This topic can be complex. Few things in shoedom are as baffling as understanding how the waist and its edges should be addressed correctly, where once defined as one thing has since morphed into another and its meaning changed with each new meaning-changing moment. Here, I aim to clarify everything as best as I can.
Waists in particular are of immense interest in dress shoe culture, and this trend spans from entry level Goodyear welted shoes all the way up to fully handmade bespoke styles. Although it might appear strange at first, waists can add beauty and truly highlight craftsmanship; their impact can often exceed what outsiders perceive.
When discussing waists, there are certain terms commonly used, yet often misunderstood and used incorrectly. One reason for all the confusion stems from how some words once meant something different for various parts of this industry while their original definitions still hold. I will do my best to make clear what these three mean, square waist, bevelled waist and fiddle back waists in this piece. Let’s find its details.
This term may be the least complicated one we will discuss here, yet still has potential causes of confusion. What one must understand is that all three waist types square, bevelled and fiddle back waists – originally only applied to the edge of the waist (although I will refer predominantly to British shoemaking terminology and June Swann’s descriptions in particular for my historical references; translation and usage may differ in other areas); thus a square waist occurs when its edge has an acute, square-like form.
Square Waist
Preparing to make a square waist requires several steps. When stitching, ensure the welt maintains its thickness throughout and that its protrusion protrudes both horizontally from upper waist area as well as in waist area being horisontal to ground surface.
As for the soles, one should preserve as much substance of their stamped or cut out soles from hide as possible when stamped or cut out to maintain a relatively flat surface, again typically horizontal to the ground (though occasionally rounding areas under the ball of foot where walking bends occur into an ever so slightly convex shape to allow flattening over time). Sole stitch and welt finishing continues in an orderly manner from heel back, or for 360deg welts also around this point. Tools or machines must then be used to ensure sharp and square-shaped edges, as seen with well-made square waists which feature two 90 deg angles with marked, sharp edges.
Following this logic, the natural bottom of a square waist with all its sharp angles and straight lines would naturally be flat, going horizontal with the ground. One could achieve an unconventionally square waist by modifying its sole area so as to have slightly rounded convex edges instead.
Bevelled waist
Bevelled waist is an often misunderstood term today that was first popularized 100-150 years ago. By looking at shoemaking’s industrialisation process and following along as its language has transformed accordingly. We still witness traditional terminology being used by those still using traditional terms while others have modified this to mean something entirely different, often taking over its original meaning altogether and creating further confusion.
To summarize, one needs to alter the insole slightly by making its holdfast lip narrower at waist level. As with a square waist style, these shoes must be welted similarly; however, to achieve a tighter silhouette at the waist area. Once stitched, remove part of the welt edge, leaving just enough space for stitching soles later on. The outsole was then thinned thinner toward the outsides of the waist sides so as to have a rounded bottom shape due to slanting towards its edges, with it covering what we know today as blind welting in the waist area. When stitching the sole stitch at waist level, one should stitch more sparsely so that both welt and upper part of seam can be covered by sole.
Furthermore, one should always have a closed channel on bottom which hides sole stitch even from below. This gives an elegantly rounded waist which is narrow and sleek when seen from all sides. If a more extreme bevelled waist with higher center and more slanted sides is desired, one may build-up the area between shank and outsole, often using strips of leather, to increase stability if required (especially narrow waists) while also creating what we call today a fiddle back waist (ridged bottom center).
One can witness, looking back to literature from early 1900’s (sadly there’s not much from before then), such as Golding’s legendary eight volumes on boots and shoemaking, how people mostly only talked about bevelled waists; their blind weltedness being part of the package. By mid century blind welt was introduced as an additional descriptive term to make things clearer; from there things evolved further.
