5 Belt Mistakes That Make You Look Stupid Rules For Wearing Belts & When To Go Beltless
[0:00:00] Belt versus no belt?
Seems simple, right?
Well, guys, in today’s video I’ve got five situations which it’s not so clear
and if you mess this up you’re not going to look too smart.
Are you ready guys?
Let’s get into it.
[Music] Situation number one.
Your leathers don’t match.
So, it’s a basic rule in men’s style that your shoe leather should match your belt leather.
But, what happens when you don’t have an exact match, you don’t have a matching belt,
should you opt not to wear the belt?
First question you want to ask is can you actually wear the pants wear the trousers
without the belt.
If they start to fall down, it doesn’t matter what color that belt is what style, you have
better wear the belt.
Because nothing looks worse than your pants falling down in the middle of a presentation
or when you’re walking – no one wants to see you having to pull you pants up.
So, yes, wear the belt even if it’s not a clean match.
But, you want to try to find something and it’s worth investing in some belts that
are close and a light brown, dark brown.
If you’ve got oxblood, go for oxblood, but invest in some great belts.
Try to get something close.
It doesn’t have to be an exact match.
And if you can’t get even close to an exact match, then go for something that in no way
is a match.
So, this is where you want to go for more casual style, but this combination is going
to work great together, they don’t match at all.
And this is where you learn to bend the rule of your leathers matching the leathers.
Now, you may be wondering, Antonio, where did you get those beautiful belts?
Guys, go check them out at Anson Belt and Buckle.
I’m linking to them down in the description.
They are the paid sponsor of today’s video.
And for over seven years I have been working with this company, I’ve known the founders
and I am proud to support them.
Why?
Because they’re a family-run business that treats their customers like gold.
Guys, I can tell you their customer service bar none is some the best out there.
When people buy their product, they sometimes call them.
When people actually damaged the product and it’s their fault, they replace them.
This is the kind of company that I love to bring you guys, one that stands behind their
product and their customers.
And, again, I know these guys personally they’re a family-run business.
Oh, and the by the way that first problem wouldn’t have been an issue if you invested
in an Anson Belt system.
Yes, this is one of my favorite parts about this guys is that you can take multiple belt
straps and take the same buckle and it’s all interchangeable.
So, think about that, you’ve got three different straps right here.
You have maybe three different types of buckles right in here and you can interchange this.
That’s nine combinations.
I mean it’s really it’s a no-brainer especially if you’ve got a wide variety of shoe colors,
you want to be able to match those leathers, and you want to avoid a lot of the other problems
and scenarios I’m about to talk about.
Guys, Anson Belt and Buckle they’re friggin awesome.
I don’t know what else to say.
Go check them out.
I’m linking to them down in the description.
Scenario number two.
My jeans fit great.
Why do I need to wear a belt?
This is a great question.
And you don’t always have to wear a belt even if you’ve got belt loops if it fits
correctly.
That’s the key, your pants need to fit correctly.
Getting back to that earlier point nobody wants to see your pants falling down.
So, assuming that there’s a great fit, when can you actually wear them without a belt
whether they’d be jeans, whether they’d be dress pants?
It is really pertains to is anybody going to see this?
So, if you’re wearing this as a suit you have a jacket over it, you don’t have to
wear a belt.
Assuming that the trousers, again, fits you well because nobody is going to see it.
Some guys prefer it, maybe it’s more comfortable for them whatever it may be.
The same with jeans, if you’re going to wear a shirt untucked, if you’re going to
wear a sports jacket with a jeans, you can get away without wearing a belt.
Whoa!
Whoa, Antonio are you saying that if I tuck any shirt in with my jeans, I need to wear
a belt?
And my answer is yes.
And the reason being is it just doesn’t look complete.
It’s like wearing sports jacket without a pocket square.
A belt completes the look.
Now, you don’t have to go with anything boring, you can have fun you can turn it into
an accessory and you can make it part of your style or you can just bring in something that’s
simple and classic.
At the end of the days guys if the pants have belt loops if they are going to be seen, then
wear a belt with it.
Next up, gents, let’s talk about a belt size.
Not all belts are created equal.
Some are going to be thicker, some are going to be thinner, some are going to be longer,
some are going to be shorter.
At the end of the day, find the right belt size for you.
But, how do you do that?
So, with a dress belt, we’re talking 1 to 1.25 inches.
Now, when it comes to the length point in which once you buckle it you want to have
about 5 inches of material give or take an inch depends on usually your size and proportions.
A man 6’5”, he can have 6 to 7 inches.
If a man is about 5’2”, he probably wants to have 4 to 3 inches of excess material going
off the end.
Now, this belt right here is going to be a casual belt.
This belt is over 1.5, it’s about 1.75 inches in diameter, but anything over 1.5 inches
is going to be casual.
The same thing the same rules apply to the end.
You want to have 5 to 6 inches here in the length, but give or take an inch depending
on your size.
[0:05:02] Situation number four.
You just picked up a beautiful pair of suspenders.
You love the look, you’re excited to wear them, you think they’re going to look great.
Well, guess what?
Oxblood, oxblood belt.
Can I combine the two?
The answer is no.
Choose one or the other.
Suspenders are made to hold up your pant, belts are made to hold up your pants.
You don’t need to double it up there.
Now, the only combination of suspenders and belts that work are for the working professional.
Whenever you want to basically you carrying a heavy tool belt and you want to distribute
the weight onto your shoulders that make sense.
But for the vast majority of us, no, choose one or the other.
Now, how do you that?
You’re saying, Antonio, but you said if we’ve got belt loops on here, I have to
wear a belt or in the case if it’s a pair of dress trousers, what you have is you go
through there and you get this removed.
Very easy to do and look great.
Then, the suspender combination is going to look awesome, but you don’t want to wear
them together.
Wait, Antonio what if I want to combine suspenders with jeans?
My answer is just don’t do it.
Now, if you’re really fashion-forward you want to ignore my advice, I guess go for it,
but jeans are not made to be worn with suspenders.
Why?
The rise on a pair of jeans which is the measurement from the bottom of the crotch area to the
top is too short.
Jeans are made to be worn with a belt.
Now, there are many trousers out there that are going to have a higher rise, they will
look great with a pair of suspenders.
Now, let’s talk about belt buckles.
The general rule is the simpler the buckle the more formal it is.
So, on the opposite side of formal, we have belt buckles which grab a lot of attention.
Big round Western belt buckles that you went in that Rodeo in Pecos, Texas.
Yes, that is a casual belt buckle.
This belt buckle right here, this is a casual belt buckle.
Anything that has certain stones on it and precious metals draws a lot of attention to
it is larger, this is going to be casual.
So, on the far end of dressy belt buckles, what are we going to see?
This right here, classic dress belt buckle right there, very simple.
You’re going to see a company like Anson put together something like this.
This is a fine dress buckle right there.
Now, note the simplicity rule I talked about at the beginning of this point doesn’t always
hold.
This belt buckle, classic dress belt buckle, this one right here because of its oversize,
it’s larger proportion this is going to be more towards the casual side.
The additional metal right here also makes it more casual.
All right, gents, those are my guidelines to making sure that you look great when you’re
wearing a belt.
If I missed anything, let me know down in the comments.
I’m going to be reading them, checking them out.
And, guys, go check out Anson Belt and Buckle, one of my favorite companies because I’ve
gotten to know them.
I know the way they take care of you guys.
The great customer service, the superior product, their belt system, I mean you’ve got to
just love this company.
I’m linking to them down in the description.
Go check them out.
That’s it guys.
Take care.
I appreciate you.
I appreciate everything we built here at Real Men Real Style.
And that’s it, guys, Take care.
I’ll see you in the next video.
[Music] [0:08:19] End of Audio