Hidden Suspenders

[ruiantonio]

Recently there has grown in me an interest in well dressing.
Styleforum proved to be a good starting point, served as a daily readings on the various subjects.
I read about shoes, jackets, suits, trousers, ties, etc. and this world seems to have no end.

This week my main attention was about suspenders.

Most say "Suspenders are not an accessory that is meant to be shown" but talk also about matching with shoes and ties.

I really don't understand the rule of not showing suspenders.
There is also the rule of not taking of the jacket.

Some may compare suspenders with underwear, but i think nobody wear boxers matching ties or shoes.



Well, i do not work in business environment or any formal requirement, but still value well dressing.

I would like to know your opinion about these rules and if you think they apply in every situation.

Does anybody in this forum wear suspenders in a day by day usage in a fashion manner without hidden them?

 

[starro]

Most say "Suspenders are not an accessory that is meant to be shown" but talk also about matching with shoes and ties.

The people who say suspenders can't be shown and the people who talk about suspender matching are NOT the same people. And for the record, the people talking about matching don't know what they're talking about.

In short, this rule about not exposing suspenders come from Victorian dress. Suspenders, shirt, and socks are all considered underwear. Gentlemen covered their hands and heads when outside, and taking off their coat--let alone their waistcoat--was taboo. The suspenders woud remain buried underneath waistcoat and jacket at all times.

 

[GBR]



The people who say suspenders can't be shown and the people who talk about suspender matching are NOT the same people. And for the record, the people talking about matching don't know what they're talking about.

In short, this rule about not exposing suspenders come from Victorian dress. Suspenders, shirt, and socks are all considered underwear. Gentlemen covered their hands and heads when outside, and taking off their coat--let alone their waistcoat--was taboo. The suspenders woud remain buried underneath waistcoat and jacket at all times.

The Victorians had some peculiar ideas - table legs had to be covered in some houses as 'legs should not be seen'!

 

[12345Michael54321]



The Victorians had some peculiar ideas - table legs had to be covered in some houses as 'legs should not be seen'!

The Victorians certainly had plenty of peculiar ideas - as do people today (although they're probably not precisely the same peculiar ideas). But the "cover table legs" thing is more of an urban legend than a popular Victorian notion.

Victorians often covered up furniture and fittings with lots of frills and decoration, but they did it mainly to disguise cheap furnishings.

This urban legend likely got its start in Frederick Marryat's, "Diary in America." Marryat claimed that in his travels in the Niagara Falls area he entered a seminary where he saw a piano with its "limbs" in frilly trousers. The headmistress explained to him she’d covered the legs to “preserve in their utmost purity the ideas of the young ladies under her charge.”

Even assuming the headmistress really said this (which is by no means certain), all it indicates is that one individual during the Victorian era was a bit of a kook when it came to piano legs, or more likely that the headmistress was joking with Marryat. There is no evidence that Victorians routinely put trousers on piano legs. Plenty of paintings and photographs from the Victorian era exist, showing "naked" piano legs, chair legs, table legs, etc., in even the most refined and socially prominent of homes.

Nevertheless, the British press at the time picked up Marryat’s story and ran with it, as it enabled them to poke fun at American society and its straight-laced, puritanical, overly fastidious, ludicrous manners, which were considered gauche and far inferior to those of British society.

The piano legs myth was resurrected in the 20th century by playwrights and authors as a shorthand for Victorian repression. Ironically, this time the butt of the joke were typically the British themselves.

More recently, The History Channel had a fairly popular series, "The History of Sex," and in the episode on Victorianism, it showed a piano with what looked like a skirt covering the legs half way down. So, not trousers, and almost certainly done for decorative reasons (not out of some sense of modesty), but the show used this as an opportunity to trot out the old urban legend.

 

[GBR]



The Victorians certainly had plenty of peculiar ideas - as do people today (although they're probably not precisely the same peculiar ideas). But the "cover table legs" thing is more of an urban legend than a popular Victorian notion.

Victorians often covered up furniture and fittings with lots of frills and decoration, but they did it mainly to disguise cheap furnishings.

modesty), but the show used this as an opportunity to trot out the old urban legend.

Not so, photographs exist of this phenomenon in wealthy households where the rest of the furniture was anything but cheap.

 

[12345Michael54321]



Not so, photographs exist of this phenomenon in wealthy households where the rest of the furniture was anything but cheap.

Photographs exist of furniture legs being covered with frill and decoration, as I stated. Often, this was done to disguise cheap or damaged furnishings, but it was not a practice limited solely to cheap and damaged furnishings.

Nor were the furniture's legs covered with pants.

Covering a chair's legs with frill and decoration is no more putting pants on the chair's legs, than my covering the dining room table with a table cloth is putting a dress on it.

But in most wealthy households of the time, furniture legs were simply bare. As would be the case today.

 

[ruiantonio]

Ok, now that exposed furniture legs in the Victorian era is covered, lets talk about braces/suspenders

 

[12345Michael54321]



Ok, now that exposed furniture legs in the Victorian era is covered, lets talk about braces/suspenders

Fine. As you've noted, there's a general rule that suspenders are not meant for public display. In this, they're sort of like underwear.

Some people almost always obey this rule. Other people almost never obey this rule. And a group in the middle obey this rule in some situations, but not others.

Decide for yourself in which camp you wish to be counted.

Obviously, if you're one of the people who doesn't think suspenders should be displayed, then there's no reason to match them to anything. Sort of how it's perfectly okay to wear, say, Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner boxers at even the most formal of events. Since nobody is going to see your underwear.

If you're one of the people who has no problem going around with your suspenders visible, then it probably makes some sense to avoid wearing suspenders which blatantly clash with the rest of your clothing.

If you sometimes obey the rule, and sometimes not, then when you plan on obeying it, there's no need to match the suspenders to anything. And when you plan on ignoring the rule, there may be a need not to have them clash with whatever else you're wearing.

But isn't all of this just common sense?

Decide for yourself which sartorial rules strike you as worth obeying, and obey them. Or not, if you're in a situation where you deem an exception to the rules to be appropriate. No matter your choice, some people will disagree with you or think your choice foolish.

 

[Marsay]

Re: braces: I prefer to keep my jacket on in any case. Taking your jacket on and off incessantly give the same impression as fidgeting with your sunglasses.

And I wear whatever I fancy in terms of braces. Maybe some people fancy wearing matching ones.

 

[starro]

On a more practical note, suspenders are so rare nowadays that most people will think you're a kook a weirdo if they see them. If that's not the vibe you want to give off, then I suggest finding ways to hide them from public view. (After all, isn't the secret satisfaction of enhanced drape and comfort enough?)

Simply covering up with a jacket is not enough, as oblique glances when e.g. you are reaching with your right arm and your coat happens to be unbuttoned can give away the suspenders. Best to wear suspenders only under a waistcoat or knit sweater, and to stick to belts for two piece suits.

 

[ruiantonio]

Thanks for all replies.

I think i have to try it out by myself and see if i feel comfortable or a weirdo.

Which of these two do you find more versatile, white or black?