Waistcoat of Style

aka: Power Vest

True Fact: His regular wardrobe got him the part in Inception.

"Dignity, and even holiness too, sometimes, are more questions of coat and waistcoat than some people imagine."

— Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

For when taking your coat off is too revealing and wearing a trenchcoat is just too much.

The waistcoat is an article of clothing that has been around since the Restoration in England. In the United States, it is called a vest (in UK English, a vest is the equivalent of the American tanktop). A waistcoat provides extra warmth, an extra layer, and extra pockets (for that most important of gentlemanly accessories, the gold pocket watch on a chain).

A stylish formal waistcoat is different from informal vests such as a Badass Biker or Metalhead in a leather or denim vest, a fishing vest for tackle; a hunter's vest; a Granola Girl fringed vest in The '60s hippie style; or the puffy down-filled vest worn by snowboarders.

Depending on the waistcoat, characters wearing them can seem especially stylish, pretentious, or eccentric. Or all of the above. Wearing a waistcoat in more modern works can strike the perfect balance between being suave and kicking ass. It is often the sign of Tall, Dark, and Snarky.

A relative of Badass Longcoat and Badass in a Nice Suit. If it has Kevlar lining and also protects you from gunfire, it is a Bulletproof Vest, and the two tropes may overlap.

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Nagisa from Assassination Classroom wears a blue waistcoat with his school uniform. Notable for being the only student in class who wears a waistcoat without the blazer (the others wear the waistcoat with the blazer, just the blazer, or neither).
• This is a standard part of almost every male's clothing in Black Butler, considering it's set in Victorian England. Sebastian combines this with a form of Bullet-Proof Fashion Plate, as he's almost never seen without it unless things are really dire.
• November 11 of Darker than Black, being a James Bond Expy.
• By the final arc of Digimon Data Squad, Thomas has taken to wearing a loose, unbuttoned waistcoat.
• In Durarara!!, Shizuo Heiwajima is almost never seen without his bartender waistcoat, given to him by his younger brother. Ripping it is not advisable.
• Hatori of Fruits Basket.
• Gunslinger Girl. Triela tends to dress in a formal masculine style, including a waistcoat and tie that she often pairs with a Badass Longcoat. She even wears the waistcoat and tie while dressed in assault gear for the Final Battle.
• Jiro in My Hero Academia is the only student in her class who wears a waistcoat as part of her school uniform. Everyone else wears jackets.
• In a rare female example, Kaede in Negima! Magister Negi Magi wore one for the first Tournament Arc.
• Walter C. Dornez from Hellsing.
• The spies in Joker Game often wear these under their suits. The most prominent example is Miyoshi.
• Sanji from One Piece wears a waistcoat in the Water 7 arc.
  • Luffy also wears waistcoats 24/7, in various colors, no less. Until the Time Skip anyway. His waistcoats don't look as stylish as they would since he never wears anything underneath them.
• Brown waistcoats over white shirts and burgundy neckties appear to be part of the uniform of the British Library in Read or Die. Notable wearers include Joker, Yomiko, and Wendy.
• Meliodas of The Seven Deadly Sins wears a black waistcoat.
• Kotetsu of Tiger & Bunny more often than not wears a black and white waistcoat with his regular attire.
• Divine from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, when without his Conspicuous Trenchcoat.

Comic Books

• Batman:
  • When not seen in his Batsuit, Bruce Wayne often dons fancy three-piece suits as befitting a businessman.
  • Alfred Pennyworth’s dapper butler outfit tend to include a waistcoat.
  • The Joker’s trademark suit is always completed by a vividly coloured one, usually in orange, green or purple.
  • The Penguin as well. Though the exact style varies, his old-fashioned suits are never seen without a waistcoat.
• Wonder Woman: The version of Circe introduced in the Rebirth era switches out her previous Stripperiffic design for modern clothing, including a snazzy waistcoat. No point being a Vain Sorceress if you don't look fashionable.

Fan Works

• Arata Miyazaki and Shigeru Kitagawa of Despair's Last Resort both wear one of these.
• Tapper Smurf, the Oirish bartender of Empath: The Luckiest Smurf, wears a two-toned green-striped waistcoat as part of his everyday dress along with his green bow-tie.

