Belted: Emblematic belts

I love belts, probably much more than most people. I think that they are a nice, yet subtle way of adding a little something extra to what might be considered a boring outfit. And I have a lot of belts, probably too many. My favorite type, however, are probably emblematic belts. These are usually made of canvas with a ribbon of some repeating pattern sewn in, and have a leather tab and buckle. At some point, I decided that when I go out of town, especially to a place I have never been before, I would try to buy a belt from that place as a souvenir. Here is my collection:


Purchased one summer a few years ago on a trip down to St. Simon's Island. This is where I grew up going to the beach.


Purchased from Perlis when I went to visit my college friend who lives in New Orleans. The only drawback is that the ribbon part is not as wide a most emblematics traditionally are. As a result, I feel that the canvas-to-ribbon ratio is off.


Purchased from O'Connell's in Buffalo, NY (a.k.a.- "Mecca") when I went to visit my friend one winter.


Both purchased at J. Press in Boston, during a family trip up to New England. Made by Leather Man, Ltd. The lacrosse belt probably gets the most wear out of all of them.


Purchased from Murray's Toggery Shop on a day-trip to Nantucket during the same trip to New England mentioned above.


Belts purchased so that I would actually have something orange to wear to Clemson games during grad school. The bottom one was "custom made" for me by Leather Man, Ltd. before I actually got to school (little did I know how easy it was to find this style all over town).


Purchased at M. Dumas when I lived in Charleston last summer.

I have a couple more in the closet that I didn't include because they weren't technically "souvenir" belts. Out of all of these, I must say that the ones made by Leather Man, Ltd. are probably the ones I like the most. That is because for the tab, they only use a single piece of leather, instead of two pieces stitched together like most of the rest do. For whatever reason, I think this style works better and lays flatter. Additionally, I think that they are well made, and their website gives you the ability to really customize your order, which I think is great.