A waistcoat (sometimes called a vest or a vestee in Canada and the US) is a sleeveless upper-body garment worn over a dress shirt and necktie (if applicable) and below a coat as a part of most men's formal wear, and as the third piece of the three-piece male business suit. Once a virtually mandatory article of men's clothing, it has become uncommon in contemporary dress in the English-speaking world, although it has returned to fashion as part of businesswear in Germany. Waistcoats have now[update] become a popular item of clothing amongst the youth of Britain as style icon Kate Moss and the members of indie band Razorlight wear them over casual shirts and jeans for a day-to-day fashionable look.

A waistcoat has a full vertical opening in the front which fastens with buttons or snaps. Both single-breasted and double-breasted waistcoats exist, regardless of the formality of dress, but single-breasted ones are more common. In a three piece suit, the cloth used matches the jacket and trousers.

Before wristwatches became popular, gentlemen kept their pocket watches in the front waistcoat pocket, with the watch on a watch chain threaded through a buttonhole. Sometimes an extra hole was made in line with the buttonholes for this use. A bar on the end of the chain held the chain in place to catch it if it were dropped or pulled.

Now waistcoats are worn less, so the pocket watch may be more likely be stored in a trouser pocket.

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