Films — Live-Action

• Pick a Western. Any Western. Truth in Television since trousers tight enough to ride comfortably in for any period of time will also be so tight you can't fit ANYTHING into a trouser pocket.
• Apollo 13: In both the movie and Real Life, Flight Director Gene Kranz's wife sews him a vest before each flight.^note Fun fact: Apparently actor Ed Harris was extremely similar in appearance and build at the time of filming to the real Gene Kranz during the Apollo Program, to the point that the vest worn by Harris in the film is the actual vest Mrs. Kranz made for Gene back then, which the film crew were allowed to borrow.
  Jerry Bostick (FDO White): Mrs. Kranz has pulled out the old needle and thread again.
  Technician: Last one looked like he bought it off a gypsy.
  Jerry: Well, you can't argue with tradition.
  [later, after Gene finally puts it on, with applause from all the technicians]
  Technician: Hey, Gene, I guess we can go to the moon now!
• In The Boondock Saints, Il Duce has a custom waistcoat that holds three pairs of Throw-Away Guns.
• Frank's usual attire in Byzantium.
• Howard Stark in Captain America: The First Avenger. He's alarmingly well-dressed for a benevolent, globe-trotting Mad Scientist.
• In Cloud Atlas, Robert Frobisher borrows one of these from his lover Rufus Sixsmith, largely so he'll have something of his to keep him company when they're forced to separate. Tragically, dire financial straits and the threat of eviction/arrest drive him to sell it towards the end of the film.
• The Joker in The Dark Knight wears a green waistcoat as part of his curious style. A cop makes note that all his clothes are custom-tailored, with no labels.
• In the DC Extended Universe, Lois Lane often wears stylish waistcoats are part of her work attire. Also, being a billionaire playboy, Bruce Wayne is often seen wearing a waistcoat with a nice suit — when he's not in his other suit, of course.
• Dr. Cocteau in Demolition Man wears what appears to be several layers of kimono fabric as a "vest".
• Gareth in Four Weddings and a Funeral is always seen wearing a waistcoat (and never the same one either). At his funeral, his boyfriend suggests that "everyone picture him in [their] favourite waistcoat."
• Gangs of New York: "As some of you have surely noticed, our friend and benefactor Mr. Cutting is tonight wearing a waistcoat of certain distinction."
• Sonny Corleone and Tom Hagen in The Godfather.
• Several in the Harry Potter movies:
  • Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets likes floral-patterned silk waistcoats, as part of his flamboyant outfits.
  • Sirius Black wears a black one with silver dots in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, to show how much he has cleaned up after his time in Azkaban.
  • Horace Slughorn's trademark tweed suits in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince always comes with a waistcoat.
  • Harry and Ron wears ornamentally patterned ones at Bill and Fleur's wedding in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
  • Fred and George Weasley often don three-piece suits after starting their shop. At Bill and Fleur's wedding, the twins complement each other by wearing a yellow and purple waistcoat, respectively.
  • Newt Scamander wears an orange-brown one in the Fantastic Beasts films. His waistcoat is stylish enough to be kept into the second movie, despite the colour change in the rest of his outfit.
  • A younger Albus Dumbledore in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is never seen without a tweed waistcoat.
• Seneca Crane is never without his in the film adaptation of The Hunger Games.
• In The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the Devil sports one as part of his Limited Wardrobe.
• Arthur in Inception (pictured above) kicks ass and takes names in a very nice waistcoat. Note that Joseph Gordon-Levitt wears this kind of outfit normally!
• James Bond, fairly frequently. Since On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond always wears a waistcoat when he first sees M in the films.
• Morpheus, the Twins and the Architect in The Matrix Reloaded.
• Ocean's Eleven: Terry Benedict's are made of antique kimono^note  Actually the obi that goes around it fabric.
• Pirates of the Caribbean
  • Captain Jack Sparrow.
  • As well as Hector Barbossa and Will Turner.
  • Part of the official attire for most of the East India Trading Company members.
• Predators: Hanzo, the impeccably dressed Yakuza enforcer, wears a waistcoat to complete his powder-blue three-piece suit.
• Devon Bostick in Sacrifice.
• In the Saw series, Doctor Gordon wears one on and off.
• All over the place in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes (2009), which would have been accurate for the period.
• Star Trek:
  • In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Kirk wore a waistcoat as an alternative to the standard Starfleet uniform overcoat. Star Trek: Generations would give him an even sleeker waistcoat.
  • Similarly, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier gives Scotty a waistcoat with pockets for him to carry his engineering equipment.
• Part of Han Solo's classic outfit in Star Wars, although his is far more utilitarian and always worn open.
• In Superbad, Fogell wears a vest in anticipation of buying alcohol with his fake ID, insisting it makes him look older (he's seventeen and the ID claims he's twenty-five). Evan tells him to take it off because he just looks "like Aladdin."
• Worn again by Johnny Depp in Tim Burton's adaptation of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
• One of character actor Terry-Thomas' trademarks was wearing a waistcoat.
• X-Men Film Series: Professor X frequently wears a waistcoat with his elegant suits, and it adds a little extra flair to his aura of academic professionalism while also being an indicator of his upper-class status.
  • X-Men: First Class: Xavier's waistcoats as a graduate student and as a newly minted professor of genetics are a touch less formal than in the original trilogy. This subtly conveys to viewers that Charles was more relaxed and carefree during his youth.
  • X-Men: Apocalypse: James McAvoy's Professor X hasn't been seen in one since First Class, and the vest he has near the end of the film is more polished-looking than the tweed-preppy style of his Oxford days, which signifies that he's now embodying Patrick Stewart's character.

