unknown - Design for the Embroidery of a Waistcoat - 1780–1800 - T-Shirt

This is a late eighteenth-century watercolour design for a vertical embroidered band, showing a ribbon strip beside a tied bow and trailing sprays of flowers.

Visual Elements & Composition

The design sits on a pale grey-green ground. At the left, a lilac strip carries a twisted white and pale green ribbon motif. Beside it, a slender spray of violet and blue flowers rises from a pale green bow with an orange-gold outlined loop. A garland of pink roses, small blue blossoms and red buds hangs from the bow, while a second stem on the right holds drooping purple bell-shaped flowers and grey-green leaves. The rigid geometry of the strip sets against the loose movement of the flowers. Washes are thin and translucent, laid over faint pencil guidelines that divide the sheet vertically.

Meaning & Symbolism

Bows and trailing garlands were a common device in late eighteenth-century ornament, recalling the gathered ribbons and flower swags of the period. The drawing was a working model. Embroiderers copied bands like this onto silk before stitching, and patterns of this kind passed between tailors, embroiderers and clients. The original belongs to the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum collection.

On the T-Shirt

A waistcoat front was designed to be seen at conversational distance, and this vertical band is built for that view. On a tee, the design is worn across the chest, where the ribbon strip and flower sprays read as a single column of ornament. The pale ground and soft washes let the lilac, sage and rose tones stand out against the garment.