A shoe closed by a buckle instead of laces, named for men who owned almost nothing. The monk strap is menswear’s third way, and its origin story is the perfect place to inaugurate this Library’s habit of separating what is documented from what is merely retold.
The story everyone tells
It goes like this: medieval European monks, needing something sturdier than sandals for work in field and cloister, closed a leather shoe with a single strap and buckle. Centuries later the design wandered out of the monastery and onto the feet of men with considerably better wardrobes. It is a lovely story. You will find it in nearly every menswear guide ever printed, including, until recently, the ones we learned from.
What you will not easily find is a primary source. The tale travels from catalogue to blog to catalogue, each citing the last. We have gone looking; the trail thins out fast. So we file the monastery under legend: plausible, charming, unproven, and we say so, because a shop that will not tell you the truth about a story will not tell you the truth about a stitch.
What is actually documented
The monk strap’s verifiable career is a twentieth-century one, through the catalogues of English and Continental makers, where it settled into its modern role: the shoe between. More formal than most derbies, less austere than an oxford, with a strong diagonal line across the instep that laced shoes simply do not have. The single monk came first in that documented record; the double monk, two buckles and a longer strap, is the louder descendant.
The boom and the hangover
Around the 2010s the double monk became the signature shoe of the #menswear moment: every street-style photograph, every “essentials” list, usually in brown with the lower buckle rakishly undone. The boom passed, as booms do, and left the double monk with a faint aura of trying too hard. This is unfair to a fine design, but fashion debts take time to pay off. The single monk sailed through untouched, which tells you something about restraint.
Wearing one now
A dark single monk in calf is a legitimate suit shoe, quieter than its reputation and more interesting than a third pair of oxfords. A double monk is at its best below flannel or well-cut odd trousers, where its extra hardware reads as intent rather than costume. It remains, simply, the buckled shoe: the shoe for the man who has decided laces are someone else’s uniform.
See it in the Commission RoomThe Monk 723, double buckled, hand welted, from €665: compose yours in the Commission Room.Compose a pair →Are monk straps formal shoes?
They sit between the oxford and the derby: more formal than most derbies, less austere than an oxford. A dark single monk in calf works with a suit; a double monk is at its best with flannel and odd trousers.
Single monk or double monk?
The single is the quieter, older-money choice and easier to wear with tailoring. The double makes a stronger diagonal statement and became a signature of 2010s menswear, which is either a recommendation or a warning depending on your taste.
Did monk straps really come from monks?
The story is told everywhere and documented almost nowhere. We treat it as legend: charming, plausible, unproven. What is documented is the model’s twentieth-century rise through English and Continental makers.