Belts which take multiple buckles

[Duveen]

I was looking at the Ben Silver site and saw a Black calf belt to fit a one inch buckle (S3347...$85) in their accessories section. Â I would love to find a good maker of belts of this nature - someone who sells well-made belts without buckles to which I could attach my own pieces. Â Any recommendations on this? Also, recommendations on good places (e.g. Tiffany, elsewhere) to buy classic silver belt buckles? What I'd ideally like to do is own two or three very high quality buckles and a variety of one-inch belts with which to pair them. Â Does this seem like a good approach? I'll try to display the Ben Silver link here

 

[jcusey]

It's pretty common feature, particularly on belts made from exotic skins. As for brands that do it, I've seen it on Dingman and Moreschi, among many others whose names I can't remember.

 

[Duveen]

Thanks, Jcusey. I am not surprised that you are familiar with this, as it seems like quite a logical idea. Â I do know that Tiffany appears to sell the straps separately, etc. However, while you say it is fairly common, I have not seen it too widely in general retail stores and certainly not at discounters. Â Could you - or anyone else - recommend a place to find this sort of thing and some useful standards of quality, price ranges. Â For example, I see that Bauman's sells an alligator belt in this style. Ideally, I'd love to find a good web seller (or storefront) with a few choices in calf. It just seems like this is something about which someone on the board might have specific intelligence/recommendations. Â Thanks in advance.

 

[jrh]

Look into Traflager. Many good stores carry their belts and some are of the type you are looking for. Traflager is one in the same company as Ghurka. At look at www.ghurka.com will provide a customer service number for more info. Perhaps not the style buckle you have in mind, but nonetheless, see www.sedonawolf.com. They will also have a belt made for you.

 

[Duveen]

Thanks, jrh. Your comments - and those of jcusey - prompted me to do a bit of searching. Â It seems like selling belts separately from buckles is more of a Western US thing. I found the James Reid, Ltd web site through a few random Ebay and web searches using alligator belts as a starting point. Â The concern with Reid - and anyone else - would be ensuring that the quality is good enough for a dress belt. Â I will definitely look into Trafalgar/Ghurka as well. Â I hope that others keep the suggestions coming in this area. Â I, for one, would love to be able to spend a few hundred dollars on several buckles that I love and then search out high-quality straps to match. Â I feel that I could save a bit by using the same buckles across multiple straps.

 

[BGW]

Duveen:

Suffice it to say I am intrigued.

Is your approach designed:

to save money, because you only dispose of the part of the belt that wears or breaks first,

to give you more wardrobe flexibility, because you can mix and match buckles and straps on a day to day basis,

or to allow you customizability, because you can create a belt not available anywhere else?

 

[Duveen]

BGW,

Glad you're interested.  As I fritter away my Sunday night on the web I am getting the feeling that lots of brighter minds than mine have been thinking this way for quite some time.

In terms of your three reasons, I would say that my logic was a combination of the first two, with a bit of #3 thrown in.

I think that at the root of it is the idea that by separating the part of the belt that is usually most 'designed' and distinctive (the buckle) from the strap I can get a lot of versatility.  The hope is that I can get better quality buckles - which ought to last for a while - and change the straps as needed - for fashion's sake and as they wear out.  

This way rather than buying a single 'attached' belt at a very high price point because it combines a color I need/want and a buckle style I can live with, I can buy excellent hardware that I can re-use with whatever styles/colors are needed. To give you an example, lots of 'designer' belts have buckles that are satin-finished brass or nickle. While this isn't bad, I'd rather pay more for the 'perfect buckle' and then separately focus on nicely-designed leather, going to the best for each.

My strong suspicion is that someone can turn me on to an excellent leather goods maker who can give me wonderful straps in most colors and my early searches have shown that it is not hard to track down nice buckles.

Finally, the idea of complete uniqueness, while not the inspiration for this approach, is a nice plus.  One could imagine finding a jeweler to make a particularly unique buckle which can then be spread across many occasions.

 

[RIDER]

Actually, it is becoming a common way to stock belts. Don't know about discounters, but Torino offers a good selection of belts with both brass and silver buckles, Allen Edmonds offers some as well as Italian belts, such as Moreschi, where the length is cut to size by the shop - these buckles are obviously removeable and the shops usually carry a few styles that can be interchanged. Try 'Gentlemans Jodphur' in DC to see some Moreschi belts with this feature.

 

[Duveen]

RIDER,

I must confess my ignorance - where is Gentleman's Jodphur? It isn't listed in the online yellow pages.

 

[RIDER]

Duveen - they used to have shops at Tyson's and White Flint. I heard they were moving down by Gtown or Mazza Gallery or somewhere closer in. Nordstrom (I hate to tell you to go there...but) should have the Torino belts.

 

[RIDER]

oh and check out the new A/E shop down off of Conn. Ave. around 19th st. - they have some of what you want as well.

 

[jcusey]

Ideally, I'd love to find a good web seller (or storefront) with a few choices in calf.

Brooks Brothers has a calfskin strap and an alligator strap. I'm not a big fan of either one -- the quality is fine, but at 1" wide, I think that they're a bit too narrow. As Rider wrote, I think that this is becoming more and more common, especially amongst specialty retailers. It's great for the retailer because you can significantly expand the range of your offerings without maintaining much more stock and because you can offer the customer exactly the belt that he wants (and probably get a slightly higher margin because of it). It's great for the customer because it allows you to change the look of a belt that you like for only the cost of an additional buckle.

 

[Steve B.]

Here on the West Coast Nordstrom has several models by Tulliani in that style.

 

[Duveen]

Thanks for all of the assistance. Â I would like to differentiate between belts with loops which take slide buckles (like the BB versions and those which I have linked) and the Italian buckles that simply clamp on the end of a belt to allow it to be shortened. Â I feel like the belts with looped ends to receive buckles would be sturdier than a clamp version. Â I'll take a look at Nordstrom.

 

[j]

I think 1" wide is far too narrow, too. Are there any straps available in wider widths? I always think that thin belts tend to emphasize the size of a person's waist, and never in a good way.