Wondering what are the best belts to wear with your favorite jeans and how to effortlessly style them with jeans, then checkout this belts and jeans guide.
You can find out what belts to wear with jeans, how to easily pair them and what are the most versatile belts styles to have in your wardrobe and enhance your outfits.
Should You Wear Belts with Your Jeans Outfit?
Belts have a lot of benefit and they can make a huge difference even to your denim outfits.
- Belt will add more detail to your outfit and make you look put together and stylish.
- They can change up a very basic jeans outfit by simple adding more hardware detail.
- They create a waist definition which accentuates your curves. This is really helpful when you are wearing the basic skinny jeans and fitted top outfit.
What Belts to Wear With Jeans
Before we can style belts with jeans, we need to figure out what belts work best with jeans and how to but the right jeans.
What size belt to wear with jeans?
Sure, you can wear any size of belts with your jeans, but not all width of belts will look flattering with all jeans.
Belts from 3/4 inches to 1.5 inches will look most flattering with almost any style of jeans. These belts are not too wide, so they will create a waist definition and compliment your jeans outfits easily without overpowering it.
But If you are wearing skinny jeans with a tight fit top, you can get away with wearing a thicker belt like a 1 3/4 inch belt. But don’t go overboard with really wide western style belts. They don’t look good with jeans.
Why retro and bohemian are still a trend, these belt widths won’t make your denim outfit look modern and flattering.
You can save the photo below as a cheat sheet for your jeans and belt styling.
What color belts go best with jeans?
The color of the belt completely depends on the color of your jeans.
If you are wearing black or white jeans, you can pretty much rock any color of belts with it depending on what your top or jacket colors are.
If you are thinking, do I need to match my belts with my handbag, the answer is absolutely not. This is a style rule I want you to break.
If you are wearing light blue jeans, black, white and tan or nude belts look the best with them. These shades are versatile and will go with other bottom colors too. So, you get a lot of wear out of them.
If you are going for dark blue wash or gray jeans, then you can swap the tan or nude belt with brown or cognac belts. You can also wear white belts, but the shade of blue of the jeans will determine whether it will look great with black belts. If it’s a dark blue wash, a black belt will not add any detail to the outfit.
How long should women’s belt be?
This determines your belt size and depends on whether you are wearing low-rise, mid-rise or high rise jeans.
Honestly, if you are wearing low rise jeans, I probably can’t help you much as a millennial who swears by high rise bottoms.
You can determine the length of the belt by tying the belt and checking whether you are able to put the end on the first buckle of the jeans and the belt just wraps properly on your waist. And it does not stand out. If it’s too long, there are chances that the belt end will flap out. And that looks really frumpy.
The goal is ensure that the belt wraps around your waist with just enough length to be inserted in the first buckle and that’s it.
If you are wearing jeans that falls on your hips, you need to buy a hip wide belt or else a waist width one will do. Here is an important factor to keep in mind too. You need to leave a little room for top fabric and jeans thickness. This is important if you are going for belt shopping without wearing jeans. So, a good rule of thumb I use is that I go half a size up.
What Jeans are best for Belts?
This is not at all about which denim styles look good with belts but the fly open style of the jeans. You can find a versatile designs of jeans in the market with different styles of fly open. Either buttons or zipper.
If you have zipper fly open, you don’t see any other hardware around your waist than the main button. This is the best styles of jeans you can pair belts with because the belt will enhance your plain denim.
But if you are wearing it with a button fly open jeans with exposed buttons, wearing a belt will make your outfit look busier.
The same goes if you are wearing extreme fading or patchwork style of jeans. I am hoping that you are not wearing these jeans anyways. If you are looking for flattering jeans alternative to skinny jeans, checkout my top 5 jeans styles you can wear.
What kind of belts go very well with jeans?
I also want to cover the best styles of belts that will go well with jeans. These are not sizes but designs you can say.
If you want to just buy one belt then start with a simple grained leather buckle belt. The simple buckle will be minimal and will look great with any style of jeans.
If you like logo belts, then I am with you there as well. Logo belts can hide the button of the belt and add luxe detail to your overall look. But when it comes to logos, go for gold or silver which will be versatile and you can wear with different styles of jeans.
I am a fan of studded belts too, but these belts are not versatile since they only give you a certain kind of look. And if you are trying to create a sophisticated denim outfit, I would not wear those styles of belts.
Let’s talk about materials. you can wear canvas style belts too, but pay attention to the style of belt buckle that will help elevate your denim look. Nylon belts are a great option for rainy season as well.
How to Wear Belts with Jeans
How do you wear a belt if you have a belly?
Yes you can wear belts, in fact they can help enhancing the waist line. But I know that wearing buckle belts can feel restrictive. You can switch to wrap belts.
Some of my best wrap belt brands are:
These brands specialize in wrap belts and I own belts from both of them, They are comfortable and you can wrap them comfortable with your jeans without making additional buckle holes.
Jeans and Belts Pairing 101
This is not a rule to follow, but you can use this simple guide to know which belt size to pick for which style of jeans. I just want to make sure you are not spending too much time deciding what belts to wear with what jeans.
Skinny Jeans
Buckle Belts and Logo belts both go well, but if you are picking a fitted top go for 1 inch to 1.5 inches wide belt to enhance your waist and look flattering. This applies to all body type.
Straight Leg Jeans
Logo belts look nicer with this style of jeans. The belt can make the jeans look more sophisticated. You can easily get away with wearing thinner belts with straight leg jeans. Because of the straight leg style the waist band already creates a waistline and the belt is just adding more detail to the outfit.
Wide Leg Jeans
Depending on your body type you can wear thinner to thicker belts from 3/4 inches to 1 3/4 inches. And you can also wear normal buckle belts along with logo belts.. I would also pick contrasting belts which can enhance your waistline. This makes your wide leg jeans more put together and stylish.
Flared Jeans
Flared jeans are already adding a curve to your body, so belts are optional, but if you want to wear belts, stick to 1 inch belts that just compliment your denim outfit, but don’t cut off your waist. In terms of styles of belts, I would go for buckle belts which look minimal because buckle belts can make the jeans outfit look trendy and western. If you are going for that, then all good.
Slouchy Jeans
Slouchy or mom jeans have a unique twist, they look more like trousers, so you can pick belts from 3/4 inches to 1 inch. If you have an hour glass shape or pear shape, you can also get away with wearing thicker belts. If you decide to do that, a buckle belt will be more flattering.
Correct Way of Tying the Belt
Now this is not rocket science so I won’t babble much. There are simply two simple formulas to follow.
- If you have a buckle which is a logo, then the way to tie your belt depends on the logo being straight.
- If you are wearing a buckle belt with name embossed in the buckle, then just make sure that the name is not upside down.
- Now, if you are wearing a plain buckle belt, then ensure that your belt end would go on the left side. Now, you can still challenge this rule and end up wearing the other way. But it just somehow looks correct tied that way.
For more on women's belts styling, please read:
