Suspenders (American English) or braces (British English) are fabric or leather straps worn over the shoulders to hold up trousers. Straps may be elasticated, either entirely or only at attachment ends and most straps are of woven cloth forming an X or Y shape at the back. Braces are typically attached to trousers with buttons using leather tabs at the ends or with clips. In British English the term suspenders or suspender belt refers to a garment used to hold up stockings, what in American English is called a garter belt.

There have been several precursors to suspenders throughout the past 300 years, but the modern type were first invented in 1822 by Albert Thurston and were once almost universally worn due to the high cut of mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century trousers, a cut that made a belt impractical. After losing popularity during World War I, as men became accustomed to uniform belts, suspenders were still standard throughout the 1920s. Because of their image as underwear, men switched to belts during the 1930s as the waistcoats which had hidden braces became worn less. This also signaled the switch of position of the buttons from the outside of the waistband to the inside. Though the return of fuller-cut trousers in the 1940s revived braces, they did not dominate over belts again to the same extent.

Amanda Louise Holden (born 16 February 1971) is a British actress and presenter. Among her roles are Mia Bevan in Cutting It, Sarah Trevanion in Wild at Heart, and the title role in Thoroughly Modern Millie, for which she was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award. Since 2007, Holden has been a judge on Britain's Got Talent.

She is married to record producer Chris Hughes. Her marriage to Family Fortunes presenter Les Dennis ended in divorce in 2003.

Holden was born in Bishop's Waltham, Hampshire to Judith Mary Harrison and Naval petty officer Frank Holden. Her parents split up when she was four and she was brought up in the village of Waltham Chase, by Harrison and stepfather Leslie Drew Collister. She joined the Bishop's Waltham Little Theatre Company when she was nine, and credits Angie Blackford as influential in her early stage career. When she was 16 the family moved to Bournemouth and ran a small B&B while Amanda herself studied Drama and English literature A levels with Terry Clarke and Charles Lamb at the Jellicoe Theatre, now part of Bournemouth and Poole College. She successfully auditioned for the independent drama school Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in the Wood Green area of North London when she was 18, graduating in July 1994.

Nathaniel Joseph "Nature" Ruess (February 26, 1982) is an American indie/indie pop singer-songwriter from Arizona. Ruess was the singer of The Format and currently lead vocalist of the band Fun.

Nate was born February 26, 1982 in Iowa City, Iowa. He was the youngest of two children, his sister Libbie being one year older.

In 1986, his family moved to a farm in Glendale, Arizona, where he remained throughout his childhood. He attended Deer Valley High School and graduated in 2000. Having an uncle, John Ruess, who performed on Broadway, Ruess was always somewhat interested in music and performing. He joined punk bands in high school and, upon graduation, chose to pursue music instead of attending college. He never took formal singing lessons or learned to play an instrument and was often told by peers that he lacked the talent to make it professionally. He took a job in a law firm as a way to support himself while he pursued his musical ambitions.

In 2001, at the age of 19, he launched the band The Format with his longtime best friend, Sam Means. This was his first musical endeavor to garner widespread attention.

Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee at the age of fourteen to pursue a career in country music. She signed to the independent label Big Machine Records and became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house. The release of Swift's self-titled debut album in 2006 established her as a country music star. "Our Song", her third single, made her the youngest sole writer and singer of a number one song on the country chart. She received a Best New Artist nomination at the 50th Grammy Awards.

Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in late 2008. Buoyed by the chart success of the singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", Fearless attracted a crossover audience and became the top-selling album of 2009. The record won four Grammy Awards, with Swift becoming the youngest ever Album of the Year winner. Fearless also received Album of the Year plaudits at the American Music Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards and Country Music Association Awards, making it the most awarded album in country music history. In 2010, Swift released her third album, Speak Now, which sold over one million copies in its first week. She then embarked on the 111-date Speak Now World Tour, which was attended by over 1.6 million fans and has become one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time. The album's third single, "Mean", won two Grammy Awards for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance. Swift is currently recording her fourth studio album, due for release in the fall of 2012.

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known by her stage name Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Perry grew up with gospel music, and during her first year of high school she pursued a music career as Katy Hudson, releasing her first studio album called Katy Hudson which failed to chart. She recorded a solo album later, which was never released. After signing with Capitol Music Group in 2007, her fourth record label in seven years, she adopted the stage name Katy Perry.

She first gained recognition with the release of her first mainstream album, One of the Boys in 2008, which spawned three Billboard Hot 100 top-ten songs—"I Kissed A Girl", "Hot n Cold" and "Waking Up In Vegas". Perry supported the album with her Hello Katy Tour. In 2010, her third studio album, Teenage Dream (2010), which topped the Billboard 200 chart, and spawned five number one singles—"California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", "E.T." and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)"—Teenage Dream was the only album (after Michael Jackson's Bad)—to do so, and the first female in history to achieve this milestone. She embarked on the California Dreams Tour, which grossed nearly $60 million worldwide. Perry re-released the album under the name of Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection on March 26, 2012, and the re-release has already spawned the number-one single "Part of Me".