The 10 Best Men's Designer Belts

If one strap has to work with a suit and still look right with chinos, the Montblanc Horseshoe Reversible keeps the branding down to a small star emblem on a polished horseshoe buckle. The buckle turns so the strap flips from black to brown, and Montblanc sells it long so you can trim it to your waist. It is a slim dress cut, so it can look thin with heavy jeans. Few owners have written about it yet.

Jeans call for a wider strap, and the Coach Harness Reversible is cut for exactly that. One face is pebbled leather with the C pattern pressed in, black on black, and the other is smooth calf leather. Coach ships it long and has you open the buckle with a screwdriver, then cut the strap with scissors. It is too wide for the slim loops on most dress trousers, so it stays a weekend piece.

Office wardrobes need a strap nobody notices, and the BOSS Celie fits that brief. Its Italian leather has a faint crackled finish, and the squared gunmetal buckle carries only a tiny BOSS mark. It reads as business wear with trousers and still sits well with dark denim. The catch is that it doesn't reverse, so a brown-shoe day means owning a second one, and BOSS says little about how the finish wears.

When one strap has to cover black and brown shoes on a small budget, the Tommy Hilfiger Reversible does the job. Pull the buckle up at its hinge, give it a twist, and the other color faces out. The slim strap suits dress trousers and chinos, and big-and-tall lengths are sold too. Tommy Hilfiger suggests ordering two inches over your pant size. It doesn't name the leather grade, and the strap is wipe-clean only.

Some buyers want the logo to show, and the Michael Kors Reversible MK puts big block letters front and center. One side is brown coated canvas printed with the MK monogram, and the other is smooth black leather. Michael Kors says its leather comes from tanneries rated by the Leather Working Group, an environmental audit body. The letter buckle is loud, so it suits denim and weekend wear far more than a suit.

Gold hardware is the whole point of the Armani Exchange Hinge Reversible, whose A|X letters sit on a hinged plate that clips onto a two-sided strap. Armani Exchange is the casual, lower-priced line of the Armani group, not the runway label, and this one leans into nights out and jeans rather than meetings. The buckle is large, and its gold tone can clash with silver watches or rings.

A raised crocodile on a brushed metal plate gives the Lacoste RC3096 the sporty look of the brand's polo shirts. The plate fastens with a hook on the back rather than a pin, and the strap is cut a touch wider for casual loops. Lacoste uses split cowhide, the lower layer of the hide, which costs less than full-grain leather but can scuff and crease sooner.

For a label strap with no logo plate at all, the BOSS Jeeko pairs a brushed silver pin buckle with contrast stitching around the keeper, the loop that holds the loose end. That makes it an easy match for jeans and boots without shouting a brand. BOSS publishes very little about the leather or the width, so check the size chart before ordering and expect to learn more by wearing it.

The Calvin Klein CK Cut-Out is a low-cost way into a recognizable label: a matte black buckle shaped as the CK letters on a smooth black strap with a tan underside. It is wide enough for jeans and chinos, with seven holes and a blunt tip. Sizes run from small to extra large, each spanning two waist sizes, so the fit is a little less exact than a numbered size.

Fossil is better known for watches than runways, yet the Fossil Stainless Buckle earns its spot as a warm brown everyday strap with stitched edges and a brushed steel buckle. The small Fossil oval on the keeper is the only branding. Fossil says its leather softens and looks better with age. It is an accessories brand, not a fashion house, so it lacks the cachet of the bigger names.