Ann Devine Rhinestone Garter Belt

These come in a package small enough to be posted through the letterbox, which is nice if you can't wait home to receive parcels. The box contains rhinestone care and repair instructions, which is a nice touch as they apparently become damaged when exposed to water and other liquids. Oh, and air. Yeah, the packaging recommends this garter belt be stored in an airtight ziplock bag which was not included in the package. I'm keeping it in the plastic "peel and seal" bag the belt came in until I can get a ziplock bag.

This brings me to the main point of my review - this piece probably won't stand up to strenuous movement, sweat and any tugging/stretching. Therefore after a rather uncomfortable and worrying five minute walk to the shops and back wearing this belt under my clothes I recommend keeping this for special occasions to add a touch of sparkle and glamour.

And why not? That's probably all this was intended for and it looks pretty stunning. I imagine it starting to look extremely tacky if I allow it to get tarnished or pulled out of shape, so I'll be keeping it safe.

I teamed this belt up with a lacy black basque and knickers - the belt really complimented these and I'm looking forward to trying it with other colours and styles.

No idea if was intentional or a product fault, but the suspender clips appear to be attached backwards. They are attached to the rhinestone chain by small keyrings so I attempted to take a clip off to put it on the other way around. This was way harder than it looked and I decided not to risk it with the other 3 clips as the fabric had scraped on the ends of the keyring and I was worried about tearing it.

However, as it's such a pretty piece I don't particularly mind as the prettiest garter belt I have is a factory reject with the clips sewn on backwards and it's manageable. The clips take a little more effort to get onto the stocking tops, however they hold very well when attached and later on were easy enough to get off. The belt itself has two adjustable necklace-type chains so you can vary the length of the belt as needed to get just the right fit. They would fit a good range of body shapes and sizes because of this. However, you can't adjust the length of the suspenders themselves so you can't really have the stockings sitting too high up your legs unless you have the belt quite high up your body.

Overall, I will emphasise that this is very much a decorative piece but it does that job very well. The chains are certainly not flimsy either, just remember they are not stretchy! The belt also presses into the skin if you're not careful.