How to find a self-belted trench coat on eBay?

October 2, 2009 7:02 PM

Is there an official term for a belt on a coat that's sewn right into the coat - besides an inset belt?

I have been looking on eBay and elsewhere for a trench coat but not only am I cheap, I'm very picky - I think belted ones look bunchy and non-belted ones look shapeless, so I want the kind where the belt is set right in. It creates a nice fitted look. I've seen this called an "inset belt" - seems to make sense, right? But as a search term that NEVER turns up results. Is it called something else? I can't look through 20,000 search results! Thanks for your help with this critical and weighty question.

posted by Betsy Vane to clothing, beauty, & fashion (7 comments total)

I always thought they were called a 'self belt.'
posted by pinky at 7:17 PM on October 2

Have you tried "attached belt"?
posted by amyms at 7:46 PM on October 2

Pinky has it--the technical term is self belt.
posted by sarabeth at 7:48 PM on October 2

I have seen coats described as having 'a belted waist', which I think means the same thing.
posted by rokusan at 8:41 PM on October 2

"self belt" merely means a belt made of the same fabric as the garment that comes with the garment, regardless of whether it is attached, inset, or unattached.
posted by violetk at 8:52 PM on October 2

Kind of like a drawstring? Or wider belt?
posted by barnone at 11:01 PM on October 2

"Mock belt" is usually a quasi-belt consisting of two belt ends, right and left, seamed into the side seams of a shaped trenchcoat, at the waist. From the front, the mock belt provides belt ends which can actually be fastened, to emulate a real trench belt, even slightly pulling in the coat waist, or, usually, worn stuffed in the hand pockets, as Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart often did. Sometimes, a "mock belt" is the back half of a real belt, added as a detail for the back view of a non-traditional trench coat. Alternatively, the mock belt permits buckling around the back, a la busy, international '40s news correspondent (who would, for the sake of authenticity, if nothing else, never be caught dead without a real belt on their trench coat), for those who can't be bothered buckling and unbuckling at the front, or checking to see if belt ends are appropriately stuffed into the side pockets.
posted by paulsc at 12:15 AM on October 3