Handmade Custom Vests

 

Waistcoats (or “vests” in good American English) haven’t been this in style for decades.

Perhaps the recession made us all a bit more serious, and many of the guys out there who hoped to be boys forever decided to grow up.

Or perhaps we all just decided to think a bit more about history and a bit less about what was new, when future prospects seemed to dim.

But while vests have come back in style, attractive, interesting, and idiosyncratic vests are still absent from the stores.

1920s Style Vest

You can find a basic vest, but can you find a vest that someone spent some time designing?

We can design and make a one-of-a-kind vest that is completely designed to fit your body and your life.

Our waistcoats are drawn from the history of fine men’s dress but propelled forward into modern life through taste, judgement, and a selection of the best modern materials.

Our goal when we design is to take details from greatest pieces crafted over the past centuries and renew them by placing them in the context of contemporary life.

The white seersucker vest with the stand-up collar, wide lapels, and silver buttons, for example, is almost identical in style to a vest from the 1700′s that is in the V&A museum.

But when made up in the right fabric, with just the right proportions it does not look out of place at a summer picnic or garden party.

The most distinct detail on this vest is the forward sloped shoulder seams, that wrap the linen backs of the vest over onto the front.

The grey pinstripe vest is cut extra long for a slim early 1920′s look and is inspired by the same period in which the show Boardwalk Empire is set.

The heavy navy blue melton vest was inspired by a book on Victorian explorers of the Nile region that I had been reading and all of the wonderful paintings of the explorers.

I wanted a vest that I would be able to wear for work without getting destroyed with pockets that could hold all of my gear, and this was the result.

Photo By welovepictures.co.za

The vest is lined in cotton twill and is self-backed  —the perfect vest for working with your hands or repairing machinery.

The two Western style vests in the listing were designed in a similar frame of mind.  It is easy enough to find a Western style vest, but hard to find one that doesn’t seem like a costume.

With Austro-Hungarian Military Buttons

The heathered brown wool vest was designed for a 1950s style wedding in Hawaii, and I wanted something that would be both retro and Western but with a completely different sensibility than you would find if you were going line dancing.  

The grey pinstripe vest is almost identical.  Here, the Western yoke almost disappears into the pattern of the stripes.

This vest was also made for a wedding, but this one here in Colorado.  The fabric is an extremely breathable, open weave, tropical wool.

The dark grey vest with silver buttons has an early 20th century cast.  The buttons are vintage Austro-Hungarian military buttons and the front fabric is a mix-stripe flannel wool.  The result is a hip and youthful vest that draws on the well of history.

The wool windowpane vest pictured was made for a wedding in South Africa and is paired with a pair of trendy low-rise pants that we crafted and a Liberty print skinny tie that we made.  A beautiful plaid is ideal for an outdoor summer wedding (where black should generally be avoided).

The last few pics show some shots from my own wedding (and you can expect to see more of these pics soon).  When we design and make all of the pieces for a wedding (vests, shirts, hats, jackets, pants, dresses, ties, etc), the results are amazing.  

(Feel free to check out our women’s store for more pictures of our dresses: www.DenverDressmakers.com)

The picture of the bride and her father shows a brown gabardine vest with a green embroidered collar.  The groom’s father is shown in an off black vest with brown pinstripes (made from superfine wool) with brown wool pants, and a green cotton sateen shirt.  His vest is cut with a breast pocket that sports a cotton print pocket square.

The groomsman (in white) sports a silk matka vest with duppioni on the collar, welts, and back.  And the groom (in greens and browns) is wearing a suit that is cut from an Italian wool sateen.

All of these vests are just samples of our work.

Contact us by email (service@matthewaperry.com) and we will get to work designing a vest just for you.  You tell us a bit about yourself, and we will send you sketches and swatches until we find the perfect fabrics and style for your events and the life that you lead.

We make vests for customers all over the world.  So wherever you are we can deliver to you http://www.matthewaperry.com/.