Woman's Spitalfields silk damask shoes with buckles 1740s

Shoe buckles are

fashion accessories In fashion, an accessory is an item used to contribute, in a secondary manner, to an individual's outfit. Accessories are often chosen to complete an outfit and complement the wearer's look. They have the capacity to further express an individual ...

worn by men and women from the mid-17th century through the 18th century to the 19th century. Shoe buckles were made of a variety of materials including

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wi ...

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistan ...

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

or silver gilt, and buckles for formal wear were set with

diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, b ...

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical f ...

or imitation jewels.Takeda and Spilker (2010), p. 183

History

Buckled shoes began to replace tied shoes in the mid-17th century:

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mariti ...

wrote in his ''Diary'' for 22 January 1660 "This day I began to put on buckles to my shoes, which I have bought yesterday of Mr. Wotton." The fashion at first remained uncommon enough though that even in 1693 a writer to a newspaper complained of the new fashion of buckles replacing ribbons for fastening shoes and

knee band In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the hu ...

s. Separate buckles remained fashionable until they were abandoned along with

high-heeled footwear High-heeled shoes, also known as high heels, are a type of shoe with an angled sole. The heel in such shoes is raised above the ball of the foot. High heels cause the legs to appear longer, make the wearer appear taller, and accentuate the ...

and other

aristocratic Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At the time of the word' ...

fashions in the years after the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

, although they were retained as part of ceremonial and

court dress Court dress comprises the style of clothes and other attire prescribed for members of courts of law. Depending on the country and jurisdiction's traditions, members of the court ( judges, magistrates, and so on) may wear formal robes, gowns ...

until well into the 20th century. In Britain in 1791 an attempt was made by buckle manufactures to stop change in fashion by appealing to the then Prince of Wales Prince George. While the prince did start to require them for his court this didn't stop the decline of the shoe buckle. It has been suggested that the decline drove the manufacturers of steel buckles to diversify into producing a range of

cut steel jewellery Cut steel jewellery is a form of jewellery composed of steel that was popular between the 18th century and the end of the 1930s. Design The basic design of cut steel jewellery is a thin metal baseplate onto which closely placed steel studs were r ...

Knee buckle

Knee buckles are used to fasten the

knee-high boots Knee-high boots are boots that rise to the knee, or slightly thereunder or over. They are generally tighter around the leg shaft and ankle than at the top. Originally made of leather, versions made of a synthetic rubber (PVC, Neoprene, etc.), th ...

just below the level of the knee.

Gallery

File:Man's shoe buckles c. 1777-1785.jpg, Man's steel and gilt wire shoe buckles, England, c. 1777–1785

LACMA The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 196 ...

M.80.92.6a-b. File:Woman's shoe buckles with paste stones 1780-85.jpg, Woman's silver and steel shoe buckles with paste stones, 1780–85. LACMA M.80.92.1a-b File:Man's shoe buckles with case.jpg, Man's shoe buckles with case. Paste stones with gilded-copper-alloy trim on silver and steel, France, c. 1785. LACMA M.2007.211.829a-b. File:Man's steel shoe buckles 1780s.jpg, Man's cut steel shoe buckles, United States, 1780s. LACMA 42.16.23a-b.

Notes

References

*Takeda, Sharon Sadako, and Kaye Durland Spilker, ''Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700 - 1915'', Prestel USA (2010), * Tortora, Phyllis G. and Keith Eubank. ''Survey of Historic Costume''. 2nd Edition, 1994. Fairchild Publications. {{Footwear Footwear accessories Types of jewellery 17th-century fashion 18th-century fashion 19th-century fashion Maritime culture

History

Knee buckle

Gallery

See also

Notes

References