Tried and true, suspenders have been a lesbian’s best friend for decades. Back in the 1920s, it was all the rage for the gentlemen of the day to be hiking up their shorts with these stretchy shoulder straps and they sure were a helping hand to a gal pal disguising herself as a man in order to “pass.”
The look has never really gone away, it sort of ebbs and flows with the trends but since this autumn is all about the ’90s it’s back faster than you can spit out Jessie Spano.
More recently, they’ve been considered more of a “dress up” thing with lady-lovin’-ladies but I think that they could easily be incorporated into every day and dressed down when done right. Kristen Stewart recently got bashed for sporting them kinda questionably, but you cant blame her for trying.
She had everything else right: Torn knees on her jeans, pointy lace up shoes. Maybe the downfall was the tank, but I think that it’s totally dashing to rock them with the right T-shirt and skinny jeans. Suspenders add an interesting element to an otherwise run-of-the-mill outfit, so don’t’ be afraid to try them on with a tight thermal and skinny jeans, the look might surprise you and your friends.
For dressing up, the combinations when using this accessory are kind of endless. You could add a pop of color to an otherwise drab three piece suit, using gold ones and pairing them with a gray wool suit and a white button down. Can you say perfection?
I love suspenders because they can be as bold or as subtle as you want them to be, dependent on whether you are relying on the suspenders themselves to take center stage on your ensemble or if you choose to let the hint of cool peek out from beneath a jacket — it’s entirely your call.
I think that a lot of lesbians can recall when our beloved Ellen Degeneres set the tone for dykes everywhere on how to dress to impress by sort of cinching all the elements together a way that is both classic, classy and trendy all in the same wardrobe stint and for that we have to thank her.
Speaking of Ellen, she showed the world that dress pants and a T-shirt paired with some suspenders and a pair of Converse were a-OK and I know it’s not the most common of practices these days, but get on it.
Do I smell a full-on comeback?
