A man's waistcoat made of brocaded dark green silk taffeta in a design of exaggeratedly large, exotic-looking plants with oversized leaves and blooms in varying shades, rooted in island-like clods of earth. There are elements of earlier 'bizarre' silk design such as architectural motifs, an aqueduct and a sarcophagus, probably a reference to classical ruins. Together with several smaller floral devices, they appear to be ‘floating’ since they are woven against the plain, monochrome ground that is also a feature of these early naturalistic brocaded silks.

The design is repeated once across the width of the fabric and the motifs are arranged in parallel displacements (à deux chemins suivis). The shading of colours is indicated by zigzag dovetailed colour areas of varying hues. The weave structure is a brocaded taffeta (taffeta broché à liage repris) in which a certain percentage of warp threads bind the brocading wefts in a weft-faced twill.

The waistcoat has deep skirts with two pockets and shaped pocket flaps. The back is plain dark green silk taffeta; it is lined with linen and faced with white silk sarsenet, which also lines the skirts. There were 21 silver-gilt passementerie buttons from neck to hem, with matching buttonholes and 3 buttons under each pocket flap, only 10 remain.

The waistcoat has been altered, probably during the lifetime of the original wearer, to accommodate expanding girth. There is an insertion of light green silk at the centre-back seam and one of green glazed worsted at each side seam.