The History of Double Buckle Shoes

The history of double buckle shoes

We love to know the origins of all our models. Why and since when they are like this. And now it’s time for one of your favorite models, the double buckle shoe. The double buckle shoes have become an increasingly widespread option in the male closet. Easier and more comfortable to wear than the classic and serious black oxford, every year they are gaining more and more followers.

This model is based on the classic last of an Oxford shoe, but with a piece that extends the vamp to the instep and another piece that hugs the foot up to the buckle closure. A delight for those who do not like to tie laces.

A Monk Story

Diving into the history of this model, the English name gives us a very clear clue about its supposed origin, monk shoes or monk strap shoes. Which means “monk shoe” or “monk buckle shoes”. It is true that this model today has little or nothing to do with the clergy, but it seems that ten to five centuries ago it was not so. Or so the legend goes. Let’s dive into it.

Monks in the Middle Ages were not only dedicated to the contemplative life. In addition to praying, they had to work and work hard. They carried out all trades within their communities, which were like small villages. And it goes without saying that the conditions and climate at that time must not have been at all easy. The traditional image of the monk wearing sandals must have been common, but in summer.

Because it must have been very cold in the late Middle Ages, let’s say in December, working outdoors in northern Germany. Treading on mud, ice or snow to go with a sandal, seemed the best recipe to meet but very soon with the supreme doer. It is more than likely that some included a kind of leather sock and superimposed, summer sandals. And that already some monks more cold, directly sewed some scraps of skin to the sandals, and we had a kind of shoe with two buckles.The monkstrap shoe was born.

Choose the legend

Looking through the picture galleries, either because of the abundance of southern painters, where the cold was probably less atrocious, or because it was more stylish to portray the summer sandal, it is difficult to find examples of closed shoes. Even in later periods, such as Zurbarán, the painter of friars, it is very difficult to find examples of winter monastic footwear. We have found before a supposed woman pope (Juana, around 850) than an image of a monk strap in some monastic painting. However, blood red slippers have been found very often in papal portraits.

Sometimes it seems that the name is due to the classic British humor that found the similarity between this Oxford shoe with alternative closure and the footwear of the monasteries. As always, there is the alternative urban legend of an English gentleman who visited a Swiss monastery and came across the model worn by the local monks. And delighted with these shoes, he took them to London. It is a beautiful story. And like any good legend, there is no proof of its existence, but we can adopt it as romantic and traveler.

Be that as it may, the name became popular in English and since it is still the global language, these wonderful double buckle shoes that you see have a monastic denomination.

Monk Shoes, Nowadays

The reality is that in the 20th century, once the Oxford shoe and its derivation the Derby, with the eyelets of the laces sewn in two pieces around a small extension of the vamp that goes underneath, was popularized, this model was developed, eliminating the laces for buckles. It was worn like a moccasin, with an Oxford last and closed with a buckle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Throughout the last century it was positioned as a less formal shoe than the Oxford, more or less at the same level as the Derby shoe in terms of seriousness. And at first, the majority choice in the last century was one buckle, although there were also two-buckle shoes from the beginning.

It has been in the XXI Century, when the double buckle option has been imposed as the most elegant and majority option.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And we at Beatnik, from the beginning, have had lines of two-buckle shoes for both men and women.We will continue to bet on creating the best leather monk shoes, so that everyone can enjoy the experience of wearing these elegant and comfortable shoes, with such a long history.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]