Literature

• The White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.
  • Don't forget, the Jabberwock wears one, too! (only in the illustration, but still...)
• The younger vampires in Carpe Jugulum are noted for their fancy waistcoats. Vlad's is embroidered with peacocks.
• Doc Savage wore a multi-pocket vest in many of his adventures that served as his Utility Belt.
• De rigueur for Marathine noblemen in Doctrine of Labyrinths.
• J. R. R. Tolkien's hobbits (The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit) have waistcoats as part of their regular male clothing.
  • Although it's not stylish, per se; just seen as something they ought to wear because it's proper. To quote the Gaffer when he sees Sam in chainmail: "What's become of his weskit? I don't hold with wearing ironmongery, whether it wears well or no."
• Psmith always wears a waistcoat, and creasing it is just about the only thing that can get him upset.
• Averted in Sense and Sensibility, where Marianne bemoans the fact that Colonel Brandon wears a flannel waistcoat for warmth. He's practically ancient!
• The Verbisoids in the Thursday Next series have a notable predilection for gaily-coloured waistcoats (and striped socks).
• Pop up in the Village Tales novels. The Duke, the Nawab, Rupert, and James acquired the habit through having been prefects at Eton and members of the Eton Society … i.e., "Pop." They have retained the habit into adult life (and, annoyingly, yet fit into them). Speaking of habits, Canon Paddick has thus far evaded having to wear one, but the Bishop, Dean, and Archdeacon shall have had no choice on State occasions, as Court dress requires a specific kit for bishops, deans, and archdeacons, one including a stylish clerical waistcoat.

