unknown - Design for the Embroidery of a Man's Waistcoat - 1780–1790 - T-Shirt

This is a pattern drawn for the front of a man's waistcoat in the late 1780s, with a scatter of violet flower heads set into pencil foliage on pale blue-grey paper.

Visual Elements & Composition

Violet-purple wash picks out several large star-like blooms with dark petals and pale centres, along with smaller rosettes and a cluster of tiny buds at the upper left. Most of the sheet is pencil only. Leafy stems, tendrils and sprigs run across the panels, and the upper portion stays open. The garment's edges are traced in fine grey pencil along the lower left and across the lower right, so the drawing reads as a garment front first and a flower study second.

Meaning & Symbolism

The coloured blooms mark the principal motifs, while the uncoloured foliage shows the embroiderer where the stitching continues. Floral designs like this were a common feature of men's silk waistcoats in the later eighteenth century, when an embroidered front was one of the most visible parts of fashionable dress. Patterns of this kind passed between tailors, embroiderers and clients, and this sheet is a working model for transferring the design onto fabric before stitching.

Where the Pattern Lands on This Tee

A waistcoat front is the part of a garment that faces the wearer's chest, and this artwork is built for that same open central field. The scattered flowers spread across the torso rather than gathering at one point, so the design sits across the chest the way the original sat across a waistcoat front. Wear the tee and the blooms open outward from the middle, with the lighter pencil foliage giving the print an airy, unhurried feel.