Figure belt nation
Bongi D D M Radipati | Tuesday November 4, 2025 14:00
As it is known, the expression is a figurative phrase that alludes to the physical act of pulling in one’s belt due to one getting thinner from hunger or lack of means. In other words, the expression is an admonishment to live more frugally or to reduce spending while one faces financial difficulty or is desirous of saving money. I believe that as a metaphor for frugality and prudence, it could be an expression made specifically for the impecunious nation we are right now. In that regard, we will be well advised as a nation and as individuals to take this figurative phrase literally. Below, I want to suggest that we should also regard the idea of a belt and how it can be worn as reflecting not just a moment in our time but also a current mood. That will require a detailed description of this piece of apparel, its uniqueness at an individual level, and its utility at a national level.
Belts were invented in the Middle East during the Bronze Age (3300BC - 1200BC). They were tied at the waist to secure clothing and to carry weapons and other necessary stuff. Now we wear them as accessories, which is fine considering that for millennia belts have earned a place in our lives, if not in our hearts. For today, I would like to consider a special type of belt, the figure belt. At the outset, it is hard not to like a figure belt given how intriguing it is and what it is designed to do. And it is hard not to accept that because it is thought-provoking, it is the ideal piece of accessory for its wearers and admirers especially when the time calls for national reflection on lifestyles. Why? Because a figure belt has the power to elevate private taste to the public. Because it can calm uneasiness about how to dress intentionally. And because right now, we can use it, metaphorically and literally, as a balm to our challenging time as a nation. Indeed, if by how we perceive and wear it, a figure belt can influence us to use our hard times as both a lesson and an opportunity for correcting our spending habits, its wearers and admirers may earn the moniker, a figure belt nation.
Viewed on its own, a figure belt is one of clothes’ perplexing and fascinating pieces. Worn, it cuts across the body like the horizontal midrib of a long slender or round plum leaf. In doing so, it becomes an efficient and beautifying piece of accessory that divides the wearer’s body frame in half: the upper body to be gazed at and the lower body to be gazed at even more. For these reasons, there is pleasure in seeing a figure belt worn. That pleasure is a tangle of aesthetics, expression, confidence, and mechanics. Understanding this confounding tangle and how it solidifies into a desire for a figure belt is why, as a nation, we easily behold and become beholden to a figure belt.
As it is known, a figure belt is essentially a personal object. But once it is worn, it deliberately invites the gaze, or admiration or wonder of others. Additionally, I have come to realize that wearing a figure belt is a public activity as it aims at an outsider's gaze and a public’s imagination. This is a trait that few other apparel items command. What is also remarkable about a figure belt is that it demands attention in a way that many clothes do not. If attention is fractured by a mindless use of personal devices or other distractions, one is bound to lose a lot of tiny details about it. This may be that the figure belt is worn for an apple-shaped body by placing it below the bust to create the illusion of a waistline. Inversely, to create an hourglass body, it may be worn at the narrowest part of the waist. In both instances, the wearer of a figure belt chooses the area of her torso that she wants to target with her accessory. For the hourglass body, the intention is to allude to time and to sensual balance. For the creation of a waistline, the intention is the iteration of the female figurine and the division of the wearer’s body into the upper and lower parts. This is confirmation that styling a figure belt is on the one part art, on the second part, a conscious choice, and on the third part, an exercise in inventiveness. As a typical third piece - after a suit, a costume, etc. - it can elevate the wearer’s look and ensure that it is more coordinated and complete while adding character to personal style.
Sometimes, the wearing of a figure belt can be viewed as a certain kind of sartorial overconfidence. Perceived this way, it may prompt concern that its wearer is deliberately provocative or ostentatious. Yet, at other times, the wearing of a figure belt can be understood as a byword for understated elegance and good taste in clothing. Acknowledged this way, it becomes easy to wear it to every outerwear, from jackets to skirts, dresses, pants, blazers, etc. Such is the power of a figure belt that few will be agnostic about it. There will be those who are disdainful of it and thus have nothing to do with it. Then there will be those who are sucked into its fandom, that they quickly become a member or admirer of the figure belt nation.
We may not know why someone chooses to wear a figure belt. But when it is worn by a significant number of our people, we will know that in the bright natural light of our hotter months a figure belt is worn more for aesthetics than representation, and in the soft cool lights of our cooler months a figure belt is worn more for expression than articulation. In spite of that, away from the gaze or consideration of others, the wearer of a figure belt, as an individual, is always a Renaissance woman either as a fashion conscious woman; or as a woman embodying attention to detail; or as a woman more interesting than others. That sets her and her clothing apart. In any case, if the wearer of a figure belt does not appear fabulous, which is unlikely, at least she will appear flamboyant which is good enough. For us as a nation and as individuals, that alone may be an antidote to our current collective hardship, and thus reason enough to embrace each member of our figure belt nation.
*Radipati is a Mmegi contributor