Checkered Suspenders

Description

A black and white check runs the length of both straps, which is what separates this pair from a plain brace and what makes it work as a costume piece. Behind the pattern the build is conventional: elastic webbing in a Y-back with a leather patch sewn in at the join, and ratchet clips at the ends. Other colourways exist in the same style, among them tan, red, navy, royal blue, burgundy and purple.

The check is doing most of the work here. It reads as deliberate with a tuxedo or dress trousers, and it reads as a character with jeans, which is why the same pair turns up for firefighter, lumberjack, mime, detective and mobster costumes as often as it does at a wedding. Groomsmen use them for the same reason: a patterned brace is visible in photographs in a way a plain black one is not. Photographs are where the difference shows most clearly, which is the practical version of that argument.

One size fits most, and the range is stated as covering men, women and teenagers. The ratchet clips lock at whatever setting you pick rather than sliding, and the elastic between them absorbs the movement, so the braces sit the same at the end of a long event as at the start. The sewn-in leather patch at the back is the part that usually gives out first on a cheap brace, and it is reinforced here. Elastic webbing takes the strain, and the ratchet mechanism is what stops the length creeping over a few hours of movement.

Specifications