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 individua ...

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 and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

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

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

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 writer and Tories (British political party), Tory politician. He served as an official in the Navy Board and Member of Parliament (England), Member of Parliament, but is most r ...

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 bands. Separate buckles remained fashionable until they were abandoned along with high-heeled footwear and other

aristocratic Aristocracy (; ) is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. Across Europe, the aristocracy exercised immense economic, political, and social influence. In Western Christian co ...

fashions in the years after the French Revolution, 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 court, courts of law. Depending on the country and jurisdiction's traditions, members of the court (judges, magistrates, and so on) may wear formal robes, g ...

until well into the 20th century. In Britain in 1791 an attempt was made by buckle manufactures to stop the 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.

Knee buckle

Knee buckles are used to fasten the knee-high boots 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 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, 1780–1785. 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