As time passes, some things change — actually almost everything changes. That includes our language and the way we speak, or maybe don’t speak so much anymore.
This weekend at church an elderly man that usually sits in front of us was wearing suspenders. I spoke to him and said, “nice braces.” Of course he smiled because he knew what I’d just said. This past December, we attended a Christmas party and the host’s grandson had on a pair of bright red suspenders. I said, “nice braces.” He looked at me like I was from another planet — he had no idea what I was talking about.
When I was young, a lot of people wore suspenders and often times they were referred to as “braces.” So what’s the difference in suspenders and braces? Really, not much. If you happened to grow up in England, suspenders would probably be a foreign word to you. Generally, the British call all suspenders braces. I believe the technical difference (at least in the United States) is that the term braces refers to button-on suspenders and the term suspenders refers to the clip-on variety that can be worn without special buttons on pants.
The first suspenders appeared in 18th century France and were basically strips of ribbon attached to the buttonholes of trousers. Back then, suspenders were considered undergarments, never to be seen in public. Visible suspenders were considered risqué as recently as 1938 when a town in Long Island, New York tried to ban gentlemen from wearing them without a coat.
One of the first U.S. patents for suspenders was issued in 1871 to Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) for “adjustable and detachable straps for garments.” Metal clasps were invented in 1894 so that suspenders could be clipped on rather than buttoned, so that pants no longer had to come with buttons sewn in the waist, as most did in that era.
I suppose any discussion of suspenders should include the age old question, “Why do firemen wear red suspenders?” If you think it’s to keep their pants up, I’ll leave it at that.
So suspenders have almost disappeared from our vocabulary – and – really pretty much from society. Maybe that’s for the better — for years I thought my granddad was a hunchback. Turns out he didn’t know suspenders were adjustable….
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