Buckled shoes began to replace tied shoes in the mid-17th century:[2]Samuel Pepys 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."[3] 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.[4] Separate buckles remained fashionable until they were abandoned along with high-heeled footwear and other aristocratic fashions in the years after the French Revolution,[5] although they were retained as part of ceremonial and court dress until well into the 20th century.[6] 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.[4] While the prince did start to require them for his court, this didn't stop the decline of the shoe buckle.[4] It has been suggested that the decline drove the manufacturers of steel buckles to diversify into producing a range of cut steel jewellery.[4]
Man's steel and gilt wire shoe buckles, England, c. 1777–1785 LACMA M.80.92.6a-b.
Woman's silver and steel shoe buckles with paste stones, 1780–85. LACMA M.80.92.1a-b
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.
Man's cut steel shoe buckles, United States, 1780s. LACMA 42.16.23a-b.
