Suspenders

I've seen men who wear this costume. Usually chubby short try-hards. No thanks.

Are we still doing this?

It really emphasizes the size and shape of your upper body, so great if you happen to be lean and long-waisted and sculpted by the gawds (but not bulky). Oh, and height helps too.

It looks ridiculous on most mere mortals.

I love it.

Hot as Hell. Depending on what's in them. Even hotter coming off.

[quote] Are we still doing this?—hipster ca 2009

Oh hon.

They were around a long while before you even entered the picture, and they'll also be here a long while after you're gone.

A smarmy douche at work wears them. So I hate them.

They are all gorgeous, so they would look good wearing a trash bag.

Please don't attempt suspenders, a bow tie, and a cute ironic hat all at the same time.

Because... just don't.

It’s not hard to get “button pants,” op. You simply ask your tailor to sew them into your trousers. Easy. Clip and elastic suspenders are tacky. Silk and button suspenders are always correct, and the fancy patterns are intended for the wearer, not for public consumption. Purposely displaying your suspenders is bad form— if they’re seen, it should be accidental/incidental. Leather suspenders are bulky, and they will soil your shirts until they are broken in, just as a new belt will often soil your trousers. It takes forever to break in leather suspenders. In the end, you should really wear suspenders more for comfort than for style. I think they’re more comfortable than belts. If you’re determined to go for looks rather than utility, the other comments are correct about them looking better on tall, slender men. Trafalgar makes beautiful silk suspenders with lots of whimsical designs, including many which were originated by Calvin Curtiss back in the ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s.

Let's get the definition correct...suspenders are cheap elastic straps that attach to your pants with metal clips; braces are made of cloth, and use a leather or cloth strap to attach to buttons on the inside of your pants. The buttons do not come with the pants, OP, you sew them in after you position the straps where you're wearing them.

I wear braces practically daily with a suit...I'm not short and fat, and 6'1", and 175, and yes, i frequently wear them with a bow tie. Suspenders are never appropriate, unless you're a clown, or Mork

[quote] It’s not hard to get “button pants,” op. You simply ask your tailor to sew them into your trousers.

Oh yes, my tailor. We talk every day!

As many already said - they require a very sexy wearer to be sexy. I find that they do weird things when a guy stands up, sits down or moves through any range of motion at all in general. R10 is correct - they were not initially designed to be SEEN, rather just to hold up pants.

R3 is right. Body type counts for a lot. Good set of shoulders and a tight waist is key.

You don’t even need a tailor R12. I’d bet your favorite dry cleaner has a seamstress (or seam-master?) on staff who could add the buttons.

If you’re going to use clips, don’t even bother.

Spare us.

Many thanks

I love the word suspenders...we say braces.

My grandpa wore them and called them braces.

[quote]great if you happen to be lean and long-waisted and sculpted by the gawds (but not bulky). Oh, and height helps too.

These individuals don't need any gimmicks to look good, therefore suspenders serve no purpose and should be cancelled.

Brits call them braces; Americans call them suspenders.

Hey! What do Brits call the things orthodontists put on your teeth?

[R20] please reread [R11].

Looks good on guy in the middle

@r20, "Hey! What do Brits call the things orthodontists put on your teeth? "

Teeth?

R20, is that a trick question?

Answer: There are no orthodontists in Britain.

They help maintain correct posture.

Suspenders are for holding up your pants while you work or do physical activity.

Wearing suspenders as fashion accessories (hipsters, soyboys, etc.) looks dorky since everybody knows they're useless nutsacks.

[quote] "Hey! What do Brits call the things orthodontists put on your teeth? "

When I was a kid we called them plates. But I think we now say braces. It was nudging its way in even back in my day.

They look goodiculous

They get in the way of my shoulder holster.

They look good on hot people, OP.

if you are tall and fit and handsome - YES.

Leather? LEATHER?

As others have said, they only look good if they’re attached to the pants with buttons. The snap-ons look tacky as fuck.

well if you want to get sartorial about it, they only look tailored with buttons and on trousers with no belt loops.

As for as leather, this option threw me for a loop because they didn't exist when I was a young man. Now I see this is a hipster caprice. I would say, OP, no, since the look seems a decade old, at least. But, I'm intended audience so what do I know.

I mean - I AM NOT the one you'd try to impress with these leather contraptions.

OP - how about a pleather shoulder strapped jock?

This should bring the boys to the yard, OP.

I think, like most clothes, they look better when you are very lean. Other than Amish men who really need them (in which they for the most part do not look good - but aren't meant to), maybe when you wear a tux they can be part of the fashion, other than that - I think they are rather anachronistic and look douchey. Like so many of the fashion statements that young people use to make them look unique and edgy, that actually end up more a uniform, as they all do it.

in the 1990s, I used to wear them with clips to the pants! They were so in

Come over to my house, R11. My mouth is waiting.

