A shoe fastened by a strap and one or more buckles instead of laces.
A monk strap closes with a strap and buckle instead of laces; Cheaney defines the style by its single or double-buckle fastening, and Crockett & Jones makes both. Underneath, the shoe is built much like a Derby: Crockett & Jones describes open quarters stitched to a tab point either side of the vamp, with the vamp and tongue cut as one piece, and gives the monk similar fitting qualities. It suits higher insteps, but without laces it cannot offer the same level of adjustment.
The strap goes with many treatments: Crockett & Jones lists toe-cap, wing-cap, plain-front, country and spectator monks, and Cheaney’s archive includes a monk with brogue detailing and a double monk with contrasting leathers. Cheaney describes the monk as more polished than a Derby and less ceremonial than an Oxford. A loafer, by contrast, has no fastening at all.
In job listings
Monk strap is seldom named in listings. It is the vocabulary of shoemaking roles, from production operators and cutters in a house’s workshop to the in-store artisans in a shoemaker’s boutique who handle made-to-order and made-to-measure requests and repairs. See current shoemaking roles.
