What do Prada’s autumn/winter 2023 runway and Kate Middleton have in common? Train your gaze on the feet of the Milanese fashion house’s models, and you’ll find your exceptionally well-heeled answer. After seasons of foot frosting – when it was a case of the more outré your embellishment, the better – the black court shoe (a longtime wardrobe staple of the Princess of Wales), has click-clacked its way back onto the catwalks.
And it’s not just at Prada, where Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons delivered a pair of black court shoes with a razor sharp point that managed to be both exceptional and quotidian. Other notable styles for autumn/winter 2023? Like the soundtrack of purring cats at Christopher Kane’s show, editors were murmuring with pleasure over his pared-back courts. The shoes told a similar story at No21, Tory Burch, Huishan Zhang and Moschino (even if Jeremy Scott’s iteration had heels that pooled like black ink – inspired by Dalí’s melting clocks).
Admittedly, the plain black court can get a bad rap. We associate them with harassed city workers conforming to archaic pencil-skirt-and-heels dress codes, swapping their toe-clamping pumps for comfy trainers the second they leave the office to brave the commute. But just like designers for autumn/winter 2023, British Vogue’s contributing editor Ellie Pithers has rediscovered their appeal. To attend British Vogue’s 2023 Fashion & Film Party at the weekend, she wore a pair of black suede 85mm Louboutin court shoes that had been in her wardrobe for two years. “Suddenly, something felt quite chic about a pointed black toe peeping out from under a floor-sweeping hemline,” says Ellie, whose “Kate” heels were named for Ms Moss. “Maybe more crisp and sophisticated than an open-toe sandal. I’ve always been into quite classic shoes, I love simple ballet flats and loafers for everyday, and the court shoe feels like a palate-cleanser for evening.”
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A palate-cleanser is right – much like a lot of the other pared-back, silhouette-focused pieces that have cropped up on the autumn/winter 2023 runways thus far. The New York catwalks in particular were focused on “real” clothing: caramel pea coats at Proenza Schouler, double-breasted tailoring at Michael Kors, chunky knit dresses at Gabriela Hearst. Is the style set finally sparkled out? “So many evening shoes these days are in-your-face – covered in crystals and feathers and straps,” Pithers adds. “Of course those are fun to wear. But they can also make you feel a bit like a clown if you’re not in the mood. With courts there’s something elegant about a clean, streamlined silhouette.”
Now the court shoe is well and truly back on the catwalks, and the oft-overlooked pump suddenly looks loaded with an appeal that extends well beyond the office nine-to-five. Forget the trainers; commuters might just keep these heels on all the way home.
