As was typical of Victorian-era garments, the Joker’s waistcoat and trousers overlapped a bit, which prevented any “gappage” between the two and revealing the shirt underneath – such fashion was keener back then.
In this costume display photo (again provided by Paul Wares), the diagonal weave is again visible.
In a closer photo of the same costume display, it looks as if the fabric may have been cavalry twill, but with the “wrong” side of the fabric used as the outside?
The Joker’s waistcoat had a fitting dart on each front, with a welt pocket seemingly centered over it.
Unfortunately, we never got a look at the back of the Joker’s waistcoat in the movie, so I can’t say whether or not his waistcoat back had fitting darts and/or an adjustable back strap.
(While the back strap is a typical component of waistcoats, the presence and absence of darts varies a bit more; some have them in front but not in back, some have them in back but not in front, some have them in front and back, some have no darts at all, and I’ve even seen waistcoats with double darts in front with none in the back!)
Although we never got a good look at the back of the Joker’s waistcoat in its entirety, I did catch a couple fleeting glimpses of back at the lower side, where a small fashionable “split” at the bottom of the side seam can be observed, as well as the purple back of the waistcoat.
(In other words, the back of the waistcoat was purple, and the side seams weren’t sewn closed all the way to the bottom.)
The waistcoat was lined with white lining.
A wonderful detail on the Joker’s waistcoat was the buttons themselves, which, as you can see, featured the four suits of a deck of playing cards!
That’s some serious dedication to the costuming craft, considering this lovely little detail can barely even be seen on the Blu-ray with an HDTV and/or HD monitor, and after this movie’s theatrical run it would pretty much only ever be seen on VHS with a tube TV!
Other than that one close-up shot of the waistcoat in which the buttons were more clearly seen, one would really have to strain their eyes to see this detail for the rest of the movie.
Well done, Ringwood & co.!!
Interestingly, a set of playing card “suit” cufflinks were auctioned as components of the Joker’s costume … and while they’re a far cry from the cufflinks worn with his shirts, they look like a match to the “buttons” on his waistcoat!
In other words, I believe the “buttons” on the Joker’s waistcoat were, in fact, cufflinks!
If so, this was an unconventional, “out-of-the-box” adaptation – McGuyver approves!
And finally, I believe it worth noting that his green shirt and waistcoat were not an exact color match. (To my eye, the shirt was something of an emerald green, while the waistcoat was more of a teal color.)
It’s possible that both the shirt and waistcoat fabrics were custom-dyed (simultaneously or separately) and although both silk and wool are acid-dyed, the two fabrics would respond differently to the same dye formula.
It’s also possible they were both simply pre-dyed, store-bought fabrics and never even intended to fully match.
