Dressed to Impress: Dr. Douglas’s Silk Waistcoat

Accession # 1989.0001

Item: Waistcoat

Men’s Clothing- Outerwear- Textile

Let your Address upon your first appearance be genteel and engaging, and consequently give advantageous impressions of you. - Lord Chesterfield: His Character and Characters by Colin Franklin

In British and European culture, men’s everyday and formal wear of the eighteenth century was defined by the three piece suit: coat, breeches, and waistcoat, a fashion that was developed from the court attire required by Charles II in 1666 after the British Restoration. Unless engaged in manual labor or relaxed in the privacy of one’s home, a coat worn over waistcoat and knee-length breeches was worn from season to season by all social classes. The material, intricacy of design, and tailoring distinguished the class of the wearer and the function of the suit. For grand occasions and royal court appearances no detail was spared on formal wear. Silk suits were embroidered with flowers and other decorative motifs. Commenting on men’s fashions and manners, Erasmus Jones noted, “A smart Coat, fine Waistcoat, nicely powder’d Wig, and lac’d Linnen, may in some degree justify a Man’s taking upon him in the Street, where Respect depends wholly upon Appearance.” From buckles on breeches to embroidery on waistcoats, each element revealed something of a man’s class, wealth, or expectations. Consider the painting of Henry Fane with Inigo Jones and Charles Blair by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Completed in 1766, each gentleman is portrayed, elegantly attired in a three piece suit.The waistcoat was as indispensable to everyday dress as the coat and breeches. On formal occasions, the waistcoat was often the most decorative element of the suit.

The silk waistcoat from the Wilton Collection has a particular connection to the Randolph family. A handwritten label attached to it reads, “COURT VEST. Over 150 years old. Worn by Dr. Douglas at the Court of George II. Mrs. J. W. Randolph.” Based on the life of Douglas and the style of the waistcoat, the label should read George III. Dr. Charles Douglas of Scotland was married to Susanna Randolph of Curles Plantation. According to Randolph family history, Susanna was born in Virginia, December 9, 1756, and raised in England. She married Douglas, a descendent of the illustrious Douglas clan and heir presumptive to the 14^th Earl of Morton, on January 23, 1783. Shortly thereafter she was presented to George III at the Court of St. James in London. For such a grand occasion, fine and appropriate attire was a must; however, for men court attire was not necessarily à la mode.

©Victoria and Albert Museum, London

         The cut and fit of the three piece suit evolved over the course of the eighteenth century, but fashions from previous periods were often retained in court attire. A British waistcoat, c. 1770, from the Victoria and Albert Museum collection illustrates the flashiness of formal waistcoats. The fanciful embroidery, couched chenille thread and expensive satin silk conveyed wealth. Generally after the 1770s, waistcoats grew shorter, closer fitting, and less ornamented- embroidery was confined to the pockets, skirts and buttonholes. The formal Douglas waistcoat closely resembles those fashionable between the 1760s and 1770s.It lacks the highly decorative embroidery of other court suits. The front is made of beige silk with pewter gray braid sewn around the skirt and pockets. The skirt is cutaway in the shape of an inverted “V.” The waistcoat back and lining are linen. It was common to make the back of less expensive fabric. Perhaps as a physician, with plans to return to Virginia with his new wife, Douglas chose a sensible, but no less expensive, waistcoat to wear at court. The essayist and politician, Lord Chesterfield advised men to “dress yourself as well and as fine as the people of your age and rank do, in the place where you are. It is of more consequence to be well drest, than Philosophers are aware of…” Certainly Douglas’s waistcoat was chosen carefully to reflect his status; unfortunately we do not know what breeches or coat he wore.

        Not much is known about the private lives of Dr. Douglas and Susanna Randolph. What could his waistcoat and the rest of his wardrobe reveal about his character? In 1784, there is an account of Douglas and his wife at Wilton. After living in Virginia, possibly at Curles Plantation, Douglas moved to Bermuda where he died in 1823 and was buried at St. Peter’s Church in St. George’s. In his will, Douglas requested that Charles Randolph receive “Instruments Linen and cloaths apparel [apparel was a later notation] and the Seal of the Family. Perhaps the “cloaths apparel” included Douglas’s court waistcoat. The will is intriguing and signifies the importance and value placed on men’s clothing in the eighteenth century.

Bibliography

Costume Design Center. The Colonial Williamsburg Costume Handbook. Colonial Williamsburg

            Foundation, 2005.

“Historic Threads: Three Centuries of Clothing.” Colonial Williamsburg‘s online museum collection.

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2012. 20 March 2012 <http://www.history.org/museums/clothingexhibit/index.cfm>.

 Jones, Erasmus, The Man of Manners, Third Edition, 1737.

Meade, Bishop William. Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott

 Company, 1906

For more information on eighteenth-century clothing search the collections on the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London websites.

Image Credits

Painting of The Honorable Henry Fane (1739–1802) with Inigo Jones and Charles Blair by Sir

 Joshua Reynolds, 1761-1766, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession

 Numbe:87.16 < http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-

            collections/110001900?img=0>

Waistcoat, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Museum number: 652A-1898. <

< http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O90046/waistcoat/>