How to Pick a Belt

Learn how to pick a belt from Louis Purple menswear boutiques founder Charles Brunold in this Howcast video.


Hello, I'm Charles. We're at Louis Purple, and we're in New York. We're going to talk about how to pick the right belt today. So let's talk about canvas belts first of all. Canvas belts are belts that can be paired either with chinos or jeans. But you want to avoid wearing it with a suit, because it just will not work out well with the outfit. When wearing a belt with a suit, what is really paramount is that the color of leather matches the shoes you're going to be wearing with this particular suit. It's not compulsory to wear a belt in any situation. I mean, sometimes I like to have no belt loops on my trousers and just the adjustable side tabs that just keep my waistline adjusted. And it's not always compulsory to wear a belt to complete the outfit. Another thing to take into consideration when choosing a belt is the size of the buckle.

You want to avoid an obnoxiously big belt that is going to draw too much attention and is going to make people lose the focus of what should be the whole outfit. You probably want to be the focus rather than having a big buckle catching too much attention. I'm going to show you an example of the plaited tie that you can wear on top of a pair of jeans with a sport coat, for example. I like this belt a lot because the buckle is really simple. This is a tie from Italy, from Carnaval de Venice, and it works with any sort of suit color because it's a dark shade of brown. This type of plaited belt works well any type of outfit, and especially a pair of jeans with a blazer. It's a nice way to complete the outfit.

And don't forget to make it match with your shoes. I'm wearing a very simple black leather belt that completes the outfit with my navy suit very well. It doesn't attract too much attention. And just make sure it matches your shoes. When shopping for a belt, the most important thing is to kind of envision what kind of trousers you're going to be pairing the belt with. It's always a good asset to have a few types of belts, some with different sizes for the buckle, different shade of brown, different colors, so that you can mix and match it with any sort of outfit.

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