Live-Action TV

• Archangel from Airwolf.
• Ally Dawson in Austin & Ally also wears vests in practically every episode.
• Colorful vests seem to be standard issue for Centauri males on Babylon 5.
• A staple of Raymond "Red"Reddington on The Blacklist. Combined with his collection of fedoras, it makes Red into a Sharp-Dressed Man.
• Pretty much everyone in Boardwalk Empire as it is set in the '20s.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Nash. And Pearl too, in later appearances.
• Anson Fullerton loves to rock the waistcoat on Burn Notice. Some of the other characters even comment on it.
• Kevin Ryan in Castle has a collection of waistcoats. Not that anyone is complaining.
• Discussed and subverted in Chuck. Timothy Dalton's character says "My mother always told me to play my cards close to the vest. And always wear a jacket over the vest so you don't look like an idiot."
• Doctor Who:
  • Many incarnations of the Doctor wear a waistcoat as part of their regular costume at least sometimes, including the First, Third, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, War, Eleventh◊, Twelfth and Fourteenth Doctors. The Fifth Doctor wears a rather natty tapestry waistcoat◊ when on holiday in "Planet of Fire", and so does the Sixth Doctor◊ when on holiday in "The Two Doctors". The Thirteenth Doctor wears one during "The Haunting of Villa Diodati".
  • Derek Jacobi as Professor Yana, the Master in human form, was dressed to evoke the First Doctor, including waistcoat.
  • Jenny (the katana-wielding Victorian lesbian crimefighter, not the Doctor's clone) wears a very nifty waistcoat when she's headed into battle.
  • As does John Riddell, the Doctor's big game hunter chum.
• Alpha in the second season of Dollhouse wears a waistcoat.
• Sherlock Holmes in Elementary often wears a waistcoat over top of t-shirts.
• This pops up in Firefly. Simon in particular, as well as Patience's goon, Two-Fry.
• Will Schuster from Glee
  • Also Kurt, although his are usually more stylish than Will's.
• A wardrobe staple of Oswald Cobblepot (The Penguin) on Gotham; and also of Alfred Pennyworth.
  • Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska have a tendency to wear these, though Jerome is sometimes more casual. They both are almost always seen in outlandishly colored but high-end three-piece-suits, though Jerome tends to favor red, orange, yellow, and white, while his brother likes the more typical Joker colors of purple and green. That was an early indication that, of the two identical twin monster clowns, Jeremiah was the one that was actually going to become the Joker.
• Richard Hammond in the studio segments for The Grand Tour, giving him a more stylish appearance than his older and more eccentrically dressed co-presenters. He occasionally wore them on Top Gear as well, especially the latter series.
• Nathan Petrelli likes to wear waistcoats on Heroes, and likes to take off his coat so he can show them off, too.
• Freddie Lyon (played by the lovely Ben Whishaw) in The Hour is frequently seen in a knitted waistcoat in season one. In Season Two, his wardrobe - and waistcoat - get a style upgrade.
  • Most of the men wear them as part of their three-piece suits; Hector and Randall most frequently.
• Ted Mosby in How I Met Your Mother occasionally wears one when he teaches his college architecture class.
• Carly Shay in iCarly wears vests in practically every episode.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): In the early 20th century, it was standard practice for men to don vests with their suits, and the ones worn by Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt (who are Sharp-Dressed Men who appreciate fashion) are especially dashing.
• Many of the lawyers in the various Law & Order programs wear these as the third part of their three-piece suit.
  • ADA Rafael Barba of Law & Order: SVU wears these, with or without accompanying suit jacket — he favors three-piece suits as a general rule and can often be seen shucking his jacket and rolling up his sleeves as he starts digging into a case.
  • Elliot Stabler returns to the franchise in Law & Order: Organized Crime. Now a member of the Organized Crime Control Bureau, he is seen wearing waistcoats, something he's never worn on SVU.
• Legion: When Charles Xavier travels to Morocco, he sports a grey waistcoat that matches with his suit. Being a high-class British gentleman in the 1950s, he wants to look his best even though his sojourn is an informal one, and the Moroccan heat would make wearing an extra layer of clothing uncomfortable. Once Charles is at Amahl Farouk's palace, he pats the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief, so he's overdressed for the weather.
• Roger Sterling and Lane Pryce of Mad Men. While waistcoats were out of fashion by the '60s, Roger wears one as an occasional alternative to his equally dated-yet-flashy double-breasted suit while Pryce wears one to distinguish him as a foreigner. In later seasons Peter starts wearing one as well.
• Patrick Jane in The Mentalist wears a three-piece suit but often takes his jacket off to go around in his Power Vest.
• In a rare female example, Dr. Elizabeth "Mac" Macmillan of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries often wears a waistcoat with trousers.
• Nash Bridges tends to wear very colourful or loudly-patterned ones, usually over a collarless shirt or a t-shirt, and he is considered a snappy dresser. His colleague, Inspector Harvey Leek, wears even more gaudy ones over his jacket, which is used by a character in one episode as an example of the police unit's lack of professionalism.
• In Our Miss Brooks, Mr. Conklin's often seen wearing three-piece suits (e.g. "Living Statues").
• Cillian Murphy's character, Thomas Shelby, is rarely seen without one. Most of the cast of Peaky Blinders wears one at some point.
• Colonel Montoya in Queen of Swords.
• The Sarah Jane Adventures: Sarah Jane herself is nearly always in a waistcoat.
• Mycroft Holmes in Sherlock is rarely seen without one.
• Star Trek:
  • "The Outrageous Okona" from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
  • As of the mid-late seasons of Deep Space Nine, when Starfleet switched from weird jumpsuits to the purple/grey-shouldered jackets, one uniform variant was the "captain's vest", as worn by Picard in Star Trek: First Contact, and frequently worn by Sisko under his standard uniform jacket.
• Harvey Specter in Suits, so much so that his protegé actually comments on it.
• Ianto Jones from Torchwood. Jack Harkness wears his fair share as well.
• Neal Caffrey of White Collar favors vintage three-piece suits, and looks great in a vest and shirtsleeves.
• James West and Artemus Gordon of The Wild Wild West sport these.

