Buckle brogues yes, Ghillie no: Come & have a go if you think you are 'ard enough

[Jack Daw]

I have a pair of buckle shoes in 18th C style by Fugawee. They are VERY comfortable, but I would think they would not be appropriate for strictly formal wear (jabot, fly plaid, etc). I thought such shoes were supposed to be in patent leather. Please advise, those in the know.

[Phil]

I have a pair of buckle shoes in 18th C style by Fugawee. They are VERY comfortable, but I would think they would not be appropriate for strictly formal wear (jabot, fly plaid, etc). I thought such shoes were supposed to be in patent leather. Please advise, those in the know.

As long as you have them clean and polished to a good shine they should be perfect. Patent just saves you the trouble.

[DWFII]

I have a pair of buckle shoes in 18th C style by Fugawee. They are VERY comfortable, but I would think they would not be appropriate for strictly formal wear (jabot, fly plaid, etc). I thought such shoes were supposed to be in patent leather. Please advise, those in the know.

I agree...as long as they are polished and clean they present a very formal look. In the illustrations just posted above most of the buckle shoes depicted are in the 18c. style (and making allowance for "artistic license" ) it appears that the "mary jane style" shown in the last set are not brogues at all (if broguing defines a brogue).

The Fugawees may not be polishable, however. They purport to be historical replicas and historically those kind of shoes would have been made from a leather that became memorialized as "wax calf"--where the smooth or grainside was turned in (the shoes were not lined) and the rough or fleshside was stufffed and waxed with lanolin and lampblack.

The true vintage shoes (or at least boots made from that leather) took a great shine...almost patent in nature. But the process for producing wax calf and firms utilizing it disappeared some decades ago...maybe in the 1950's (?)...so what is being done today (in an attempt to reproduce the look) doesn't usually have a surface that is polishable.