Image credit: Anthropologie
My boss is a big fan of belts. And her belt must match her shoes though she is not really a fussy dresser in general. I have lost track of how many belts she has, but I do know one thing: She always looks put together. Belts complete an outfit and make you look like you know what you are doing style-wise.
Suspenders are an entirely different matter: For one thing, they are mostly for men. For another, it takes courage and sartorial flare to pull off suspenders. What a recent Freakonomics episode brought to light is the physics of belts versus suspenders, and how belts do not do the one job they are asked to do--hold up our pants. I liked learning what turned a physics professor from a belt guy into a suspender guy:
"This [a belt] basically works the same way as a tourniquet. You know, you strap it on, pull it tight, and hope your pants don’t fall down. But the physics of a belt — it pushes in, and hopes that it creates enough friction to have your pants not fall down. Well, that didn’t make sense. Here I was talking to my students about physics, and what direction gravity was pulling and moving things, and here I was wearing a belt. And I thought about it a little bit, and I was like, well, wait a minute. I need something to pull up, if gravity is pulling down."
This episode is full of fascinating factoids about belts, as well as a brief history of pants, and I urge you to follow the link above to give it a listen or a perusal.
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