Object ID
1996.63.1
Object Name
Vest
Material
Yarn
Object Description
Multicolored--red, blue, black, cream, green, and yellow--crocheted vest for a woman. Vest would likely hang down to its wearer's waist and has a slight flare. It has a square neck and has two buttons (made of crocheted red yarn) at chest level allowing it to be closed. The vest is a solid cream color with  bold bands of black, red, olive-green, and tan running down the front and more narrow bands of color trimming out the back as well as around the neck and arm holes.
Origin
Fashions in crochet changed with the end of the Victorian era in the 1890s. Crocheted laces in the new Edwardian era, peaking between 1910 and 1920, became even more elaborate in texture and complicated stitching.

The strong Victorian colours disappeared, though, and new publications called for white or pale threads, except for fancy purses, which were often crocheted of brightly colored silk and elaborately beaded. After World War I, far fewer crochet patterns were published, and most of them were simplified versions of the early 20th century patterns. After World War II, from the late 1940s until the early 1960s, there was a resurgence in interest in home crafts, particularly in the United States, with many new and imaginative crochet designs published for colorful doilies, potholders, and other home items, along with updates of earlier publications. These patterns called for thicker threads and yarns than in earlier patterns and included wonderful variegated colors. The craft remained primarily a homemaker's art until the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the new generation picked up on crochet and popularized granny squares, a motif worked in the round and incorporating bright colors.
Rights and Reproduction
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Citation
Vest, National Hellenic Museum, https://collections.nationalhellenicmuseum.org/Detail/objects/5755. Accessed 04/24/24.