thumb|A young man wearing suspenders with grip fastenings, 2013
thumb|A man wearing suspenders with button fastenings, 2006
Suspenders (North American English), or braces (British English, New Zealand English, Australian English), are fabric or leather straps worn over the shoulders to hold up skirts or trousers. The straps may be elasticated, either entirely or only at attachment ends, and most straps are of woven cloth forming an X or Y shape at the back. Suspenders are typically attached to skirts and trousers with clips or buttons using leather tabs at the ends.
In British English, a suspender belt, or suspenders for short, is a garment used to hold up stockings. This is called a garter belt in American English.
History
alt=Portuguese suspenders from 1840 to 1849|thumb|Portuguese suspenders from 1840 to 1849 from [[Metropolitan Museum of Art|The Metropolitan Museum of Art]]
There have been several precursors to suspenders throughout the past 300 years, but modern suspenders were first popularised as "braces" in 1822 by a London haberdasher Albert Thurston. They were once almost universally worn, due to the high cut of mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century skirts and trousers that made a belt impractical. During the nineteenth century, suspenders were sometimes called galluses. Samuel Clemens, known for his work as the author Mark Twain, patented "Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments" (ADSG), becoming one of the first to receive a United States patent for suspenders in 1871.
After losing popularity during World War I, when men became accustomed to uniform belts, suspenders were still regular attire throughout the 1920s. Because of their image as 'underwear',
Fashion
While suspenders have been in and out of fashion over the last century (alternating with belts in general preference), there has been a brief resurgence in interest, possibly due to the styles seen in films like Wall Street. Many business people, newscasters (such as Larry King in the United States) such as stockbrokers, real estate brokers, bankers, and lawyers also still wear suspenders.
Narrow, clip-on style suspenders are also a typical part of skinhead, and to a lesser extent, punk fashion. In skinhead and punk fashion, suspenders are typically between in width.
Materials used for making suspenders have also changed over time, with newer additions such as rayon, a hard-wearing synthetic fibre, now offered. Generally, a high-quality rayon with elastic webbing is the fabric used to create suspenders, with silk webbing or tubed suiting cloths from mills such as Dugdale Bros of England also used.
Usage
thumb|right|[[Larry King regularly wore suspenders on his talk show, Larry King Live.]]
Good quality smart suspenders were traditionally considered white collar, or upper or upper-middle class, wear. They were made to be attached to skirts or trousers by buttons sewn onto the waistband. There are relatively few current manufacturers in the UK, but the classic button-on 'reform' end is also quite widely available in the United States.
In traditional or formal settings, it is considered a faux pas to wear both belt and suspenders at the same time, though in the past this has not always been the case. Further, suspenders were traditionally considered an undergarment and, as such, were considered inappropriate to be seen.