A reader question:
Muffy,
Did you see this Vanity Fair article on Smathers & Branson needlepoint-belts and the modern frat-bro uniform? (https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/needlepoint-belts-frat-golf-rush-week). I wonder what your readers thought about needlepoint-belts and "Frat-Coded" clothes?
From the article:
Smathers & Branson, a maker of needlepoint belts and accessories, [was] founded in 2004 by a pair of Bowdoin College students who were both gifted belts by then girlfriends... “I had sailboats, kind of a coastal Maine scene,” Peter Carter adds....
Link:
- Smathers & Branson <https://www.smathersandbranson.com/>
It’s a slippery slope these needlepoint belts. Yes, there are some who wear these belts who are New England wasp/prep. However, it can quickly end dangerously and become southern bastardized something or another.
ReplyDeleteGiven the popularity of needlepoint belts in the South, it's a little bit precious to fret too much, in 2025, whether the wearer is "New England wasp/prep" or not, or if the belts are now "southern bastardized something or another." The prep school demographics are now wildly international, and overly self-conscious "preppiness" these days is like a photocopy of a photocopy.
ReplyDeletePoppycock
DeleteYes, but anyone can attend a prep school whether they are New England wasp, “2025 “ prep or the aforementioned bastardized prep of the south.
DeleteI can wear clerical clothing, and that does not make me a minister.
DeleteBut it can make people believe you are a minister, and isn't that sometimes the point?
DeleteTo be a fake ?
DeleteWe wonder what Ron McKernan might have thought of the Smathers and Branson dancing bear offerings.
DeleteRon would have noted that ultimately capitalism subsumes all. By the way, tomorrow is his birthday.
Delete"I can wear clerical clothing, and that does not make me a minister" is exactly the sort of creepy, fetishistic approach to "prep" by non-preps that I was talking about. If one has to take religious vows to it, or equate it to religious cleric's garb, one was always a poser.
DeletePerhaps they are quite the opposite. It could’ve been that they were writing about how people wear costumes to try to pretend they are prep. It doesn’t mean the person writing it believes that they are. Don’t jump to conclusions.
DeleteIt Hurts Me Too seeing some of the discordant North-South banter on this blog. Ain’t It Crazy? When not, can’t everyone just stop and Turn On Your Lovelight?
DeletePerhaps. But it does add a little spice to the day.
DeleteI see you worked some of Ron's songs into your response.
DeleteHard to resist. Just paying respect to the Big Boss Man.
DeleteSome songs are written by one person but owned by another. Think All Along The Watchtower; Dylan-Hendrix. Hard To Handle was claimed by Ron McKernan. “Boys and things will come by the dozen. Ain’t nothing but drugstore love…”
DeleteTo be precise, the point is not to "be fake". Being fake requires no effort. The point is to make others think you are the real thing. To what end, I am not sure.
DeleteMy son's boarding school in Virginia sells, in its bookstore, a custom S&B belt with various buildings and symbols of the school on it. I can assure you that the student body, which is very Southern, is every bit as socially polished as the student body at my daughter's boarding school in Connecticut, if not more so.
DeleteRemember Tucker Blair needlepoint accessories?
ReplyDeleteS&B accessories left True Prep as soon as they included SEC needlepoint products. I know both of the founders. They are laughing all the way to the bank.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that one of the founder's girlfriends succumbed to the break up belt theory and one did not.
ReplyDeleteQuality will out!
ReplyDeleteI wear one of these belts to baseball games and always get compliments. I see them at college football games. (Granted in Virginia and DC) The benefit is that you don’t have to wear athletic wear while giving a nod to your Alma maters or sports teams. Is it something that would have been worn at a sports event 50 years ago? I highly doubt it. Are they authentic New England? I have no idea but would guess the answer is no. I will say that they seem to appeal to a certain demographic of all ages not just loud frat boy types.
ReplyDeleteAt one time there really was no “athletic wear,” as we now know it. The closest thing I recall was a “Henley” shirt bought at Yale Co-op and adorned, of course, with “Yale” emblazoned where thé shirt pocket would be. Some people took the shirts seriously. Standing on the tee at New Haven CC one day, a golfer asked my caddying friend, who was wearing one of the shirts, “do you go to Yale?” It wasn’t the most perceptive question. We were about 13 years old. My friend answered, “no.” Thé golfer said, “well, in my day we only wore a Yale shirt if we went to Yale. And I went to Yale.”
DeleteSnobbery is a form of despair.
DeleteCaddying is one of those jobs young people often took up. Think; newspaper delivery, babysitting, pumping gas, working 15-20 hours a week in a grocery store or some other retail. Those jobs for young people by and large do not exist anymore. Too bad. They gave young people purpose, helped them practice responsibility, forced them to interact with strangers and other adults, etc.. They sometimes even provided a poignant lifetime memory moment. I was caddying in a foursome one day. The golfers were waiting on the tee. The foursome in front was slow playing. One of our foursome said, “isn’t that so-and-so out there? What a jerk.” So-and-so
Deletewas the local morning radio host on the most listened to station in the area. Finally thé way was clear. One of the golfers I was caddying for hit his tee shot and walked over to me to hand me the club. He said, “let that be a lesson for you. It’s easy to bad mouth someone who’s well known. I know so-and-so. He’s a great guy.”
If you want a needlepoint belt that is well made, ask your wife,girlfriend, mother or third grade teacher to stitch you one. Needlepoint shops have many Belt canvases to choose one or have a custom canvas painted. For the minimum quality it should be stitched properly, the canvas should not show through and it needs to be stitched in wool not cotton floss. A well made belt will last for decades. Finally send it to a good leather person to finish it.
ReplyDeleteFYI, men are allowed to needlepoint. Just ask Rosey Grier.
DeleteMy mother made belts for our family members (in wool) in the '80s. After my father died, my brother and I divided up his belts that my mother had made and had them re-sized. My son proudly wears his late grandfather's belt that his grandmother stitched.
DeleteI wear a couple of these - bow ties and Grateful Dead dancing bears. I'm not a 'frat bro,' never was in a fraternity. When i attended a preppy ivy league institution, i never would have worn a belt like these - dressed more like an athlete on the way to practice or a guy on his way to a pretty casual party.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, my spouse bought a younger nephew a South Carolina Smathers & Branson needlepoint belt when it appeared he was going to school there. He ended up re-rigging and heading to Georgia Tech. I believe the Smathers folks allowed him to exchange the belt. So, say what you want about the trendiness of them, but they're good quality belts from a company that still has excellent customer service.
Thanks for sharing Andrew.
DeleteMy 34 year old daughter asked me last year, upon someone mentioning the Grateful Dead, “how long can this go on?” I guess it will go on at least as long as people are buying the belts.
Deletewhat comes will eventually go. I see these as more southern than prep. As a "frat bro" back in the 80's at my big midwestern state school it was inside out Champion Grey crew neck sweatshirts with khakis and black Samba's. My son at an elite southern private college has several emblematic belts- it's a thing.
ReplyDelete