A blucher ( or , , ) is a style of

shoe A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot. They are often worn with a sock. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration and fashion. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture ...

with

open lacing A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot. They are often worn with a sock. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration and fashion. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture ...

, its

vamp The VaMP driverless car was one of the first truly autonomous cars Dynamic Vision for Perc ...

made of a single piece of leather ("one cut"), with

shoelace Shoelaces, also called shoestrings (US English) or bootlaces (UK English), are a system commonly used to secure shoes, boots, and other footwear. They typically consist of a pair of String (cord), strings or cords, one for each shoe, finished o ...

eyelets tabs sewn on top. The blucher is similar to a

derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

: both feature open lacing, in contrast to the

Oxford shoe An Oxford shoe is characterized by shoelace eyelets tabs that are attached under the vamp, a feature termed "closed lacing". This contrasts with Derbys, or bluchers, which have shoelace eyelets attached to the top of the vamp. Originally, Oxf ...

, which uses

closed lacing A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot. They are often worn with a sock. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration and fashion. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture ...

, but in the derby the upper has large quarters with eyelets sewn on top, while in the blucher the upper is made of one cut, with only the small eyelet tabs sewn on top. In

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances i ...

these terms are sometimes confused, with "blucher" also being used to refer to derby shoes, and "Oxford" also being used to refer to bluchers. The blucher is named after the 18th century Prussian field marshal

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Fürst von Wahlstatt (; 21 December 1742 – 12 September 1819), ''Graf'' (count), later elevated to ''Fürst'' (sovereign prince) von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian '' Generalfeldmarschall'' (field marshal). He earne ...

. General von Blücher commissioned a boot with side pieces lapped over the front in an effort to provide his troops with improved footwear. This design was adopted by armies across Europe.

References

Shoes {{shoe-stub