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

One of the symbols of the independent spirit of apprentices in London was their
desire to wear silver buckles on their shoes.'36
The late 1780s and 1790s constituted a break with tradition. In 1786 buckles
were going out of fashion in Britain:
The shoe-strings are now the fashion with all the barbers boys, hair-dressers, and
waiters, in London. The charity schools have also adopted them, as they are much
cheaper that buckles. A man of sense, and a real man of fashion, has never yet
dishonoured his instep with such a piece of folly.'37
The public opinion wanted to know that such folly was not British. On the other
hand, a French origin would have undermined every attempt to see shoe strings
as dishonourable and unfashionable. Much easier was therefore to blame the
Irish as the inventor of shoestrings.' 38 Such invention, it was underlined, had
found followers in Britain only among those classes that found themselves in the
situation to pawn their buckles.' 39 The solution proposed by buckle-makers was
to impose an excise tax of 18 pence per pair of strings, to stop the new fashion
and save their trade.'4°
The real blow came in Autumn 1789 when the French patriotic campaign
invited all Parisian citizens (and primarily the wealthy ones) to donate their gold
and silver buckles to the caisse patriotique. It was a sign of civic participation
and a measure against ostentation. 141 Equality was embodied by a similarity in
shoes.' 42 Fashion remained in newly shaped patriotic buckles, such as the boucle
a la Bastille (shaped in the form of the building's tower) or the boucle au Tiers-
Etat or a la Nation. 143 The boucle a la Nation, in particular, was made of leather
rather than metal. The change from precious buckles was not easy, even if the
action had strong patriotic values associated to it. People complained that the
136 A trip through London: containing observations on men and things ... (London, 1728), p.
51.
''
The Times, 21's September 1786, p. 2, col. c.
138 Ibid., 8th November 1788, p. 2, col. c.
'39Jbid., 12th July 1787, p. 2, col. d.
'40 Ibid., 22" November 1788, p. 3, col. a.
141
On the subject of political and cultural hegemony and fashion see 0. McCracken, 'Textile
history and the consumer epidemic: an anthropology approach to popular consumption and the
new market', Material History Bulletin, X)OU (Spring 1990), pp. 61-2.
142 District des Capucins Saint-Honoré. Discours prononcé par M. Marchand... (Paris, 1789 -
BN LB4O-239); G. Du Motier and M. de La Fayette, Lettre de M.le Mis de La Fayette,
commandant general de hi garde nationale parisienne (Paris, undated - BN 4-LF133-326).
137