Kendall Jenner’s scarf tied as a belt
A belt has one size and a bad day can make it wrong. A scarf tied at the waist has no size at all.
Wearing: In Paris, New York and Los Angeles — A long silk scarf knotted around the waist in place of a belt
Kendall Jenner has been photographed in Paris, New York and Los Angeles with a long silk scarf tied around her waist instead of a belt, which is a small idea with a genuinely useful property behind it.
A leather belt is a fixed set of holes. It fits or it does not, and which of those is true varies through a day and through a month in ways that have nothing to do with your size and everything to do with being a person. A scarf knotted at the waist marks the same line and defines the same shape while being infinitely adjustable, and it does it in a soft material that does not dig in when you sit down.
It also solves a problem the belt cannot: it adds colour at the waist. A belt is nearly always a neutral, and a printed silk scarf at the same point puts a deliberate splash exactly where the eye is already going.
Two mechanical requirements, both easy to get wrong. It needs real length — something around 180cm, not a 70cm square — because the knot eats far more than people expect. And silk on a smooth waistband rotates as you walk, so tie it at the side or slightly off-centre rather than dead front, and thread it through a belt loop or two if the garment has them.
What transfers
Anything soft tied at the waist marks a shape without committing to a size, which makes it the more forgiving choice on most days. Buy for length rather than for print — a scarf under about 180cm will not tie at a waist and look like anything — and knot it at the side, because silk on a smooth waistband travels.
