The winter accessory of 2025 that can cost $30 – or $37,000
When once-daggy ties escaped the fashion mausoleum earlier this year to become style statements around the necks of Nicole Kidman and Rihanna, the door was left ajar for another endangered accessory to escape.
Belts, narrow and wide, slipped through the cracks to be resurrected on the runway, in fashion shoots and across countless winter coats.
Celebrities such as Sirens actor Milly Alcock, actor Jacob Elordi, musician Doechii and supermodel Bella Hadid buckled up following belt-laden collections from Loewe, Miu Miu, Chloe, Zimmermann and Schiaparelli.
'Belts used to be a bit of an afterthought … something you'd grab just to hold your trousers up,' says menswear designer Christian Kimber, who has belts scattered across his latest advertising campaign. 'A good belt can really pull everything together. It's become more of a character in a story than just a background prop.'
After being relegated to fashion purgatory for decades – because magazine and celebrity stylists were fearful of breaking up the line of a silhouette with a horizontal belt – the accessory's revival can be traced to a perfect storm of events.
The return of high-waisted pants, the popularity of weight loss drugs encouraging shrinking members of the fashion community to extend the lifespan of expensive pants purchased pre-injection, and the cost of living crisis have all driven the belt's stock higher.
'People are dressing with more intent these days,' Kimber says. 'They're buying less, but buying better. A belt's one of those things that lasts forever if you get it right, so I think it's become more of a conscious purchase.'
Buying less doesn't mean paying less. A fringed leather belt from celebrity favourite label Alaïa, worn by Kendall Jenner and Miley Cyrus, costs $6810. Luxury marketplace 1stDibs currently has three vintage Chanel belts for more than $US24,000 ($37,016).
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