Music

• David Bowie's mid-1970s stage persona of The Thin White Duke wore a black one.
• When not in his lab coat, Doctor Steel wears a cool leather waistcoat that buckles in the front.
• Mumford & Sons, at least one of the lads is seen in a waistcoat no matter where they are, and they look incredible.
• When the boys of One Direction get fancied-up in coordinating but not necessarily matching suits, Liam Payne is often the one in a nice fitted waistcoat.
• Martin Short's character, Irving Cohen, sings a song called "Waistcoat Willie" in an SNL sketch.
• David DeFeis of Virgin Steele used to sometimes wear waistcoats in odd colors and patterns (e.g. leopard print) with no shirt.

Pro Wrestling

• When he's not wrestling, the NWA World's Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis is fond of wearing dapper suits which usually include a waistcoat.

Radio

• Adventures in Odyssey: We are told that Eugene Meltsner wears vests. The Animated Adaptation and CD covers have shown his vests with varying degrees of "power", but he did mention that he wore a "dress vest" for his wedding.

Video Games

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons has 5 variants of this that your villager can wear as part of their outfit. The grey variant is also the default outfit of the Ensemble Dark Horse smug cat villager Raymond.
• Trilby from the Chzo Mythos wears it prominently in Trilby's Notes, and it can be unlocked as an alternate costume in Art of Theft. If you the command prompt to make him examine himself in the former, he states that he would much rather wear his gray blazer, but the summer season is a bit too hot for that.
• In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the main character's employer, David Sarif, wears this◊ stylishly polygonal◊ number.
• Sebastian Castellanos and Joseph Oda of The Evil Within both sport snazzy waistcoats, Sebastian's in an elegant pinstripe, while Joseph accessorizes his with badass black leather gloves.
• In Final Fantasy XII, Balthier wears one, with corset elements. He is, of course, a man of considerable style and flair.
• In Grand Theft Auto V both Franklin and Michael have the option of wearing them with their specific wardrobes. Franklin's the only one of the two who can wear them without wearing a jacket, however.
• : In story mode, the idol agency's seed money comes from Fujimoto, a man who used to run a brothel in the building housing the agency and is trying to get into more legitimate ventures. One of the visual reminders that he's giving up on a quite high living standard in the process of cleaning up his act is that he's the only character wearing a waistcoat, which makes his clothing look a step up from everyone else's despite the lack of a jacket.
• Cole Phelps of L.A. Noire wears several in his outfits, notably the ever-stylish Hawkshaw.
• Francis from Left 4 Dead wears a black leather vest that appears to be a repurposed biker jacket, which coordinates well with the extensive tattoo work on his arms. In his dialogue with other characters (in which he often expresses his hate of whatever they encounter), he proclaims vests as one of the things he explicitly doesn't hate.
• Mogeko Castle has Moge-ko, has a nice black one, which gives her a Red and Black and Evil All Over vibe.
• In No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, Henry trades his Badass Longcoat in the first game for one of these.
• Persona:
  • Akihiko Sanada from Persona 3 wears a bright red one with both versions of his school uniform.
  • Persona 5:
    • The protagonist'a Metaverse attire includes a double-breasted vest with a high collar.
    • Arsène, a Guardian Entity reflecting the protagonist's stylish Gentleman Thief personality traits to the point it's an Anthropomorphic Personification of Arsène Lupin, wears a black waistcoat.
    • Party member Makoto Niijima also wears a black waistcoat over her winter uniform in place of a blazer.
• Pokémon:
  • Pokémon Black and White have the Striaton Gym Leaders, who are also brothers, all wearing black waistcoats over white shirts, as they're waiters.
  • Steven Stone, the Champion of the Hoenn region and heir to the Devon Corporation, wears a purple one underneath his suit jacket in his redesign from Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the remakes of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire.
• In Red Dead Redemption 2 Dutch Van der Linde is almost never seen without an ornate black and red vest.
• George from Resident Evil: Outbreak wears one underneath his suit jacket.
  • Leon in Resident Evil 6 wears one of a different kind. Is it a bulletproof vest or a waistcoat? Nobody knows for sure◊, but it looks awesome.
  • Luis wore a leather one in the original Resident Evil 4, whereas Wesker wears one in Resident Evil 4 (Remake). Luis's outfit is changed in the latter, but the original waistcoat has become available as a bonus costume.
• Volkanon and Vishnal of Rune Factory 4 both wear white waistcoats under their dark outer coats. Of course, being butlers, it's to be expected.
• Sleeping Dogs (2012): Big Smile Lee wears one, as do some of his henchmen.
• Raeger in Story of Seasons (2014) wears a waistcoat and dress shirt underneath his apron while running his restaurant.
• Super Mario Bros.: Bowser has been seen a few times with one. His wedding tuxedo in Super Mario Odyssey has a diagonally-striped lilac waistcoat with gold buttons, and in Dr. Mario World, Dr. Bowser’s outfit includes a grey waistcoat with a hexagonal pattern. For someone who otherwise never wears clothes, Bowser’s waistcoat-including outfits are surprisingly elaborate.
• The Medic in Team Fortress 2 wears one underneath his Badass Labcoat, as seen in his meet video. The Spy also wears one under his suit, but unless you download a fan-made mod he's never without his jacket. Zepheniah Nicodemus Mann wore one in the comics, during a flashback to the day his sons were born.
• Sanae Hanekoma in The World Ends with You pulls off this look nicely.
• XCOM: Enemy Unknown has EXALT. Every single EXALT operative wears one.
• Street Fighter V Cody Travers of Final Fight fame sports one as part of his Mayor of Metro city attire.

