The Boot and Shoe Trades in London and Paris in the Long Eighteenth Century

"pretty shoes, arrayed with ribbons that make you look like flare-floated
pigeons".' 25 During the eighteenth century laces became so unfashionable that
they assumed new meanings. According to the investigation of Commissioner
Faucault and Inspecteur Noel of the Parisian police, only pederasts were wearing
laces, instead of buckles and this was a code to recognise themselves in public
places.' 26 This prejudice against laces remained even when they returned to
fashion as they were deemed to be "effeminate in appearance".'27
Buckles too, as a new product, faced the continuous action of attribution of
social, cultural and symbolic meanings. In the early eighteenth century, as a
result of the success of the product, buckles found a social function, as well as a
practical one, in the idea of 'gentility'.' 28 It was the kind of gentility that
combined the search for continuously changing shapes to ornament and value.
Even 'earthly' shoes could enter into the reign of taste, adding a touch of luxury
to simple footwear. During the eighteenth century, in fact, shoes' shapes (and in
particular men's shoes) did not change substantially. They were normally made
of leather, and the real difference was on the buckle used. Buckles could range
from Sheffield plate, pinchbeck to silver or gold. During the 1740s they could be
set with stones, pastes and marcansite.' 29 Until the 1720s buckles were relatively
small and plain, becoming largest in the 1770s (illustration 3.8). The bigger size
allowed a certain degree of variation in shape and colour. Mourning dress
buckles, for instance, were japanned black or with jets.
The importance of buckles in men's but also in women's shoes derives from
the low degree of design variation a shoe could have in the eighteenth century.
Roads and streets were full of mud all the year. Shoes had to have high heels and
be fairly resistant to a wet and muddy climate. With these limitations, the shape
of a pair of shoes could not change much. Buckles have to be considered
marginal variations of fashion.
Cit. in international Shoe Museum of Romans, cit., p. 33.
126 j Merrick, 'Commissioner Faucault, Inspecteur Noel, and the 'pederasts' of Paris, 1780-
83', Journal of Social History, XXXII -2 (1998), pp. 287-307.
127 Appeal from the buckle trade of London and Westminster to the royal conductor offashion
(London, 1792), p. 2.
' 28 M Finn, 'Men's things: masculine possessions in the consumer revolution', cit., p. 141.
129 P. Byroe, The male image, cit., p. 197.
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