The accessories that we now know as suspenders date all the way back to ancient Greece. Wealthy men of status would throw strands of colored ribbon over their shoulders to mimic the vertical lines of the columns that their architects were so famous for. This way, they could be instantly recognized as being Greek and superior even when they were traveling abroad.
One day, a young Spaniard who was traveling in the Mediterranean happened across a group of these Greeks. Wanting to seem sophisticated, he copied their fashion and brought it back to his home country. The Spaniard was on his way to meet the King and discuss his travels when the elastic in the Spaniard's pants broke. Having no time to travel back to his house, and not wanting to meet the King with his pants around his ankles, the Spaniard quickly realized he could tie his Greek ribbons to the tops of his pants to hold them up.
"Amazing," the King said, "those Greeks are so smart, and they don't even wear pants! I simply must have these suspenders for my royal wardrobe." And so the fashion quickly spread throughout the kingdom, much to the relief of many donkeys who were tired of seeing their farmers' bare backsides after "wardrobe malfunctions."