Suspenders...what say ye?

[Sluggo]

I am thinking about getting some suspenders for suits (not the kind with clips, but rather the kind with button tabs)

Do any of you gentlemen wear suspenders? If so, where do you get them?

 

[johnmrson]

I can't help you with where to get them as I'm in Australia. I go through stages of wearing braces and not wearing braces. At the moment I'm pretty much belts only. I seem to wear braces more often in the cooler months for some reason. The button braces are the only way to go. I got a pair of clip on's as my first set. They were the 6 clip ones but they weren't very good and I don't think they look very neat. I now use them to hold up my kevlar chainsaw chaps.

 

[bulldog]

I've seen both clip and button-on types at better department stores and at tailors of fine menswear.

 

[flylot]

I prefer the term "braces" as suspenders to some are those things that hold one's socks up, however I know of what you mean. These may be purchased at men's clothing stores (Men's Wearhouse and Brooks Brothers come to mind).

I think it is a very good decision to try them. I have been wearing them for years and find it the best way to hold one's trousers up. Most people when wearing belts tend to wear their trousers far too low (on their hips rather than at their waist). Perhaps this phenomena is caused by people wearing only blue jeans (which are often cut to be worn on the hips), I'm not sure, but the look is truly awful when wearing normally cut trousers.

Please, please don't purchase those silly things with clips. You are correct in choosing the traditional button on braces. If your trousers have no buttons, a tailor can quickly place them for a nominal fee. It is fine to have belt loops on the trousers (after all, a sport coat or jacket would be worn and no one notices). I often times will have the belt loops removed, since I only wear belts with blue jeans(uh, that's not entirely true either as I have buttons for braces on my jeans as well).

If you are having a suit tailored, please inform the tailor you wish high waisted trousers and that you will be wearing braces. The rear part of the trouser waist will actually be a bit higher and have a slight split to facilitate wearing braces . He will know what to do.

As an interesting side note, blue jeans had no belt loops until around 1927. The hip cut came some years later.

 

[Thelonius1]

But for casual trousers and jeans, I wear braces. I believe they situate your pants where they are supposed to be (on the hips) and they help the pants drape better on the body. I belt holds by tightening and cutting in half where braces, well, suspend and allow the pants to hang naturally. I have my suits made without belt loops, but I have also had belt loops removed. I think it clutters the look to have both belt loops and braces. As to wher eto find them, yo ucan get them in men's shops everywhere. I'm partial to Trafalgar, but YMMV.

 

[StylinLA]

I'm about to restart wearing some myself. They're kind of "out" from a contemporary men''s fashion point of view. But they're really never out if you pay no heed to those "look du jour" kind of styles. They look very polished to my eye with a conservative suit. Out here in Los Angeles, I'll be nearly ostracized for wearing them.

They're still around, but trickier to find. I'm sure Brooks Brothers carries them. I'm sure they can be found in men's section of most department stores, but they've been out of favor since the 80s, so they're not so prominently displayed. I've got a collection of them gathering dust so I haven't looked for them in awhile.

Suspenders with clips would be bad.

 

[Go West Young Man]

I wish I could wear suspenders, but my shoulders are too narrow and they always end up sliding around and falling off.

 

[Mr. Clean]

I wore them daily, during the work week, back in the '80s and '90s. All of my slacks either came with the buttons installed in the waistband or were added after the fact by the store after purchase during the alteration process.

I prefer the term "braces" as suspenders to some are those things that hold one's socks up, ...

Never heard that before, thought those were referred to as garters and didn't even know those things still existed. I thought those were a product from the days before elasticized materials existed.

 

[Muirtach]

Never heard that before, thought those were referred to as garters and didn't even know those things still existed. I thought those were a product from the days before elasticized materials existed.

I have always used "suspenders" to distinguish the clip style from proper "braces" using buttons and tabs.

It is not difficult at all to pick up some buttons and sew them onto the trousers you wish to wear them on. Check at some of your local tailors for braces as well as online. I personally prefer cloth to elastic for the bands, but that is harder to find now. My favorite pair is a Y-back with the back piece being elastic and the tops of the Y being cloth. It provides the flexibility of the elastic with the classier look of fabric.

 

[DougK]

I had my gray suit tailored with buttons for suspenders/braces. Very comfortable once I got used to it.

 

[WhosYerBob]

Of all the places I've ever worked - and I've been employed at a bunch - I've only seen braces worn at a Fortune 200 company and only then by the highest levels of management and no one below them.

 

[Obsessed]

Just don't get the ones with the clips. The rest is up to you.

Really. Don't get the ones with the clips. Please.

Oh, and depending on where you live and work, calling them "braces" will either make you sound sophisticated, or like an arrogant, condescending jerk. Feel that out before you say anything about your, uh, non-belt pants holder-uppers.

 

[The Knize]

I am thinking about getting some suspenders for suits (not the kind with clips, but rather the kind with button tabs)

Do any of you gentlemen wear suspenders? If so, where do you get them?

Tons of them on EBay. As long as they are not clip-on and you are wearing a suit, I do not think braces versus belts are noteworthy fashion/satorial-wise. That is, you can wear whatever you like without it being noted one way or the other. They were a fashion thing in the '80s, early '90s, but I do not think fashion much matters now, with a suit anyway. For casual, races would be making a statement, but that might be okay, too.

I do not really like the way they feel and they seem like more of a hassle than a belt, but they probably do make ones trousers hang better and in a more flattering way. Not so much belly hanging over the belt look!

 

[Circa1929]

I am thinking about getting some suspenders for suits (not the kind with clips, but rather the kind with button tabs)

Do any of you gentlemen wear suspenders? If so, where do you get them?

Hell yes!

They are wonderful!

I have braces from the 1900s, 1920s, 1930s and one or two from the 1940s.

I have a pair of repro 1933 Levi jeans that have suspender buttons so I dawn old police braces with them,... gives a real blue collar 1930s look.

Yes, they are great,... highly recommended!

 

[galopede]

I wear braces with all sorts of trousers. Not being of the beanpole shape, the trousers stay up better. I almost always wear them if wearing jeans as they never stay up.

I even have a pair of industrial braces for my bike leather trousers!

By the way, here in Britain, suspenders are what women wear to keep their stockings up! Any bloke who said he wore suspenders would cause much merriment!

I have never seen those ones that hold socks up in any shop here.

Gareth

 

[StylinLA]

By the way, here in Britain, suspenders are what women wear to keep their stockings up! Any bloke who said he wore suspenders would cause much merriment

Interesting to hear...they've been called suspenders here forever.
I've made a note should I ever get to Savile Row or Germyn Street.

What you call "suspenders" we call a garter belt.

 

[Rudy Vey]

I wear them with my suits (when I wear suits, which is unfortunately not too often) with buttons inside the pants, which I think is the most classic look. But, on my jeans in my workshop I wear them with clips.

 

[Doc4]

... where do you get them?

http://www.albertthurston.com/


'nuff said.

 

[Loner16]

I've been wearing them for the past few years.

It's not a fashion statement... I need 'em to hold my pants up!

 

[StylinLA]

http://www.albertthurston.com/

Can always count on the Doc for some great direction.