"Suspenders hold up well in recession" says Rosamund Urwin in the London Evening Standard this week. "After years in the fashion wilderness stockings and suspenders are staging a comeback".

 

The origins of what we now call the Suspender Belt are in the late 19th century. It's design is sometimes attributed to Gustav Eiffel, although many say this is just legend. However the fact that early suspender belts were cumbersome and designed more for the technical job than for comfort does tend to support the view that they were designed by engineers...

 

The problem of cutting off the blood circulation of the wearer prompted Fereol Dedieu to devise a new model in 1876. This sort of did the trick but still wasn't particularly aesthetically pleasing. By 1893, what could be described as surgical corsets with ties to support stockings were becoming more common, particularly in England apparently. You have to remember that during this period it was still common to wear tight corsets and essentially these suspender belts were variations on that theme.

 

To get to the suspender belt as we know it today, we have to wait until 1910, when the famous Parisian Haute Couturier Paul Poiret, convinced of the need for a lighter and less bulky solution, designed one. Poiret is also attributed with designing more comfortable bras and other lingerie items. We might even call him the father of modern lingerie. Thank you, Paul!

 

The suspender belt enjoyed popularity from then up until the 1950's, with a golden age of nylons in the 30's and 40s. The advent of tights was a blow to their popularity with many women favouring their ease of use, and in the 1960's stockings and suspenders suffered more of a setback when they became heavily associated with sex, largely because stockings and suspenders became a more unusual sight, a bedroom treat for the menfolk, not to be seen in public on nice girls...

 

In the 1970s fashion designer Chantal Thomas reinvigorated their popularity by designing sexy and sophisticated items for women of elegance. Things have changed little since then - Suspender Belts and Stockings occupy a unique place in fashion, both elegant and suggestive, arguably the most sensual items in my Wardrobe…