Factories often make factory made shoes with machine sole stitching that, to save costs and make production more efficient and thereby cheaper, require similar styles but without blind welt-edges that create bevelled waists. One way of accomplishing this look would be rounding off edges or trimming thinner towards edges to achieve a similar appearance, although as mentioned previously these won’t look exactly the same as their bevelled predecessors due to machine sole stitching processes and limitations of blind welt-edges being unachievable due to machine sole stitching technology being limited by machine sole stitching machines and essentially being cheaper in production processes compared to manually made bevelled waists being bevelled using blind welt-edges which would look closer in terms of their similarities when worn manually when hand stitched by machines instead.
Over time, however, the interpretation of “bevelled waist” has changed in certain corners of classic shoe culture and certain countries. Today, waists with rounded bottoms are typically known as bevelled waists; often in conjunction with other beveled elements or simply having one with a rounded edge of the waist can also qualify as being beveled waists. Beveled waists remain popular today among most bespoke shoemakers and certain RTW/MTO brands that produce waists by hand; often this technique is simply called bevelled waist, sometimes “with blind welt” added, etc. Though one can find “proper” bevelled waists with blind welt and relatively straight sides that go against its original meaning, adding further confusion by being used for various things; new terms have further contributed to it all.
Fiddleback waist
This term has evolved farthest from its original meaning, which is fascinating. Perhaps due to how outdated its look has become in modern society; perhaps due to how fiddling back waist has lost all meaning over time; perhaps due to how fiddling waist means something different now than it once did (ie: with its characteristic ridge on the middle bottom of waistband today compared to what one used to refer to when using fiddle waist or fiddle back waist). Historically though it referred to something else altogether.
Fiddle waist was originally only used to describe bevelled waists where paint from the edges continued into the sides. Enhancing a narrow waist would likely look best with black fancy shoes that could create this effect; seen from below it would look like the center of an hourglass, often featuring extremely slanted edges. Bottoms could either be round, or have an indented ridge; having both was not essential in order for it to qualify as a fiddle back waist. Think about it; fiddle waist is quite logical when considered from this angle. Violins generally feature rounded backs with very prominent, inward-curved, marked waists; therefore the term fiddle waist was likely coined to describe this particular waist design.
As previously discussed, shoes with narrow fiddle back waists look very elegant and neat; some would call the effect feminine. Unfortunately, this look didn’t really survive into the mid-19th century and later on; instead waists with marked ridges took over as fiddle back waists became popular among all walks of society today. At first, fiddle back waists consisted of bevelled waists with painted edge coming into long lines on either side; often combined with more slanted edges; always with blind welt and round bottom; with or without marked ridge.
Read more about shoe anatomy.
Summary
Unfortunately, as can be seen here, waist definition is somewhat messy and disorganized; however, I believe it to be less of a source of contention than other terms such as “handcrafted”, since those terms carry much greater value and many use them despite knowing it to be stretching the definition too far. With waists, it’s more about descriptive terms; though of course it helps if everyone understands exactly what another means when using specific words, these have evolved with time so as to become descriptive more of aesthetics than function than anything else. So here it all is as concise and didactically possible:
Square waist
A square waist, historically speaking, refers to any waist with square edges with two 90deg edges and visible sole stitch. No matter the shape of its bottom edge.
Today it refers to any waist with square sole edges, two 90deg edges and fully visible sole stitch etc on top of welt. In some instances, even flat bottom waists may be considered square waists even though their edges may be rounded off slightly.
Bevelled waist
Bevelled waist is historically defined as: A relatively narrow or very narrow waist wherein the outsole has been thinned out on the flesh side towards its edges and formed with slanted edges covering both the welt and upper part of sole stitch. The bottom shape could either be round, have ridges etc.
Today it means: Sometimes the same as above. Sometimes it refers to whether the bottom of the waist has rounded waist edges while other times only the edges themselves are rounded.
Fiddle back waists
Fiddle back waists historically refer to narrow waists with painted sides that create the appearance of an hour-glass silhouette, creating the appearance of being very narrow waisted with painted sides that give an hour glass shape. They are typically only seen on waists known as bevelled waists often ones with very slanted edges, however originally only concerned the paint and not its bottom shape, which could either be round, have a ridge etc.
