I've been meaning to ask if any of you can shed light on the modern history of the brocaded and/or embroidered silk waistcoat. I've seen historical examples of long waistcoats from the late 17th and 18th centuries in such materials:
and period examples, plates, and films attest to shorter versions worn to the mid-19th century or so, usually for dress:
I understand that members of the Eton Society (also known as 'Pop') from whom are drawn prefects (along with the Sixth Form Selects) are by tradition entitled to wear waistcoats of design and colors of their own choosing:
Some University clubs, like the Bullingdon, specify a "uniform" dress waistcoat:
And I seem to recall a fashion in the late 1980s and early '90s for fancy silk waiscoats, perhaps most memorably embodied by Simon Callow in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral:
Favourbrook and some other shops in the arcades still sell this sort of thing, in more restrained and more flamboyant versions, usually in style that buttons higher than a dress waistcoat, more like an ordinary lounge suit waistcoat cut.
I'll admit that the shorter Regency version of the silk waistcoat has always struck me as very elegant, in say an ivory brocade or biscuit color with self-embroidery. There may be no modern occasion on which such a garment could be worn successfully, but I wonder. Has anyone seen it done well? Are there other historical precedents on which one could base such a choice? I assume it would have to be in the context of a morning suit, dinner suit, or full dress suit. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.