If you’re hot enough anything looks good

In the first grade, my parents often sent me to school wearing suspenders. Of course, none of the other boys wore them, which I found embarrassing. So, I refused to wear a pair of suspenders after first grade.

Yummy.

Yah, wtf is with the bow ties? Only with formal wear or on crazy, out of touch rich. Still a better look than all that baggy, saggy, ghetto hobo crap.

Scary clowns are the only ones who do rock both suspenders and bow ties. Squirting and spinning bow ties.

When you find yourself in a suspender jock you've really hit the skids. Anyone's older brother ever give them a brownie?

I, personally, think they're TREMENDOUS.

Clip-ons suspenders are like clip-on ties.

For R47.

I loved them in the 70s and 80s (when I was skinny enough to wear them ) ! Yes,I even had a pair of rainbow ones ala Robin Williams. I used to wear this one pair with rhinestone brooches on each strap ,front and back . It was so much fun ,but I always lost a few during the evenings. Id wear them now if they wouldnt make me look 9 months pregnant. One thig I do see is people wearing them AND a belt . Thats just wrong.

If they're proper button suspenders, they'll typically look good. If one is over the age of six, and still wearing clip suspenders, they shouldn't wear them at all.

R10 - after reading your post I feel like you often wear a cravat. Am I right?

I think they kind of hot. And make guys who are not that hot look hotter. The same thing goes for men wearing cowboy hats.

LOL r52!

[quote] I mean - I AM NOT the one you'd try to impress with these leather contraptions.

Mary!

How about sock garters?

I would LOVE to have R10 weight in on the accepted style and right way to wear leather chaps and what else to wear with them!

Please R10. You could get your own thread going and get lots of traffic.

Sock garters are an unnecessary affectation. There is elastic in men's socks to hold them up.

I had Mork rainbow suspenders in the early '80s. I was a tween then.

I like the way suspenders pressure the waistband and "pull up" pants so that cock is more visible. Hot!

Michael Landon, in suspenders on Little House on the Prairie. Discuss!

No wonder they call you "Nellie"!

They make me feel like dancing.

Hes so cute R63 ! I wore mine with a lemon yellow shirt and white painters jeans (remember those?) . Lord that was 100 years ago .

R64 - omg- I think I lived in those cheap white painters pants. Wasn’t that also the decade of the Earth Shoe?

R65 Yes ! Werent they called Mudd shoes ? So frigging comfortable !

Depends on setting and frequency. My work takes me to many different ‘suited and booted’ office environments...well, pre-Covid. Every work setting has at least one of these types. There’s the braces/suspenders guy, the waistcoat guy, the bow tie guy, the flashy cufflinks guy, and the technicolour socks guy. Don’t be that guy. You want to be thought of primarily for what you can do more than your sartorial quirk. It’s the difference between the occasional apparence and a signature.

I think they can look good, but I've only ever really worn them when wearing a three piece suit that I didn't wear a belt with. They help to smooth down the shirt so the waistcoat lies flatter against your body so when you take your jacket off it's not flapping out.

Oh and as someone else has said, Brits tend to call them braces, not suspenders. Suspenders are what women wear to hold up long pantyhose!

Your trousers can be a little looser in the waist with suspenders. But too loose and it looks like a clown outfit.

You dont use suspenders to hold up pantyhose-they are held up by the panty. Suspenders hold up stockings.

R67, I see what the gays mean when they say guys that wear suspenders are hot.

Thanks for posting, OP (and R10, R11, R69). I really enjoy fashion discussions on DL (that don't devolve into "caftan" snark). Personally, I have always liked the 80's punk "boots and braces" look--but it's not something that holds up today.

[R71] Garters hold up stockings.

My one and only and last pair of suspenders were in gradeschool: red elastic and the clasps were little gold metal Scottie dogs. Sigh.

Suspenders on pants with belt loops? Doesn’t seem right.

I've seen big nordic guys wearing them over t-shirts with military boots and whatever baggy military pants fatigue things.

As I aged into my late 50s, I went from clone to dandy. I think anything that stands out as different and is flattering to the wearer is great. Bring on these stylish flourishes.

They actually are practical. My waist line fluctuates between 35and 38 And it’s incredibly difficult to get a belt that will keep my jeans up. My big issue with suspenders is the modern design of jeans doesn’t allow for a central loop at the back of the waist line to carry the stress equally. Instead you hook to either the right or left loop which ultimately tears.