Suspender belts

The suspender belt, the ultimate symbol of seduction

The suspender belt is the very embodiment of seduction. Today, it’s back in the spotlight as a means of seduction and an object of fantasy… but that hasn’t always been the case: the suspender belt has a long history behind it.
Garters first appeared in antiquity to hold men’s stockings below the knee, at the back of the leg. Their use gradually evolved into the role they have today. As for the invention of the suspender belt, we have Féréol Dedieu to thank. In 1876, for medical reasons, he devised a way to avoid the compression caused by the elastic bands women used to keep their stockings in place. The suspender belt was born. It was attached to the corset, which was then popular with most women. In the 1930s, Marlene Dietrich popularised it with a particularly sexy, provocative appearance on screen in an iconic scene from Josef von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel. The suspender belt continued to gain popularity until the 1960s, when it was displaced by tights, which were more comfortable and much better suited to the miniskirt that was all the rage.
In the 1980s, the suspender belt regained its allure and became an object of desire and fantasy, even of fetishism for some. It established itself as an essential accessory of seduction.
Cinema – ever the great creator of shared fantasies – added to its appeal, notably on the legs of Emmanuelle Seigner in Roman Polanski’s Bitter Moon.
Here’s a curious anecdote: in 1980, a rumour published in L’Echo des Savanes credited Gustave Eiffel with inventing it, supposedly after his wife urged him to devise a way to stop stockings twisting around the legs... Although it wasn’t true, the rumour persisted and the story is still repeated on some blogs today.
A must-have for every self-respecting pin-up for decades, the suspender belt looks set to remain an accessory of seduction for every femme fatale worthy of the name for many years to come.