Suspender belt

The suspender belt, the ultimate symbol of seduction

The suspender belt embodies seduction all on its own. Today, if it once again takes centre stage as a means of seduction and object of fantasy… that has not always been the case: the suspender belt has a long history behind it.
The garter appeared in antiquity to hold up men's stockings below the knee (at the back of the knee), its use gradually changing until it reached its current position. As for the invention of the suspender belt, we owe it to Féréol Dedieu who in 1876, for medical reasons, devised a system that would avoid the compression caused by elastics on ladies' thighs, which were intended to hold stockings in place. The suspender belt was born. It was attached to the corset, which was then favoured by most women. In the 1930s, it was popularised by Marlène Dietrich, who used it in the most sexy and provocative way on screen, in a mythical scene from The blue Angel by Josef von Sternberg. The suspender belt continued to become more widespread right up until the 1960s, when it was dethroned by the stocking, more comfortable and much better suited to wearing the mini-skirt, which was all the rage at the time.
In the 1980s, the suspender belt regained its status and established itself as an object of desire, fantasy, and even fetishism for some. It became an indispensable attribute of seduction.
Cinema — always a great generator of universal fantasies — would add fuel to the fire, notably on the legs of Emmanuelle Seigner in Bitter Moon by Roman Polanski.
An amusing anecdote: in 1980 it became the subject of a rumour launched in L'Echo des Savanes, which attributed its invention to Gustave Eiffel, supposedly pressured by his wife to devise a system that would stop stockings from twisting… When in fact this was entirely untrue, the rumour persisted, and it is a legend still relayed today on certain blogs.
A mandatory accessory for decades of any self-respecting pin-up, the suspender belt seems to have many years ahead of it as a seduction attribute of any femme fatale worthy of the name.