Quite a long time ago, my dad picked up a hobby of making belt buckles of brass or silver for his friends and family. He’d make them in our basement in his spare time. They were beautifully crafted (he having been a mechanical engineer), and became pretty well sought after. After a while, my mom was contributing by designing them, for my dad to execute. These were pre-internet days. He probably could have been extremely successful offering them online, but it wasn’t about the money. He never charged for anything he made. He did it out of the fun and the love of doing it.
As far as I can remember, the buckles were always the wearer’s initials. Some of the designs had to be pretty complicated. Others, like mine–with only two initials–were relatively simple. And still others, I’m sure, just couldn’t be worked out.
Much as I liked my two (one in each metal) buckles, I was in my sort-of-sloppy jean days. The days when you bought a pair of jeans and wore them hard (and washed them a lot) to get them as “distressed” looking as possible, as quickly as possible. Now, of course, we either pay for “destructed” jeans and treat them with care, or we buy beautiful new jeans and threat them with care, also—washing them in cold water, inside-out, and hanging them to dry (or whatever your particular routine happens to be) to keep them as brand spanking new looking as long as possible. Anyway, back in the day, I let my brass buckle (which I wore more frequently with my jeans than my silver one) sort of develop a patina—which is a nice way of saying it got good and tarnished, and stayed that way.
Now that I try to look nicely-dressed most of the time, I keep my buckle well-polished. I get an incredible number of compliments on it. It stands out, whereas it never used to. It’s like a well-polished pair of shoes that people notice. I’m proud of it, and proud of the job he did, and I just wish he were still around so I could share the accolades with him.
I’m not big on belt buckles, and even less big (if that makes sense) on belts. My everyday belt is an age-old brown Justin. Probably thirty-five or forty bucks on Amazon. I have one in black, too, and then I do have a custom-made navy blue belt with blue stitching from J. Hilburn (www.jhilburn.com). More about J. Hilburn down the road. I have the traditional belt buckles that came with my belts, plus the brass and silver from my dad. I happen to like native American jewelry, so I have three other belt buckles I like, but rarely wear, since I’m reluctant to give up my KB on any given day.
I know people have stared at my belt buckle, wondering whose initials they were. I’m sure they often think it’s some designer they’re not familiar with. And I’m sure a lot of folks who don’t ask, never figure it out, which is fine. But the issue of initials reminds me of a book I read many years ago. Writing in 1981, Alan Flusser, in his book titled “Making the Man: The Insider’s Guide to Buying and Wearing Men’s Clothes” said “The most important thing to remember about belts is if you’re buying one with initials on the buckle, make certain those initials are your own. Why should you wear a belt with Pierre Cardin’s initials or Yves St, Laurent’s? Would you wear a ring with their initials engraved upon it?”
So that brings us from the topic of belt buckles to logos and books.
I liked Alan Flusser’s book. Its first roughly 70 pages were filled with some down-to-earth advice on clothing and dressing. The balance of the book—roughly 150 pages—was devoted to “where to shop,” listing and describing some of the foremost shops in the world, and a few offbeat ones, too. It’s fun to look at the list now to see who’s still there, and who’s not. Most of the finest shops, tailors, shoemakers and others, of course, are still in business and if you don’t know who they are, this book can be very informative.
I’m a little more than halfway through another book by Alan Flusser—“Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion.” It’s a much more comprehensive book, and the title (which he addresses) is interesting, as “permanent fashion” is somewhat of any oxymoron. When I finish the book, and have some spare time, I’ll give my thoughts on it, for what they’re worth. One major takeaway from the book, so far, is that there’s a lot about styling and tailoring I don’t know. So it’s extremely informative. For the longest time I didn’t know that one “should” match belt and shoe colors (a reason I really need more belts than I have). This book is making me aware of a lot of other such things. And it makes me wonder if some people are snickering at how I dress because I’m clueless in some areas. Hmmm.
Belt buckles…logos—GG, LV, TB, etc.—that’s another issue I have thoughts on, but it’s not a black and white issue with me, and I’ll get to it at some point. Let’s just say I don’t get the point of paying a few hundred bucks for a ([n] albeit very well-made) white tee shirt with a designer logo plastered across it. I think if you want to be a walking billboard for a design house, they should pay you to wear the shirt.
That’s sort on abrupt end to this post, but that’s it for now.