Visual Novels

• In Ace Attorney, Miles Edgeworth wears a different waistcoat depending on the time frame. Throughout most of the Phoenix arc, it has a simple black design, but it was a lot more ornate in his younger days (and can still be seen hanging with its accompanying jacket on his office wall in the present).
  • Apollo Justice wears a bright red one.
  • Ema Skye is a fan of waistcoats too; she wears a different one in each game she appears in.
  • Godot has quite the snazzy waistcoat. He also had one during his days as Diego Armando.
  • In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies, Phoenix Wright himself gets one◊.
  • Simon Blackquill wears one as well.
• In Amnesia: Crowd, Ikki dons a blue-striped one under his jacket, continuing his trend of being a Sharp-Dressed Man.
• In Katawa Shoujo, Hisao's casual clothing includes a diamond-patterned sweater vest.
• In Melody, Hank Sharp, president of the title character's eventual record label, wears a white waistcoat. He's one of the few characters with a consistent outfit.
• Ibito and Hidaka from TRianThology ~Sanmenkyou no Kuni no Alice~ wear them at school. In fact, all male students wear these. Justified, because it is part of their official school uniform and its purpose is to look neat for the female students.

Web Animation

• RWBY: Professor Ozpin dresses in an all-black suit, including waistcoat. It makes the green top he wears underneath the waistcoat stand out vividly... deliberately: his name was inspired by The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and the green emphasis is a Shout-Out to the Emerald City.

Webcomics

• Since this is part of the spies' uniform in Cuanta Vida, the protagonist and an antagonist has been seen wearing this.
• As part of the vaguely steampunk-Victorian feel of Girl Genius and the Costume Porn that the authors like to indulge in, these are all over the place. Agatha is sometimes seen wearing a green one, though not in the current story arc.
• Most of the male cast in Lackadaisy wear these.
• Gabriele in This Is the Worst Idea You've Ever Had!.
• In TwoKinds, Natani's latest outfit (made by Kathrin with the remains of Natani's old robes and some spare fabric of Eric's) is a green waistcoat under a black cape/cloak.

