Reader Questions

From Valerian

"I am a young professional and like my trousers at the hip instead of the waist. However, your blog prompted me to want braces instead of belts and I was wondering if trousers with braces need to have a higher waist or if I can wear them just as I wear my standard trousers."

You can wear hip-height trousers with braces and realize one benefit - your trousers will remain in place without periodic adjustment. That said, you may not want to convert your existing wardrobe. Trousers intended to be worn suspended should be about an inch larger in the waist so they can move freely as you do.

Following that logic myself years ago, I quickly realized that I might as well just get high waisted trousers in the first place. When they are waist-high they have a better line, and better finish the look of a suit, particularly a vested suit. Note how the high waisted gentleman in the illustration does not have a bit of shirt or a belt showing through the open quarters on his jacket.

More "Underwear"

Conservatively dressed? Despite the dark brown suede shoes, only the lilac ground on the necktie might draw a second look. A man in a conservative profession would probably choose a solid navy necktie but his double bead striped jacket could still conceal the unexpected.

In this case, it was covering a pair of braces that by themselves are reason to keep one's jacket on at all times.

"Underwear"

Tan gabardine suit with a gray grenadine necktie and acorn punched cap oxfords. The shirt has white collar and cuffs and a gray body with black and white pencil stripes. And, obviously, maroon braces. Like shirts, braces were considered underwear during the years when a man never removed his jacket outside the privacy of his dressing room.

Reader Questions

From Jonathon
"I went looking for some non-iron dress shirts to take with me on business trips last weekend without any success Do high-quality shirts exist that don't need touching up to wear properly after several cramped hours in a suitcase?"

No-iron shirts are an abomination. Buy a folder from Eagle Creek and stack your folded shirts in it, then put the folder in your suitcase. They'll be fine.


Another From Jonathon
"I recently purchased several pairs of trousers with buttons sewn to the inside of the waist to accommodate braces. Could you recommend what to look for in a pair of quality braces?"

You need only know the name Albert Thurston. Thurston makes what are most likely the best braces in the world. Wear the barathea for summer (like the ones in the photo) and the boxcloth for winter.

In Praise of Albert Thurston

Men should not need to pull their trousers up several times a day.

That's the principal advantage of wearing braces with suit trousers. You put them on once and your trousers stay in place. They hang better too.

Albert Thurston braces like the blue ones pictured on the left are made from boxcloth with white hand stitched ends. The advantage of white is that you can wear them with brown or black shoes instead of maintaining a separate wardrobe for each color shoe.

The ends used to be made from a natural material called cat gut (and fortunately wasn't) which aged to a cream color, but they are now made from an unnatural material. It's too soon to tell whether they'll become equally mellow over the years .

Thurston's are sized, as you would expect. That's an advantage over the competition because on properly sized braces the brass adjustors sit where they are supposed to, near the waist.

You can also get lighter versions made from barathea for warm weather wear. These normally come with brown or black leather ends, but Thurston is happy to accommodate requests for white hand stitched versions.

Thurston has an online ordering facility and shipping is included in the price.