Wednesday, September 23, 2009

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.

8 comments:

DAM said...

I have the same Perlis belt as well which and while it works great with my saddle shoes, the crawfish are hard to make out on the navy ribbon.

Anonymous said...

I have the same M. Dumas belt. I lived next door to the store, above Stella Nova, right after I moved back to Charleston after college. Love that store. Great collection by the way.

Memphis88 said...

I know exactly what you mean about the belts for football games. I don't wear Memphis apparel to games because I don't like t-shirts etc. A Memphis Tigers belt would be great, though. Smathers and Branson makes a University of Memphis makes one, but it's $165.

J.P. said...

Awesome belts. I need to do a similar post some time soon. A lot of those belts are made by The Leatherman in Essex, CT. Check out their website for the full catalog.

I also want to put a plug in for the Belted Cow, which is offered by O'Connell's. Belted Cow is handmade in Maine and has some very cool designs.

ADG said...

Cool!

ADG

JRS said...

Great post, Trip. I'm going to have to do a similar post. I've got quite a few emblematics, and most of them have a 'story'.

I really like that Perlis crawfish belt - I saw the Leather Man LTD version at Palmetto Moon in Charleston, but didn't pull the trigger...I wish I would have - it had a better 'canvas to ribbon' ratio.

All the Best,

JRS
redclaysoul.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Love the orange south carolina belt. Wish Leatherman did other states too!

Women Leather Pants said...

I have the same Perlis belt as well which and while it works great with my saddle shoes, the crawfish are hard to make out on the navy ribbon.