BRACES (SUSPENDERS)

[mooglesrcute]

thanks for the tips everyone. I see they sell suspender buttons also. Anyone have experience sewing buttons on a bare pair of pants, does it seem to work fine? (guess it may depend on the pants)

 

[dnjan]

I've never had a problem sewing suspender buttons on. I usually use regular button thread, of the closest colour to the pants that I have.
Sewing your own on allows you to develop the button location/spacing that works best for your build.

 

[carldelo]

There's a thread on button spacing here somewhere. Many put the four front buttons inside, the two rear buttons on the outside of the waistband to avoid having them dig in to the small of your back. If you center them on the waistband, they'll be covered by a belt if you wear one sometimes. On the front, I make sure to get through to the waistband interlining, but don't go through to the front. On the rear, I sew all the way through. I use heavy duty button thread.

For button location, I bought some snap-on suspender buttons and experimented with their location until they looked/felt right, then sewed on buttons using those dimensions. I've tweaked the dimensions some over time.

http://www.suspenderstore.com/noezm.html

 

[Dinerman]

1907. Bulldog suspenders


1908. Kady suspenders, showing a variety of end designs.


1909. Vibrant colors by Aldaco



Kazoo combination sock garters, belt and suspenders. Made for children and teens up to age 18. 1920

 

[Sir RBH]

I do love these vintage images.. Look wonderful.. Its a shame so may brace manufacturers have disappeared.. Still, we do have Thurston.. still the best by a country mile

 

[highway66blues]

My braces are a pair i made myself.
Def Not new to wearin' them...maybe more so as an ev'ryday thing nowadays
usedta be when i would do "Living History" & re-enacting was only times I'd wear 'em.
Nowdays,it's kinda like that but i'm dressin' to period (or as damn close as i can) & doin'
it ev'ryday
Anyways...closest pics i got are
here :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96251424@N02/
Will get ya better ones presently

 

[highway66blues]

ok...
photos,as promised :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/96251424@N02/8875358917/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96251424@N02/8875360001/

I said that i made these ?
They are hand sewn

 

[GoldenEraFan]

Picked these canvas suspenders up a few weeks ago. Unsure of age, though looks '30s styled.

 

[Dinerman]

I feel like I've seen that type of one-piece end before. The Civil war reenacting crowd maybe?

 

[highway66blues]

You called it,Dinerman.
I am in a '30s era frame of mind ,too GoldenEraFan.
Cool thing is,just like now,i'd Havta think that items could still be found
from years past and still be bought/used even in the '20-'30's
...hand me downs &/or what-not
but, i duno if 50-60 yrs is strechin' it....

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Does anyone know of a brand or maker who produces suspenders that are made in America? All I can find are the type that are 100% elastic. I need the kind that are made with boxcloth or some other non stretchy material in the front ala Albert Thurston.

Thanx!!!
Charlie

 

[TOuten2]

Ever since I started wearing vintage style clothing, I've begun to understand why men wore braces back in the old days. They really hold up your trousers a hell of a lot better than belts. Unfortunately I don't have any braces...

I couldn't agree more. I've a bit of an odd shape, and no matter how tight I cinched a belt, I wind up with broken belt loops from pulling up my pants. I wear braces with everything. Even a polo shirt goes over the braces, with the shirt untucked. No more broken belt loops In my closet.

 

[BR Gordon]

Does anyone know of a brand or maker who produces suspenders that are made in America? All I can find are the type that are 100% elastic. I need the kind that are made with boxcloth or some other non stretchy material in the front ala Albert Thurston.

Thanx!!!
Charlie

Trafalgar is located in America, but I have no idea where the braces are actually made. All of my Trafalgar braces say designed in the USA, with no mention of where they are made.

 

[carldelo]

Does anyone know of a brand or maker who produces suspenders that are made in America? All I can find are the type that are 100% elastic. I need the kind that are made with boxcloth or some other non stretchy material in the front ala Albert Thurston.

Thanx!!!
Charlie

EDIT: I see BR beat me to it:

Trafalgar makes nice classic braces as well as their pricey special editions. The individual product pages state where they're made - so far as I've checked, they're made in the US.

http://www.trafalgarstore.com/category/Trafalgar_Braces_and_Suspenders/194

FWIW, braces sold by many major menswear labels and dept stores in the US are produced by Trafalgar (I think Brooks Bros. is one, all the way down to Paul Frederick).

