Museum complex

MAN'S SUIT (TAILCOAT, WAISTCOAT)

Russia
Second quarter of the XIX Century
Cloth, velvet, silk braid (tailcoat); silk, cloth(waistcoat); weaving; sewing
Length – 94,0 cm (tailcoat); length – 39,0 cm (waistcoat)
Receipt: the waistcoat in 1915 (the gift of A.V.Oreshnikov (1855 1933) – the historian, the curator of the Historical Museum since its establishment, the author of works on ancient antique and russian numismatics); the tailcoat from the State Fund in 1927
Showcase 3

Tailcoat appeared in Russia in the end of XVIII Century. It was prohibited by Paul I, as one of the symbols of the revolutionary France. This tailcoat is cut according to the English fashion of 1810s, a classic look of a Dandy from the capital. Initially, the tailcoat was clothing for horse riding, and later it turned into a costume for goings out. In the beginning of the XIX Century were popular mostly colored tailcoats, black color symbolized mourning. Favorite colors were blue, green, brown and various shades of red. By the end of the 1830s, the black becomes the color of formal ceremonial clothes.

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Tight fit silhouette was achieved via special cut and hand sewing.
A tailcoat made of brown cloth with brown velvet lapels and a silk waistcoat of green and white stripes is a typical example of European men's urban costume, reflecting the fashion of the first half of the XIX Century. Solid, often of dark and deep colors cloth tailcoats with the advent of the romantic era in fashion replaced multicolor richly embroidered coats. While France with its taste for elegance determined women’s fashion, the "guidelines" of men's fashion was intercepted by England. There was invented Dandyism, a style that emphasized modest elegance and refinement of taste instead of luxury (Real dandies of era of romanticism even began to wear corsets trying to outline the slimness of their figure). A special pride in the man's suit in contrast to dull monochrome coat would be then a colorful silk waistcoat, often with an intricate pattern that revealed wealth and taste of its owner. Some could wear even several waistcoats at the same time with different depth of the collar cutout or combining a deep cut of one vest and a stand-up collar of the other.

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