Ian's Shoelace Site - Roman Lacing

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Ian's Shoelace Site

Roman Lacing
Alternating X-I-X-I on top of the shoe, which looks a little like Roman numerals. It's most effective on dress shoes where the sides of the shoe meet in the middle. Note that the lacing technique depends on the number of eyelets in the shoe. This is because an "X" and an "I" form an odd number of passes across the sides of the shoe, and an even number is needed for the lace ends to meet and to be tied together.
Faint sections are underneath This shoe has seven pairs of eyelets, hence it uses a slightly different technique to that shown above. IXIX Roman Laced dress shoe. More Lacing Photos	Lacing Technique: 6 Eyelets = XIXI: 1. The lace is fed into the bottom left eyelet, runs vertically (grey section) and emerges from the next eyelet above. 2. Both ends are crossed over each other on top of the shoe and are fed into the two eyelets on the bottom right side. 3. The bottom (yellow) end runs straight up the right side, skipping one eyelet before emerging from and running across the third set of eyelets. 4. The left (yellow) end, which was fed into the third eyelet, now runs straight up the left side and emerges from the fourth eyelet. 5. The right (blue) end runs straight up the right side, skipping one eyelet before emerging from the fourth eyelet. 6. Both ends are crossed over each other on top of the shoe and are fed into the fifth pair of eyelets. 7. Both ends run straight up the shoe and emerge from the top eyelets, where they are tied to form the final "I". Features: Decorative look Suits dress shoes Harder to tighten Comparative Length = 77% Laced area uses less (about −23%) Shorter laces needed (about −11%) Lengthens lace ends (about +21%) More details NOTE: If this 6-eyelet-pair technique is started with an "I" straight across the bottom, the lacing becomes "IXIX" instead of "XIXI" (the exact reverse). The main difference is that the lace ends finish up inside the shoe on the left side like Hidden Knot Lacing, which looks distinctive but is quite tricky to tie and can feel uncomfortable. Many of the variations of Roman Lacing can also be reversed in order to finish up with the lace ends on the inside at the top of the shoe (like Display Shoe Lacing), which is a little easier to tie than when they are hidden under the side of the shoe.

Techniques For 3 to 14 Eyelet Pairs
Here's some simple diagrams for Roman Lacing on shoes having between 3 and 14 pairs of eyelets. The light yellow "X" and "I" sections are on top whilst the dark grey sections are underneath. Many diagrams can also be reversed to give even more variations.
3		4	OR
5		6
7
8	OR OR
9
10	OR
11
12
13
14	OR OR

These techniques can be extended to suit any number of eyelet pairs by adding another "XIXI" or "IXIX" to the start of the lacing. For example, adding "XIXI" to the technique for 9 eyelet pairs will give the technique for 15 eyelet pairs.

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