The court shoe comeback: This royal favourite may have fallen from favour in recent years but after a revival on the autumn catwalks, early adopter Laura Craik welcomes her old friend back into the fashion fold

Remember court shoes? Few would blame you if you don’t. Outside royal circles, they have fallen completely out of fashion in recent years. 

Unless you are a princess or a queen, yours are probably languishing in a dusty shoe graveyard at the back of your wardrobe.

But fashion is nothing if not reliably cyclical, and this season it has decreed that court shoes are to make a comeback; one so seismic and unexpected as to give Rick Astley performing Smiths covers at Glastonbury a run for its money. 

Like Rick, court shoes ruled the 1980s, worn by pop stars (The Bangles) and princesses (Diana) alike. ‘Never gonna give you up,’ we trilled, hobbling home in our white/fuchsia/electric blue ones after a night on the tiles. 

Only we did give them up, when the siren call of platform mules, chunky trainers and other 90s footwear trends proved too loud to ignore.

This season, however, the cleverest designers have realised that when it comes to wearing heels again, we have to be eased in gently. Stock image used

As we all know, clumpy trainers have proved something of a keeper. Even if they aren’t your thing, you’re likely to have spent far longer than you realise dressed in sports shoes of some sort. 

Nor have they done as much of a disappearing act, post-pandemic, as everyone expected: they’re too comfy, too practical, too easy to wear. 

Despite designers trying to persuade us to embrace their polar opposite – fancy, strappy, complicated, vertiginous heels – these felt like too big a step in the other direction, way out of our comfort zone. 

The predicted return of the glamorous ‘roaring twenties’ never happened, and even when we did dress up, we teamed our finery with flat shoes.

This season, however, the cleverest designers have realised that when it comes to wearing heels again, we have to be eased in gently. We want simplicity, not straps; classic design, not clunky embellishments. 

We want court shoes, the plainer the better. Which is why Miuccia Prada – a woman who can always be relied upon to read the room – sent out black leather ones with a pointed toe and a mid-heel. 

A similar style was in evidence at Christopher Kane, though his were a shade shinier, worn with equally shiny bare legs and a pencil skirt. Other iterations of the classic black court shoe appeared at Moschino, Tory Burch, Huishan Zhang and No 21.

As someone who bought her first pair of black court shoes aged 12, it’s fair to say that I’m a fan. Shopping for school shoes before the start of the new academic year, I felt cowed by the square, municipal lace-ups, loafers and Mary Janes proffered by Clarks and Start-Rite, so I dragged my mother to Dolcis, where the shoes were half the price and twice as fashionable. 

So what if I spent my final year of primary school digging my toes into a pair of fake leather court shoes with 3cm heels? So what if my wafer-thin feet kept slipping out of them in the playground? Bunions be damned: they were chic and that’s what mattered.

They weren’t chic, of course: they were cheap and plastic, and I probably looked like Edinburgh’s answer to child beauty pageant star Honey Boo Boo. 

What can I say? Many years later, I would become a fashion editor, whose job it was to explore and explain the nuances of fashion to a readership that often violently disagreed with me in the comments section. 

At 12, I was yet to develop the vocabulary to express the pleasure I felt upon gazing down at an ankle devoid of straps, and noting how languorously the line from knee to ankle bone to foot flowed when it wasn’t cut short by laces.

Court shoes felt like a portal to an adult world: Pam Ewing in Dallas, Pepsi & Shirlie frolicking with Wham!, Princess Diana with the globe at her feet and the paparazzi on her doorstep.

While Diana was an avowed fan, in more recent times courts haven’t even been reliably championed by princesses. 

The current Princess of Wales doesn’t wear them as often as she used to, preferring wedge heels for their superior comfort and stability. Instead, it has fallen to the Duchess of Sussex to fly the flag for court shoes, in an array of hues that run the gamut from practical black to racy red via subtle beige. 

So devoted is the Duchess to her heels that one wonders whether, when she removes them at night, her foot is left in a permanent arch like Barbie’s.

Where princesses, duchesses and Miuccia Prada lead, the high street inevitably follows. Sure enough, there is a wealth of black courts to choose from this autumn, at prices to suit all pockets. 

For evening, Reiss has Gwyneth (£198), a leather pair with embossed crocodile print and an elegant 8.5cm heel. If suede is your thing, Corie (£145) from Whistles may fit the bill. For high shine patent, try

LK Bennett, whose Floret (£249) also comes with an 8.5cm heel. M&S has two iterations: one a 7.8cm heel (£29.50), another with a 5cm option (£45). 

If money is no object, Prada’s catwalk-endorsed pair are £865, or try the king of courts, Christian Louboutin, whose designs for autumn range from the classic 8.5cm leather Kate (£690) to the toe-curling 10cm patent Iriza (£645).

If you prefer to shop online rather than in-store, a word of caution. Type ‘court shoe’ into your search engine and you’re likely to be confronted by a screen of trainers – yet more proof of their ubiquity, and of how stridently they have usurped their 80s namesakes. 

When I searched ‘court shoes’ on TikTok, I was fleetingly convinced of their return to favour by noting the hashtag had 14.2 million views. Which it does – for trainers.

Type ‘court shoes’ by all means, but also search for ‘pumps’, which, confusingly, is what Americans call them even if, to Brits, a pump is a flat ballerina shoe. You should also try ‘stilettos’.

Complex as the terminologies are, the shoes themselves are pleasingly simple. They may not be as comfy as a trainer, but with a bit of thought, they can become just as much of a staple, with an added shot of elegance.

How to wear them now  

There’s a court shoe for all occasions – Lila Flint Roberts picks the best

Cocktail hour

This year’s Christopher Kane redux involves wearing them with classic 80s shapes such as puffballs, pencil skirts and strapless dresses. Bare legs essential.

£129, kurtgeiger.com

Work it 9-5

 Take a leaf out of the Duchess of Sussex’s book and wear with pencil skirts and shirt or slim-fit trousers and an oversized blazer. Both are office appropriate.

£140, whistles.com

Brunch ready

 Heels? On a weekend? Yes, if they’re low enough to be comfy when worn for longer. Courts can elevate a pair of jeans, and work well with bootcut styles

£28, next.co.uk