fix your hearts or die

An unusual gentleman's brocaded green silk waistcoat

c. 1810

An extant men's ensemble from c. 1833: coat and trousers of British make (Metropolitan Museum of Art collection).

Handbook of English Costume in the 19th Century, by Phillis and C. Willett Cunnington, describes the men's suit of the 1830s:

The tail coat was double-breasted or single-breasted; the cut-in now square; the collar high behind with rolled lapels turning low for full evening dress. The waist was rather short (until 1836) and the skirt at first scanty — ‘scarcely perceptible’ (1831.) — but becoming fuller and longer by 1838. The corners were rounded.

The sleeves, long and close-fitting, ceased to be gathered at the shoulders soon after 1832 although slight gathers sometimes persisted into the 1840s. The cuffs were usually slit (the French riding cuff) with two buttons in the cuff and sometimes two above; the corners of the cuff, from 1838, might be rounded off.

THIS GAME ENDS NOW. YOU WANT SYRIL IN YOUR LIFE? YOU WILL THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK. I'LL MAKE SURE HE VISITS TWICE A MONTH. I'LL MAKE SURE THAT HE CALLS YOU. I WILL GUARANTEE A LEVEL OF ENGAGEMENT, BUT IT WILL BE INVERSELY PROPORTIONAL TO THE VOLUME OF ANXIETY YOU GENERATE IN OUR LIVES. I'M NOT DONE.