Court shoe

A court shoe (British English), or pump (American English), is a shoe with a low-cut front, the vamp, and without a fastening. They are usually worn by women, but are still traditional menswear in some formal situations, where the style is sometimes called an opera slipper or patent pump. Pumps with a strap across the instep are called Mary Janes. Pumps may have an ankle strap.

Pumps for women are usually heeled. The shape has varied through time. In the UK, in 2007, a closed toe and wide (non-stiletto) heel were worn by the very fashion-conscious, but most still wore stilettos of mainly 'kitten' height to medium height.

In the UK, outside the fashion trade, the term "pumps" would normally imply flat or low-heel dancing or ballerina pumps, or even rubber-soled canvas plimsolls. In the U.S., "pumps" exclusively refers to women's shoes with a kitten or higher heel.

Pumps can be made from any material, but traditional patent leather is popular. Pumps are mostly worn with a suit or a uniform, but are also worn with formal and informal dresses, skirts, trousers, and jeans. White, stiletto-heeled pumps are the standard attire with swimsuits in beauty pageants.

Pumps are also part of the costume of a ballroom dancer. They are made of satin, usually tan, though other colors are made as well, and worn on both the competition and practice floors.

In the Regency period, during the day upper-class gentlemen in western Europe wore dress boots, and boots or pumps by night, which accompanied silk knee-high stockings and breeches. The shoes originally had silver cut-steel buckles, but these were removed by the influence of Brummell, and a square grosgrain bow was added. By Victorian times, evening footwear was pumps when there would be dancing or music (hence the name opera shoe or opera slipper), and patent leather dress boots otherwise. Pumps remained as standard with evening full dress until the 1930s. At that time, the dress boot was also going out of fashion, as laced shoes began to be worn at all times.

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