Colonial Era Men's Fashion

Costumes & Textile Collection: Colonial Era Men's Wear

This gallery focuses on three rare survivors of 18th century everyday dress. A sleeved waistcoat, a pair of breeches, and a jacket show us what was worn by ordinary people during the 1700s. The jacket's history of preservation, and discovery nearly two hundred years later, is an ongoing mystery.

Jacket, ca. 1769

This linen jacket with pewter buttons was found under the attic floorboards of a house in Guilford, Connecticut, during renovation in 1956. The jacket may have belonged to an apprentice working on construction of the house in 1769; the small size indicates it was worn by a less than fully grown man. It was probably not an accidental loss; in both the British Isles and New England, so many shoes have been found hidden within walls, chimneys, and under the floorboards of early homes that a custom-perhaps based on superstition-has to have been the cause. No one has yet been able to pinpoint the meaning or purpose of the concealment tradition, and discovering a garment rather than a shoe is unusual.

The coarse, medium-weight fabric was undoubtedly spun and woven locally, if not by the wearer's own household, and the pewter buttons may also have been "home-made," as the low melting point of pewter allowed for relatively simple manufacture with a mold. Even though a "working" garment, the jacket has a front cutaway echoing the shape of men's fashionable waistcoats and suit coats. Examples of everyday work clothing like this are very rare-garments were used, repaired, passed down, or cut down for children's clothing, and at the point when they could no longer be repaired, the linen fabric was sold to be recycled into paper!

 Sleeved Waistcoat, ca. 1730-1740

Made of cotton woven in a patterned herringbone twill, this garment is the earliest example of men's clothing in the CHS collection. Usually waistcoats that have been saved and passed down through the generations are made of elaborate, costly silks, sometimes beautifully embroidered; this one is quite plain, and therefore all the more remarkable for having survived. This sleeved version of a waistcoat, which could be worn under a suit coat, probably belonged to a man who worked at a counter or table, since the mid-front area is rather worn. To save money, buttons were created by covering shaped wooden forms with fabric, a less expensive alternative to purchasing fourteen metal buttons.

Breeches, ca. 1770

Brown fustian breeches such as these would have been commonly seen on working men in the 18th century. Like the linen jacket, it is very unusual for an "ordinary" garment such as this to have survived. The cotton fabric probably came from Manchester, England, where a variety of textiles called "fustian" were made. In the 18th century, having well-shaped legs was more to a man's advantage than a woman's, for knee breeches worn with stockings revealed the calves and ankles. The rounded tab seen at the side protected the wearer's legs from chafing (or his stockings from tearing) caused by the knee buckles. The front flap opening of the breeches is called a "fall," which covers the buttoned closure underneath— no zippered flies for another 150 years! The back view shows that the seat is very full and "baggy"; breeches were cut this way to accommodate the extra-long, full-cut shirts that men wore. Waist size adjustments were made by loosening or tightening a lacing cord on the back waistband.