PS Etsy and Ebay are loaded with interesting and what look to be high-quality vintage braces, often inexpensive. They tend to show up at thrift stores as well, half of my stock were purchased at a Salvation Army for $1 to $3 each, including a couple by Trafalgar and some very fancy dress braces by Thurston (they were the $1 set, of course).

 

[Sir RBH]

EDIT: I see BR beat me to it:

Trafalgar makes nice classic braces as well as their pricey special editions. The individual product pages state where they're made - so far as I've checked, they're made in the US.

http://www.trafalgarstore.com/category/Trafalgar_Braces_and_Suspenders/194

FWIW, braces sold by many major menswear labels and dept stores in the US are produced by Trafalgar (I think Brooks Bros. is one, all the way down to Paul Frederick).

PS Etsy and Ebay are loaded with interesting and what look to be high-quality vintage braces, often inexpensive. They tend to show up at thrift stores as well, half of my stock were purchased at a Salvation Army for $1 to $3 each, including a couple by Trafalgar and some very fancy dress braces by Thurston (they were the $1 set, of course).

I would thoroughly recommend Fogey Unlimited.. a large selection of Thurston Box cloth and Barathea braces.. And much more besides.

 

[DAJE]

I've found that modern braces are usually designed for use with low-back trousers, and that with high-back trousers the junction of the straps sits too high on my back, so the straps don't sit comfortably. Also, I'm a skinny guy; with long modern braces the adjustment clip usually sits right on my collarbone and irritates me. It looks wrong sitting so high, too.

So, I started customising my braces. The first thing I did was shorten the lower part of the Y so that the junction sits lower on my back. I cut an inch or two from the elastic and re-sewed. Then I did the same to the front straps, so the adjustment clips sit at nipple height or lower.

After doing that a couple of times, I realised that I could customise crappy braces and make them good. So, I started experimenting on cheap Chinese braces from eBay. I've tried a few different styles and (after a few failures) got some pretty good results.

The other thing is that I find that most braces are way overpriced for what they are, there's clearly a huge markup on these things. I'd rather pay $5 - $15 and put in some effort making them good than pay $30 - $60 on something that still needs work to fit me properly anyway.

Next: pics...

 

[DAJE]

These ones were clip-ons. The long black part, the lower section of the Y, is original. So is the part attached to it, holding the metal loop. They're faux-leather, but not too bad. The metal loops (small on the back, large on the front straps) were bought on eBay, as were the rivets. The leather parts came from an op-shop/thrift/charity store belt.

 

[DAJE]

Most of these cheap Chinese eBay braces have ugly brown faux-leather parts, like the one here holding the junction together. These ones had button-on parts made of the same brown faux-leather. Stitching real leather is beyond me (I tried several times and comprehensively failed) so I'm stuck with keeping the junction as-is. It's acceptable, at least on brownish elastics. The brown leather parts are from another op-shop belt. The D-rings work better than the flat loops I'd been using, though this one mixes the styles.



Three D-rings, different colours on front and back but not a big deal. Some of the D-rings are from handbag-parts sellers, others I got from op-shop handbags that I bought for parts/leather.



All of these have shortened straps, you can see my dodgy stitching on the back straps if you look closely.

 

[DAJE]

This one and the next are my most recent customisations; the braces are from a Polish eBay seller, they were clip-ons. A bit more expensive than the Chinese ones, but a step up in quality, too. The faux leather with light stitching is original, the rest is real leather from various belts and is all my own work. The metal loop rings on the front sections are original.



This design works really well - if you use rivets with wide enough stems (and you don't smash them on too tightly) the buttonhole strips can move freely, which means they'll sit comfortably in the right positions. I used thinner leather for the connector peices and thicker leather for the buttonhole strips.

 

[DAJE]

These are the only usable braces I've found in an op-shop so far, but they're a great score: Trafalgar brand in unused condition. Cost me AUD$2. I shortened the back strap (the only elastic part) by unpicking the stitches of the leather loop and sewing it back on to the shortened elastic using the old needle holes. The colour looks too red in this photo, they're much more burgundy in reality.



More eBay braces, these ones from Korea. A bit more expensive but a real step up from the Chinese ones, with genuine leather parts. These are convertible; you can switch from leather buttonholes to metal clips, except I've thrown the clips away. The leather loops are held on with with Sam Browne buttons. I shortened the back strap of these ones too. Like the previous ones, the colour is too red in the pic, in reality they're closer to purple.