Slim Belt

Why Belts Are Necessary   by Reed Gladwell

The belt was originally invented, as you may have guessed, as a way of keeping pants up. Before clothing became more sophisticated, most people wore robes or tunics of some kind. However, with the advent of more sophisticated tailoring techniques, pants became more and more popular. They were easier to walk in than the traditional tunic and better-suited to cold climates.

However, pants had a serious problem: they had a tendency to fall down. Three things were invented to account for this problem. First, there was the drawstring, which would be put under a fold in the clothing and pulled tight to hold the pants close. Second, there was suspenders, which went around one’s shoulders and held up the pants. Finally, there was the belt, a variation on the draw strong, but one that was used on the outside of the fabric. Most early belts were actually made of rope, rather than the leather of today.

Ironically, belts are no longer necessary for most clothing. Many clothes either use elastics in the waistband, which subtly pulls the clothing around the waist, preventing the pants from falling down. Other clothing is just so well tailored that it wouldn’t fall down, even if there was no belt.

Why, then, do people continue to wear belts? Belts caught on not simply as a way of holding up pants, but also as a fashion accessory. Belts can provide a clever accent that goes directly around the waste of someone. While some belts are designed to be subtle, even these draw a horizontal line across the person’s waist.

The belt is perfectly positioned to serve as a fashion accessory. It is far enough from the head and the feet that there is something of a dead spot in accessorizing, and thereby ads a touch of flair around the waste. Moreover, the belt provides a line at the waste that is actually slimming, making the body appear more geometric and destracting from the local curves.

Belts then are necessary, but no longer for holding pants up.

About the Author

Reed Gladwell, M.A., has been writing for the internet for over a decade. He is a great lover of everything to do with design. His latest website is called Clothing Design Software, and it has a page about CAD pattern making.
How Slimming Belts Work (aka “Fat Belts”)