Pink Pamplemousse

I saw it first at least four years ago on Ma Chère, my jewelry-making fashion-plate bestie, and I’ll never forget how stunning the look was. The look? Tunic, leggings, all buckled together with a ginormous belt.

And it hit the streets from there on.

This week’s fashion pick: THE BELT.

Etiquette tells—or more like dictates—that the belt is not only an accessory to match the purse, the shoes, and potentially the gloves and hat, but belt should always be worn if your pants have belt loops.

Well, folks, who throw etiquette out the window, because the belt is back and bigger and bucklier than ever, and usually not the loudest most eccentric part of any outfit.

The belt trend snuck up on us with that belly chain thing that was kind of hip for the rocker teen crowd in the nineties. We all remember it. Girls were fastening it around their low-rise bikinis, drawing more attention to the strikingly rebellious belly button piercing, also fresh out of the nineties grunge scene.

It moved into the chain and rope belts for sophisticates, hanging low around the waist drawing attention to the widest and usually the least favorite part to accentuate, but I have to admit, I have three link belts. Sigh.

Then, we came to the wide, wider, and widest belts that screamed RODEO, still hinged on the hips.

For the past twenty years, everything went from regular fit to low-rise, and people kept pushing their pants further and further away from their ribs, threatening crackage. Well, let me tell you friends, crack kills.

Just about when “booty cleavage” started to become a horrible, terrifying, please-dear-God-no trend, the fashion police stepped in a pulled up our pants.

And finally, somewhere around the turn of the millennium, everything moved up to the east side. Or… the waist side.

The wide belts came up to that point, just under the ribs, called the waist. Not the hips, the waist. Wide belts were everywhere; in the tip tops of designer shops to the second hand consignment stores telling fifty years of fashion tales.

The wide waisters got skinnier for about one season, threatening the end of wide waist huggers, but the belt remains at the waist, now all shapes, sizes, and colors.

There are few fashions that make everyone look good. And when I say everyone, I mean tall, short, thick, thin, apple, pear… everyone.

But the belt—if done correctly—can be a striking and flattering accessory well worth the investment.

Cinch it. Look longer, leaner, and leggier.