A beautiful, very high-quality belt - by the way, we're buying a second one. Bought in March 2013 and worn almost every day since then, the edges of the original have started to fade. Well, the belt is almost white in places, but since it's so thick and my husband likes it a lot, I'll try to paint it. Since he wears it every day now, I needed a replacement before I could take it off him, so I ordered another one. I forgot - and the last few reviews didn't mention it - that it smells VERY bad on arrival (extremely strong smell of oil) so don't plan on wearing it right away! We put the new one in the garage for a month, checking weekly until the smell only came up when I held it right up to my nose. Hoping I'm the only one that gets this close, we figured it was operational. :)