Cornhil, near the Royal-Exchange, 1649.
Bird, Ruth, ed. 1971. The Journal of Giles Moore of Horsted Keynes, 1655-1679. Lewes : Sussex Record Society, 1971.
Blencowe, Robert Willis ed. 1850. Extracts from the Journal and Account Book of Timothy Burrell, … 1683 to 1714. Sussex Archaeological Collections. 1850, Vol. 3.
Borde, Andrew. 1870. The fyrst boke of the introduction of knowledge made by Andrew Borde, of physycke doctor : a compendyous regyment, or, A dyetary of helth [1542]. London : Published for the Early English Text Society, by N.T. Trübner & Co., 1870.
Brears, P. C. D. ed. 1972. Yorkshire probate inventories 1542-1689. Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series. 1972, Vol. 134.
Cunnington, C. Willett and Cunnington, Phillis. 1970. Handbook of English Costume in the Sixteenth Century. London : Faber, 1970.
Evelyn, John. 1854. Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn. London : Colburn, 1854.
Ferrers Family of Tamworth Castle. Transcripts from the archives.
Florio, John. 1598. A worlde of wordes, or most copious, and exact dictionarie in Italian and English. London : A Hatfield for E. Blount, 1598.
—. 1611. Queen Anna's New World of Words, or Dictionarie of the Italian and English Tongues. London : Printed by Melch. Bradwood, for Edw. Blount and William Barret, 1611.
George, E. and George, S. 2005. Bristol probate inventories, Part 2: 1657-1689. Bristol : Bristol Records Society publication 57, 2005.
George, E. and S. eds. 2002. Bristol probate inventories, Part 1: 1542-1650. Bristol Records Society publication. 2002, Vol. 54.
Gilbert, Ruth. 2015. Not so much Cinderella as the Sleeping Beauty: Neglected Evidence of Forgotten Skill. In: Eva Andersson Strand, Margarita Gleba and et al. North European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles X. Oxford : Oxbow, 2015.
Greville, Fulke. 1907. Life of Sir Philip Sidney, first published 1652. Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1907.
Herbert, Thomas. 1634. A relation of some yeares trauaile begunne anno 1626. London : William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, 1634.
Johnson, Samuel. 1755. A Dictionary of the English Language. [Online] 1755. [Cited: Jun 28, 2023.] https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com.
Junius, Adrianus. 1585. The nomenclator, or remembrancer of Adrianus Iunius physician. London : For Ralph Newberie, and Henrie Denham, 1585.
Kent Archaeological Society. Kentish Documents c1530-1810. Inventory of James Kennard 1637 (PRC11/2/62). [Online] [Cited: November 20, 2025.] https://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/13/01/52.pdf.
Kirkland, Arden, Monica Sklar, Clare Sauro, Leon Wiebers, Sara Idacavage, and Julia Mun. 2023. “‘I’m Not Searching the Right Words:’ User Experience Searching Historic Clothing Collection Websites. International Journal of the Inclusive Museum. 2023, Vol. 16, 1.
Morgan, F. C. 1945. Private Purse Accounts of the Marquis of Hertford, Michaelmas 1641-2. Antiquaries Journal. 1945, Vols. 25, 12-42, pp. 12-42.
Ray, John. 1691. A collection of English words, not generally used. London : Printed for Christopher Wilkinson, 1691.
Reed, M. 1988. Buckinghamshire probate inventories 1661-1714. Buckinghamshire Record Society. 1988, Vol. 24, 258-9.
Ringgaard, Maj. 2014. Silk knitted waistcoats: a 17th century fashion item. [book auth.] Tove Engelhardt Mathiassen and et al. Fashionable Encounters: perspectives and trends in textile and dress in the eraly modern Nordic World. Oxford : Oxbow, 2014.
Robertson, S. 1883. The expense Book of James Master 1646-1676 [Part 1, 1646-1655], transcribed by Mrs Dallison. Archaeologia Cantiana. 1883, Vol. 15, 152-216, pp. 152-216.
Russell, John. 1867. The boke of nurture [Harleian MS 4011, Fol. 171]. In: Frederick James ed. Furnivall. The Boke of Nurture [and] The Boke of Kervyng. Bungay : Childs, 1867.
Sanderson, William. 1658. Compleat History of the Life and Raigne of King Charles from His Cradle to the Grave. London : Humphrey Moseley; Richard Tomlins & George Sawbridge, 1658.
Sherley, Anthony. 1613. Relation of his Travels into Persia . London : Nathaniel Butter and Joseph Bagset, 1613.
Stevenson, W. H. 1885. Records of the borough of Nottingham, vol 3: 1485-1547. London : Quaritch, 1885.
Stow, John and Howes, E. 1631. Annales, or, a general Chronicle of England; begun by J. Stow ... continued and augmented ... unto the end of ... 1631, by E. Howes. London : Printed by A. M. for R. Meighen, 1631.
Strong, Roy. 1980. Charles I's clothes for the years 1633-1635. Costume. 1980, Vol. 14, pp. 73-89.
Suetonius. 1899. History of the Twelve Caesars, translated into English by Philemon Holland 1606. London : David Nutt, 1899.
Williams, Lorelei and Thomson, Sally. 2007. Marlborough Probate Inventories 1591-1775. Chippenham : Wiltshire Record Society, 2007.
