page_title: Waistcoat
section_title: Clergy
hierarchical_section_title: Waistcoat / Characteristics and use / Clergy
caption_attribution_description: An African American Man, wearing vest, speaking on Cellular phone
context_page_description: A waistcoat in BrE, or vest in AmE, is a sleeveless upper-body garment. It is usually worn over a dress shirt and necktie and below a coat as a part of most men's formal wear. It is also sported as the third piece in the traditional three-piece male lounge suit. Any given vest can be simple or ornate, or for leisure or luxury. Historically, the vest can be worn either in the place of or underneath a larger coat dependent upon the weather, wearer, and setting.
  Daytime formal wear and semi-formal wear commonly comprises a contrastingly coloured waistcoat, such as in buff or dove gray, still seen in morning dress and black lounge suit. For white tie and black tie, it is traditionally white and black, respectively.
context_section_description: The variant of the clergy  cassock may be cut as a vest. It differs in style from other waistcoats in that the garment buttons to the neck and has an opening that displays the clerical collar.
  In the Church of England, a particular High Church clerical vest introduced in the 1830s was nicknamed the "M.B. Waistcoat" with "M.B." standing for the Mark of the Beast.
caption: Man wearing waistcoat without shirt
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