Odd waistcoat with black barathea Argyll?

[OC Richard]

A jacket in black Barathea will have the appearance of an Evening Dress jacket. In Evening Dress it has long been common to wear non-matching waistcoats, particularly tartan, red, and buff.

A tweed waistcoat would look out of place due to the mixing of Day Dress and Evening Dress.

For example, here from 1909 is a black Argyll jacket worn with a white waistcoat



And here in the 1930s is a Prince Charlie coatee worn with tartan waistcoat. The same outfit might well have been worn with a black Prince Charlie.



As far back as the mid-19th century is was common to wear red, buff, and tartan waistcoats with black, dark blue, or brown jackets.

For example in The Highlanders Of Scotland (1860s) 42 kilted men have visible waistcoats, and they break down as follows:

Tartan: 14

Matching the jacket colour: 13

Red: 10

Buff or white: 3

Brown: 1

Charcoal: 1

So in Victorian times a waistcoat matching the jacket was in the minority.

From HOS, tartan and red waistcoats



Brown (dull burgundy?) waistcoat



In Edwardian times: a buff waistcoat with tweed jacket



Modern times: The Duke of Rothesay wearing tartan waistcoat