Formal Buckle Shoes

[OC Richard]

This buckle brogue thing just turns my stomach. The bad taste might be that my town here in New England has a thong called Olde Sturbridge Village and they reproduce the colonial days of old America and these shoes just smack of the pilgrim look rounded buckle or not.

This association between Highland buckle brogues and American pilgrims is something which had never occured to me, not being raised in New England.

It can be seen in The Highlanders of Scotland that in the 1860s "Mary Janes" were far more popular than ghillies.

Of the 55 men wearing visible shoes (one is wearing spats), 25 are wearing Mary Jane style shoes (though some use laces rather than buckles), 11 wearing ghillies, 10 ordinary shoes, 5 buckle loafers, and 3 ankle boots.

Old photos I have suggest, however, that pipers were more likely to wear ghillies than non-pipers in the 19th century.