If “Illusion” was declared the song of summer immediately after launching approximately 12 hours ago, then Dua Lipa’s sassy video looks are a siren call for anyone who was over cowboy core before it even started lassoing its way round festival season (pray for Coachella!) The whole messaging around the British-Albanian singer’s third album, Radical Optimism, suggests that this is a performer who is levelling up to pop superstar status. She’s opening the Grammys and the Brits, she’s headlining Glastonbury, and she’s dating internet boyfriend of the moment Callum Turner. This is Dua’s summer and she’ll be seeing it out in leather, lace and now, useless belts.
Anyone who lived through the mid-Noughties and bought a coin belt off the back of Sienna Miller’s boho heyday will flinch at the mere mention of this. The sister of the useless scarf, the superfluous belt did not have the same nonchalance as the wisp of Rockins silk draped artfully round the neck and left to trail down the lapel of a leather jacket. In fact, the studded hip hugger had the capacity to look entirely cumbersome, clunky and clichéd. Not everyone, we soon learned, could be Marissa Cooper cinched in Chanel on The OC. Nor Kate Moss slinking around Worthy Farm with All Saints’s era-defining “Glastonbury Rocks” missive looped around her gold Lurex dress.
But, due to fashion’s cyclical nature, all ill-judged trends must unfortunately come around again and so, the ornamental belt is back in earnest. Following in the Bode X Nike-shod footsteps of Kaia Gerber and Bella Hadid, Lipa is the latest It-girl to buckle up and test drive the new-look versions seen on the spring/summer 2024 runways of Ferragamo, Tom Ford, Burberry and Conner Ives. But, while these brands offered entry-level ways into the nostalgic mood, the recent autumn/winter 2024 collections pushed our appetite for throwback fashion forward with… two belts worn at once.
Of course, Miu Miu girls have been doubling up since they started wearing their satin boxers on display, but now the more straight-laced Michael Kors woman, the ever-classic Max Mara muse and the Adam Lippes tailoring enthusiast are going matchy-matchy too. Cerebral designer Jonathan Anderson naturally got in on the act, while R13, Vaquera and Rag & Bone used twice-as-nice belts to bring a rock‘n’roll touch to their hourglass silhouettes. There’s a pair for everyone.
Baby steps. As a disciple of these trend pages, you may well have already dug out your Balenciaga Le City bag, wriggled into a pair of old skinny jeans, and mused on the merits of the Camden look now that the cigarette fog has cleared and we can see it in the cold light of day. Fashion has a tendency to get giddy for throwbacks and we are currently in raptures over a simpler time when individualism reigned supreme because Instagram wasn’t over-curating everything. But even Moss has graduated from Lurex and Miller is more luxe bohemian than hippy adjacent these days. Pointless belts now lean towards Alaïa, rather than All Saints. They come clipped on over simple, slinky dresses as the only accoutrement, rather than one of many throw-on-and-go accessories. Should you be inclined to try twinning, the same rule applies: less is more. 2024’s useless belts are still purely decorative, but there’s purpose in these knowing nods to the past.
