Man's Vest, 1815–20
date: label: Date made
content: 1815-1820
name: label: maker
content: unknown
notes: label: Description
content: Men had been wearing waist-length vests that highlighted their chins and necks for several decades before this garment was worn somewhere in New England around 1815. However, in spite of its short length and standing collar, the vest shown here was designed to shift attention downward, toward its wearer's chest and waist. It featured a very slight point at the waist, which was a new idea in the mid-1810s. The small, closely set buttons pointed to the beaked waist, as did the collar, which was lower and more angled than it would have been a few years earlier. Horizontal stripes made the chest look broader, and wide lacing tabs on the back of the vest would also have helped its wearer to achieve the new cinched-waist look that had replaced the previous, very vertical silhouette. A fashionable man would have enhanced the illusion of an hourglass figure by matching his vest with full-hipped trousers and a coat with high rolled collar and full sleeves. He might even have worn it with a second vest of a contrasting color and collar style, thus giving even more fullness and focus to his chest.
label: Description
content: This high-collared, off-white silk vest is woven in a textured, tone-on-tone repeat pattern of narrow horizontal lines alternating with bands of tiny zigzags. The step-stand collar is slightly higher in back than it is in the front. The center front fastens with eight small, flat, self-covered buttons. Two pocket welts with flared inner edges, one on each vest front, extend from the side seams toward the center front. The vest is waist-length, with a slight point at the center-front base. The center fronts and waist hems are self-faced, and the vest is fully lined and backed with white cotton. The back hem is cut straight. One lacing tab with a vertical row of four worked eyelets is sewn at each side of the back waist. The center back length is 19 in. (48.26 cm), not including the back collar height of 2.2 in. (5.6 cm).
label: Description
content: To see a similar vest as it would have been worn, link to the portrait of <a href="http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=33978+0+none"><I>Robert Coleman</I></a>, about 1820, by Jacob Eichholtz at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. To see how one cartoonist mocked the hourglass silhouette that was fashionable for men, link to <a href="http://lwlimages.library.yale.edu/walpoleweb/oneITEM.asp?pid=lwlpr12377&iid=lwlpr12377"><I>Songs [Ye Gentlemen of England]</I></a>, 1822, by H. Alken at The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.
label: Description
content: This Web entry was made possible in part by a generous grant from the National Association of Men’s Sportswear Buyers, in memory of Joseph S. Klein.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: World
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Costume
label: See more items in
content: Clothing & Accessories
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of The National Association of Men's Sportswear Buyers
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1998.0200.07
label: accession number
content: 1998.0200
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Vest
label: Object Type
content: Main Dress
label: Object Type
content: Man
label: Object Type
content: Vest
label: Object Type
content: Upper Body
label: Other Terms
content: Vest; Upper Body; Maindress; Male
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: center back: 20 1/2 in; 52.07 cm