Web Videos

• Stuff You Like: Ursa frequently wears a classy waistcoat and even joked that it seemed to be a thing noting her coworkers Atop the Fourth Wall and Count Jackula do the same.
• That Dude in the Suede has a very nice waistcoat as part of his post-hiatus new look.
• World War II: Host Indy Neidell's costume for the series is, appropriate to the period of the 1940s, a dark one of these worn over a white shirt with a red and black tie.
• Cream Heroes: Claire makes Toto wear one of these after he gets a nasty scratch on his back to protect the wound while it heals. Given Toto is one of the more polite cats, and tends to use charm and cuteness to get what he wants, many fans noted the waistcoat suited him and made him look stylish. (It also made it easier to differentiate him from Nana and Dodo.)

Western Animation

• In one episode of The Simpsons, Mr. Burns sings a song about his vest made from real gorilla chest.
• Archer: Ray has a white waistcoat he puts on when acting as Mission Control which he calls his 'crisis vest'.

Real Life

• De rigueur on any sort of formal-wear, court-wear, or suits for centuries until the early 20th century. Mostly out of style for suits and street clothes since the 1940s, they've seen small resurgences, in the 1970s and, to a small degree, today (do your part to ensure the waistcoat once more becomes timelessly fashionable!). Waistcoats are still required for white tie and morning dress (the dress equivalent to white tie for daytime wear).
  • The UK has seen a bit of a revival of the waistcoat in the last few years, entering into smart casual and even casual wear.
    • In the summer of 2018 (which was also one of the hottest ever recorded in the UK), during the England football/soccer team's astonishing World Cup campaign ^note  starting the tournament with low expectations, they made it all the way to the semi-finals - England's best performance in any international tournament for over twenty years, thousands of fans celebrated by wearing waistcoats similar to the one worn by manager Gareth Southgate (who habitually wore one on matchdays as part of his three-piece suit), on what became known as 'Waistcoat Wednesday'.
• Waistcoats are still part of the "mess dress" or most formal dress uniform for male officers in many countries' armed forces. Notable examples include the US, UK, other Commonwealth countries including Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, Norway, and Sweden.
• Generally part of the uniform for waiters at upscale restaurants, boutiques, and attendants at museums. It as the benefit of a) making the waitstaff easily distinguishable from the patrons dressed in full evening-wear, b) by being intentionally less formally dressed, they avoid the possibility of causing a guest the embarrassment of being outdressed by the waitstaff.
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt, of course. He seems to wear one in every photo shoot. And looks amazing in them.
• Christopher Nolan is noted to be one of the few directors in Hollywood who wears them. It fits his persona.
• David Tennant.
• Part of 18th Century European military uniform. These were long-sleeved, made of wool, and tight-fitting so they could be worn under the (woolen) coat. In many armies, the color of the waistcoat was determined by which regiment you were in.
• Although the alternate trope names (Power Vest, Badass Waistcoat) are a better fit, John Wesley Hardin. One of the few Old West gunmen who lived up to his reputation (and may well have exceeded it in terms of viciousness), Hardin's preferred mode of carry was two holsters which he had sewn into his vest.
• Michael Emerson
• Martin Freeman sports one on his TV Tropes page.
• Penn & Teller, though this can be chalked up to pragmatism: More pockets = more places to hide/produce items for illusions.
• Crispin Freeman has apparently taken a liking to them.
• Misha Collins wears these sometimes.◊
• Tom Hiddleston has been known to wear them.
• Almost mandatory within males in the Victorian Goth subculture.
  • Steampunk fashion too.
• In a similar vein, very common among Boystyle/Ouji fashion, the Spear Counterpart of Lolita Fashion
• Troy Baker has been known to wear them.
• In Germany, 8-button (the 8 buttons represent the 8 hours of the workday) double-breasted waistcoats are worn by tradesmen who are either going through an apprenticeship or who have completed it; traditionally, black waistcoats are worn by tradesmen who work with wood, gray or tan are worn by those who work with bricks or stone, and blue is worn by those who work with metal.

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