LACMA

ShopMembershipMyLACMATickets
LACMA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
info@lacma.org
(323) 857-6000
Sign up to receive emails
Subscribe
© Museum Associates 2026
  • About LACMA
  • Jobs
  • Building LACMA
  • Host An Event
  • Unframed
  • Press
  • FAQs
  • Log in to MyLACMA
  • Privacy Policy
© Museum Associates 2026
Collections

Man's Sleeved Waistcoat1710-1720

Not on view
Men's silk brocade coat, powder blue ground with allover woven floral and fern motifs in blue, mauve, and ivory, with a long row of pewter buttons down the front center
Close-up of a silk brocade garment front, pale blue ground with woven floral and botanical motifs in blue, mauve, and white, with a vertical row of small round metal buttons at center.
Woven silk textile with a light blue ground, featuring a tiered pagoda in teal and white with fringed eaves, large burgundy leaves with silvery frond details, and dark blue foliage in a chinoiserie pattern.
Woven silk brocade textile with a pale blue ground, densely patterned with botanical motifs including large feathery fronds, stylized flowers, and trailing foliage in blue, silver, gray, and burgundy.
Woven silk textile with a pale blue ground, featuring large-scale floral and botanical motifs in deep blue, burgundy, and ivory, with a lustrous brocaded surface.
Woven silk textile with a pale blue ground, featuring a large stylized floral or botanical motif in deep purple and mauve at center, with teal blue geometric and foliate patterns visible at upper left and right, rendered in a brocade weave with fine diagonal thread detail.
Title
Man's Sleeved Waistcoat
Place Made
France
Date Made
1710-1720
Medium
Silk satin with supplementary-weft patterning bound in twill (lampas), metal buttons
Dimensions
Center back length: 35 in. (88.9 cm)
Credit Line
Purchased with funds provided by Suzanne A. Saperstein and Michael and Ellen Michelson, with additional funding from the Costume Council, the Edgerton Foundation, Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer, Maureen H. Shapiro, Grace Tsao, and Lenore and Richard Wayne
Accession Number
M.2007.211.40
Classification
Costumes
Collecting Area
Costume and Textiles
Curatorial Notes

From the end of the seventeenth century through the first quarter of the eighteenth, figured silks with bold asymmetrical patterns that combined realistic and imagined motifs emerged from the looms of London, Lyon, and Venice. Inspired by the influx of imported Asian textiles, these “bizarre silks” were utilized for both furnishings and fashionable dress, such as this sleeved waistcoat with a curious tiered motif resembling an exotic plant or a stylized pagoda.

Selected Bibliography
  • Takeda, Sharon Sadako and Kaye Durland Spilker. Fashioning Fashion: Deux Siècles de Mode Européenne, 1700-1915. Paris: Arts Décoratifs; Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich; New York: Delmonico Books-Prestel, 2013.
  • Takeda, Sharon Sadako and Kaye Durland Spilker. Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich; New York: Delmonico Books/Prestel, 2010.
  • Takeda, Sharon Sadako and Kaye Durland Spilker. Fashioning Fashion: Europäische Moden, 1700-1915. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich; New York: Prestel, 2012.
  • Örmen, Catherine. L'Art de la Mode. Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod, 2015.
  • Takeda, Sharon Sadako, Kaye Durland Spilker, and Clarrisa M. Esguerra. Reigning Men: Fashion in Menswear, 1715-2015. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich: DelMonico Books-Prestel, 2016.