Originating from the late Roman palace office of the sacrum vestiarium, it became an independent department in the 7th century under a chartoularios.
The bureau of the sacrum vestiarium (Latin for "sacred wardrobe") is first attested as one of the scrinia under the comes sacrarum largitionum in the 5th century, and was then headed by a primicerius.
[2][3] This official is variously known in the sources also as vestiarios (βεστιάριος) and [epi tou] vestiariou ([ἐπὶ τοῦ] βεστιαρίου).
[4] The office of vestiariou, attested in the late 13th and 14th centuries by George Pachymeres and Pseudo-Kodinos, however, was apparently a distinct and independent office, which function as the paymaster of the naval ships and apparently corresponds to that of "prefect of the army" (ἔπαρχος τοῦ στρατιωτικοῦ) attested in the 6th century as army paymasters.
[1][6] The information on the department's internal structure during the middle Byzantine period (late 7th-11th centuries) comes primarily from the Klētorologion of Philotheos, a list of offices compiled in 899.