A Little History of Victorian/Edwardian Cloth-Top Button Boots

We’ll have Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island too! Isn’t it lovely to have cloth-top button boots! Built on the same last and heel as the uber-popular Tavistock all-leather boots, the lighter cloth-top Manhattans are a perfect choice for summer and fall attire. The beautiful combination of cloth and leather means that these boots transition perfectly from one season to the next. When did they come into fashion, you might be wondering, and how did they compare in popularity to all-leather button boots? Here’s a little deep dive into how cloth-top button boots earned their spot in fashion history…

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Cloth-topped boots, sometimes called “galoshes,” developed from early leather-and-fabric gaiter styles. You’re all familiar with the early and mid-Victorian foxed booties with bits of leather on the toes and sometimes heels – this practicality continued into the late Victorian period with the heel and toe foxing eventually meeting so the whole bottom of the boot was leather.

Part of this was also fashion. Women’s cloth-topped boots came along a little after men’s, as the popularity of women’s tailor-made, menswear-inspired clothing grew. In addition, women were participating in more sports and often wore spats for activities such as cycling. Sporting fashion carried over into daywear, with boots like these combining the shoe + spat look.

Cloth-top boots became widely fashionable in the 1890s and reached the height of their popularity between 1910 and 1914 (Rexford, 2000). Tone-on-tone colors such as black, tan, and white were popular as well as two-tone versions such as black/gray, brown/tan, and black/white.

By the late 19-teens, button boots in general were falling out of fashion, with the very last persisting to the early 1920s. (I noticed in the “Everyday Fashions” Sears Catalog books that the illustrated models are still wearing what appear to be either two-tone button boots or spats over shoes until 1921, but not afterwards except for a rubber rainboot overshoe with side buttons in 1922.)

As always, our Manhattan boots are based on original examples. An original black-on-black pair stood for the patterning of our reproductions.

The Manhattans share a last with Tavistock and will fit the same. The heel is the same shape and height – 2 inches – but is covered with leather in a faux stacked design. The soles of Manhattan are real leather with a double thickness under the ball of the foot, and a welt top stitch. You can fit the ankle and leg by moving the buttons, either taking them in or letting them out: there is a 1.5 / 3.8 cm inch overlap on the button fly to allow this.

Our Manhattan Boots come in six beautiful colors: black/black, tan/brown, grey/black before, black/oxblood, black/ivory, and the wildcard, the French blue/ivory, which is indeed a historical color combo!

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Get your very own pair of Manhattan Boots on AmericanDuchess.com!

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References:

Rexford, Nancy E. Women’s Shoes in America, 1795-1930. Kent, OH: Kent State UP, 2000. Print.

Blum, Stella. Everyday Fashion of the Twenties. N.p.: Dover Publications, 1981. Print.

Olian, JoAnne. Everyday Fashions, 1909-1920: As Pictured in Sears Catalogs. New York: Dover, 1995. Print.