A man and his belt.
Maximum Henry x Edgyalbert
A little over a year ago, I met Max Cohen of Maximum Henry for the first time at his workshop in Long Island City. It was the culmination of nearly a year of back-and-forth between us that began when someone bought a couch from Max and revealed he had learned about the brand from my tiktoks.
We have a new collab out today if you want to skip to that… but please read on!
Max and I started working together pretty casually, I helped him seed belts to the up-and-coming fashion crowd online and he made sure I had a style of belt for every conceivable outfit… but at some point I realized… I wanted to make something.
When I pitched the idea of a collab to Max, he was immediately receptive. When it finally came out, in October of last year, we vastly outsold the number we’d anticipated, keeping Max and his team extremely busy in the small, well-appointed workshop in which every single Maximum Henry belt is made.
Our first collaboration was based on a garrison belt - a style that, at the time, was hard to find for less than $200. I mainly wanted something wide that would pair well with high-waisted work pants and that made a strong impression without being too garish. To me, it was the perfect belt for that phase of my life and that Fall. I wear my clothes hard and the belts just kept getting better with wear.
Today, the belt we are releasing is just as hardy and badass as the first, but is a great deal subtler and more formal, I think. In the last few months as I increasingly became interested in vintage suits and trousers, I found that wide belt we’d done was not only too big, it just didn’t quite fit the vibe. Thus, our new belt was born.
I’m a stickler about lots of things, but buckles especially. I dislike most dress belts and wanted to find a way to shrink down the Sam Browne-style buckle on first belt so it would pair with a 1” dressier width. Of course, Max found a way.
In January, I picked up my first gold chain from Blœdstone, another great brand that I love, and then the next month, to help heal from a bummer of a breakup, I bought a vintage two-tone Datejust from Craft & Tailored. With these two extravagant purchases under my belt I started thinking — should the carpet match the drapes — metals-wise?
I’ve noticed that the less-inititated sometimes refer to brass buckles as gold, but I’ve never really liked brass or thought it worked very well with gold. I refused to do our first belt in brass, because I hated the color, but when I told Max about my new gold journey, he had an idea. If he tumbled the buckles overnight in his polishing machine, the matte brass came out as — pretty damn near gold! In a euphoric rush, I knew that we had the final product on our hands. We’d done it!
Maybe it’s because I’ve been working so closely with Max for so long, but all my outfits now begin belt outward. The leather color dictates the kind of shoes or jacket I might wear, the width determines what sort of pants or shorts, and the color of the buckle helps me pick out my watch or jewelry. With all that being said, I hope this new belt (or even the old one) is able to make your style life easier and your fits more exciting than they were before.
And once again, the new belt is out today! In three color leathers and two buckle options. As always, thank you for all your support and stay tuned - I’m going to keep making cool things for you to wear!