How to find a self-belted trench coat on eBay?
“Mock belt” is usually a quasi-belt consisting of two belt ends, right and left, seamed into the side seams of a shaped trenchcoat, at the waist. From the front, the mock belt provides belt ends which can actually be fastened, to emulate a real trench belt, even slightly pulling in the coat waist, or, usually, worn stuffed in the hand pockets, as Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart often did. Sometimes, a “mock belt” is the back half of a real belt, added as a detail for the back view of a non-traditional trench coat. Alternatively, the mock belt permits buckling around the back, a la busy, international ’40s news correspondent (who would, for the sake of authenticity, if nothing else, never be caught dead without a real belt on their trench coat), for those who can’t be bothered buckling and unbuckling at the front, or checking to see if belt ends are appropriately stuffed into the side pockets.
