Per Scriptum E. Wesley - Mackinac Center Intern
Just for some humor, here's a "tack-it" debate I'm presently having on my cubical wall with an anonymous coworker (click the above image to see more closely). I'm still trying to figure out for myself who it is. First, some background. While discussing Western dress with a church friend, Stephanie MacGown, I briefly explained that in order to help avoid some of the problems maintaining a tie, waistcoats ought to be worn over them. She came up with the brilliant bumper sticker phrase, "Save the tie, wear a waistcoat." This line so caught my fancy, I put it up on my work cubical wall, using an image from this page of the Bookster's Tweed Jacket website.
However, a fellow coworker argued that I ought to call the waistcoat a "vest." Here is a transcript of his/her historical argument from the image above:
Wesley:
1. We won the American Revolution.
2. We won the War of 1812.
3. It's a vest not a waistcoat.
Here is my response (if you couldn't read it from the picture):
On the contrary, secondary sources written as late as 1991 and 2005 attest to the fact that the vest was still known as a waistcoat until it was no longer a necessary part of Western dress. Since the vest was no longer “necessary” in Western dress much after the Edwardians, these sources will suffice. The waistcoat to the left is Victorian or Edwardian by the way.
From the 1850’s section (after the War of 1812, in other words) of Priscilla Harris’s 1991 commentary of Victorian dress entitled American Victorian Costume in Early Photographs, she writes, “Gentleman in satin waistcoat and cravat tied in a lose bow.1”
In Liza Picard’s 2005 book Victorian London: The Tale of a City 1840—1870, she claims, “The Victorian middle-class urban male wore a tall hat, a coat, waistcoat and trousers, with an overcoat in cold weather.2”
Finally, even the Edwardians make reference to “waistcoats” as is apparent from Pearl Binder’s The Peacock’s Tail, “The Teddy-boy dress derives originally from the Edwardian waistcoats and faintly Edwardian rig introduced during the Second World War.3”
By WWII, the “waistcoat” vest was only a superfluous item. Therefore, we must go back to the Edwardians for its “true” name.
1. Dalrymple, Priscilla Harris. American Victorian Costume in Early Photographs. (New York: Dover Publications, Inc). 17.
2. Picard, Liza. Victorian London: The Tale of a City 1840—1870. (New York: St. Martin’s Press). 165.
3. Binder, Pearl. The Peacock’s Tail. (Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers, Ltd). 382.
I'll post any future updates to the debate.
Interestingly enough, it was one of our editors who posted the criticism, and in one sense, I see his point. He claims that most Americans today call it a "vest" and that the British continue to call it a "waistcoat." He reasons that since the Americans won their political autonomy, they also legitimately call it a "vest."
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