Why do men continue to wear belts? Do belts help to keep
pants from falling down? Women have pants that don't have belt loops but their
hips can keep the pants from falling down.On this blog I look at why people
wear belts and why others spend so much on them.
BRIEF HISTORY ON BELTS
Belts have been documented for male clothing since the
Bronze Age.
Both genders used them off and on, depending on the current fashion. In the
western world, belts were more common for men, with the exception of the early
Middle Ages,
late 17th century Mantua, and skirt/blouse combinations between 1900 and 1910.
Art Nouveau
belt buckles
are now collector's items.
In the period of the latter-half of the 19th century and up until the
first World
War, the belt was a decorative as well as utilitarian part of the
uniform, particularly among officers. In the armed forces of Prussia, Tsarist
Russia, and other Eastern European nations, it was common for officers to wear
extremely tight, wide belts around the waist, on the outside of the uniform,
both to support a saber as well as for aesthetic reasons. These tightly cinched
belts served to draw in the waist and give the wearer a trim physique,
emphasizing wide shoulders and a pouting chest. Often the belt served only to
emphasize waist made small by a
corset worn under the uniform, a practice which was common
especially during the Crimean Wars and was often noted by soldiers from the
Western front. Political cartoonists of the day often portrayed the tight
waist-cinching of soldiers to comedic effect, and some cartoons survive showing
officers being corseted by their inferiors, a practice which surely was
uncomfortable but deemed to be necessary and imposing.
In modern times, men started wearing belts in the 1920s, as trouser waists
fell to a lower line. Before the 1920s, belts served mostly a decorative
purpose, and were associated with the military. Today it is common for men to
wear a belt with their trousers.
Since the mid-1990s, the practice of
sagging, which has roots tracing to prison gangs
and the prohibition of belts in prison (due to their use as weapons and devices
for suicide), has been practiced at times among young men and boys
Variants
- One specialized type of belt is the utility belt or Police duty belt, which includes pockets
for carrying items that the wearer needs for prompt use and loops to hang
larger items. Police officers, soldiers,
and repair personnel are ty
pical roles which use this kind of belt. Duty
belts are generally wider than dress belts, and are stiffer to better
provide for the carry of heavy items such as pistols. It is common
military practice for such a belt to be a symbol of authority or that one
is 'on duty.' Such belts are worn even if no equipment is carried on them.
A notable fictional example is Batman's utility belt.
- The obi
is traditionally part of a Japanese kimono.
- A common sight in fantasy
and role playing characters is the excessive
use of belts in all different sizes on one's person. Usually they are used
either for securing clothing and armor, but others just have several belts
around the arms, legs, neck, waist, hips, and across the breasts for
decoration. Sometimes they are used in place of eye patches or to
decorate weapons. This was also common in superhero
costume design of the early 1990s.[dubious – discuss]
- A studded belt is typically made of leather
or similar materials, and is decorated with metal studs. Studded belts are
often a part of punk/emo scene, skater, Goth
and metal fashion.
- Instead of wearing a conventional belt, Skateboarders
often wear shoelaces in belt loops to hold their pants up. This is done
mostly for fashion, but it is also useful because belt buckles often dig
into a skater's stomach when skating. Since shoelaces don't require belt
buckles, this digging is avoided. Another reason this is done is to avoid
the excessive pain belts can cause if a Skateboarder should fall.
- They are also used in judo, karate and other martial arts,
where different colors may indicate rank or
skill.
- A breast belt is a belt
worn by women that holds their breasts up, making them appear larger or
more prominent underneath clothing. It is worn generally above or on the
stomach but just beneath the breasts.
- The leg belt is another fashionable
article of clothing which, as the name suggests, one wears upon the leg
- REFERENCES FROM
- WIKIPEDIA AND IMAGES FROM GOOGLE IMAGES
-Intro.jpg)
