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Ten years I was at an indoor University's special division graduation (not the main campus graduation where it snowed). Many of the women wore high heels. It was clear, many of them had no idea how to walk in them.

Yes regular practice or wearing is crucial - even if your heels fit well and are nicely made, you still need to be wearing them reasonably often to develop or maintain the feel of wearing them.

Interesting that this conversation should come up once again, but in a slightly different way. Just yesterday I was setting up our tent at the farmer's market, and our neighbor vendor, a thin, fit-looking middle aged woman who sells fresh baked bread, said to me, "I just don't understand how you can do manual labor in heels. I could never do that!" By "manual labor," she meant setting up the tent and tables, &c. I told her that I'd been working at it for over 12 years, and maybe that had something to do with it. Full disclosure: What I was actually wearing was wedge sandals with a slight heel, effectively a 2 1/4". I wouldn't call them flats, but almost. As it turns out, this woman evidently used to wear heels all the time "for dress up occasions." Like all of us have heard a hundred times before. It doesn't explain everything, but it accounts for a good deal of it. Occasional wear is never going to get you the comfort and endurance you want, in the same way that picking up the guitar once a month is never going to make you a decent guitarist. In addition to this, you're tempted to buy a cheap instrument, which doesn't usually help your playing either. I never quite know how to respond to these kinds of things, because I am quite sure that I like to talk about all things high heel considerably more than most people. Since I don't want to seem like a crushing bore, I usually cut the conversation off short. In this case, I did not have to do so because at that very moment, the wind picked up suddenly, and I had to physically grab on to my tent to keep it from skating across the parking lot and blowing into the next county. This despite having double the usual amount of weight on each leg. Naturally, the conversation immediately shifted to whether this little squall was going to pass quickly, or should we just go home.

I think your take on the experience most people - women - have with high heels is accurate. Presented as occasional footwear, and with their sole initial experience likely to be something cheap and ill fitting, it’s not likely they would be drawn to trying new and better fitting pairs and styles. One and done. only those who are naturally drawn to them - aesthetically, emotionally or for whatever other reason - are likely to persist. As with anything, you tend to get what you pay for. Although I have heard of expensive shoes being duds, by and large you need to spend more, for better more stable designs, reliable and consistent fit, and better materials - high quality leather and suede. i am fortunate enough to gave a couple pair of custom made boots. The craftsmanship, fit and leathers are beautiful, well worth the money. I’d rather have fewer pair of heels, but comfortable, stylish and well fitting than a closet full of painful ones.

I think fit and function are what dooms the high heel industry. Having raised six daughters almost everyone of them wore heels for the first time at their Junior Prom, a right of passage for a high schooler here in the USA anyway. But since they might grow out of them, and being for a singular event where they would only be worn for a few hours, they were all chosen entirely for how they looked with my daughter's dress. They therefore were cheap and ill-fitting. That was how they were introduced to wearing high heels and it really never got better for them. Most of the time the only time they wear high heels beyond their junior prom which was to weddings and other special occasions. Again the high heels chosen for a singular event and chosen for how they looked and not fit and comfort. This causes many problems. The first is that they learned by experience that high heels were uncomfortable to wear. The other issue is, being chosen for how they looked and costs, properly fitting heels are hard to find. The girls went to the local shoe store where there was a crappy selection of heels to buy and none were expensive because people were not buying expensive, well-fitting heels. And when they bought them off the internet, they were bought based on style and color and not about to be sent back because they did not fit well. "It was only for one evening" was the statement made. My wife, she is a little different. She loves high heels, but struggles to find good ones. When she does find a pair that is comfortable, she wears them exclusively, and I tended to notice these are often the most expensive ones. But the quality retail shops are closed now, and only crappy, ill-fitting ones grace the local chains that are still open.

In a lighthearted way I’ve made heels part of my office dress code - since I work from home I can wear what I like and so why not heels? There’s purpose in it too though. I’ve always tried to make it a point to get dressed for work, even though my office is my kitchen table. It can be easy and tempting to slob around in track suit bottoms and T-shirt, but to succeed in working from home you need to create a businesslike atmosphere, to remind yourself that it’s a work day. You don’t need to wear a tie or anything, just make an effort to put on something that communicates to yourself that you’re now at work. What fun it is to do that with stilettos

The only dress code I can think of in regards to shoe-dress-codes are airline stewardesses. The last I knew they were required to wear heels while in public settings. I think it was a two inch heel height minimum, but honestly I can see no reason why they could not be allowed to wear flats if they wanted too. I do not like the look of flats myself, but am not into forcing anyone to wear something they loath either. An interesting note about their dress code too is that they do not actually wear pantyhose/tights but instead wear compression nylons because of the constant pressure and depressuring they are subjected too. It does not matter so much for only a few flights a year, but a career of it can be damaging to a person's circulatory system. Because of that they were once required to wear them, but I think that requirement has eased up. Mostly because they are not paid that well and so many just wore regular pantyhose/tights which were NOT compression ones because they were much cheaper but their employers were none the wiser just looking at them. And in a fire situation several stewardesses sustained severe leg burns when the nylon melted onto their legs in a crash.

I think that visually speaking five inch heels are the most elegant - any higher and the proportions start to look wrong, but at five inch or 12cm you reach an ideal combination of height and sophistication. The aesthetics are perfect. Actually walking in them, let alone wearing them all day, is something else. But visually they’ll have strong appeal

Those are both bad, but any heel on rough gravel.

Good find! I love the "why 5 inch heels" section, commercials were so different back then. Funny that they were advertised like that, even though they were very uncommon back then as you say.

The black ones look really good, but I also like multicolor ones from the last picture very much!

I voted for cobbled streets because that's what I encounter most. What's also very bad, but doesn't happen to me that often is stiletto heels on grass.

Very nice. Too bad pumps don't like my toe box. I returned my red croc and got a size 11 Bela from Freebird Shoes. Unfortunately, those don't fit either. But I can't return them, Freebird shoes is in receivership.

I got these the other day in a thrift store for less than $20. The brand is Aldo. And the heel is 4.5". The colour is a fine, almost tweed like grey. It reminds me of the snow that you use to get on your TV. They are very roomy and comfortable, but not loose.

Cool!

I’m glad you had a nice visit. Sounds like your trip is going really well!

TBG is certainly missed here.

Hello from Kentucky! I finally got the chance to meet TBG in person after at least 7 years of online/phone communication. We played a lot of music together. My son proved that he can largely keep up with us, even at only 16 years old. Sorry to be a little cryptic, but I want to protect the man’s privacy. Those who know, know. I know many wonder what happened to him.

I love my suede knee high stiletto boots as well. And I also wear them in the summer with shorts.

It is quite frustrating. as I say, I’ve never encountered another man wearing stilettos - I’ve seen one or two in chunky heeled ankle boots - but I do wonder how many are out there who would like to try wearing heels or are curious about them. I’m sure there are a lot, but the vast majority would never dare to express an interest, let alone buy a pair of heels to try. I know it took me a long time to get up the courage to buy some heels, even though I’d wanted to try for years.

I know what you mean. I always feel slightly deflated after taking off my heels at the end of the day. I'm confident they will keep making heels - it just depends on styles. I am quite fussy in that regard. I really like classical styles, simple clean lines, nothing flamboyant.

I'm fortunate in being a freelance and working from home - I can wear what I please without reference to anyone, and have made eels more or less my office dress code.

I literally wouldn't even know what to wear to the office if it wasn't heels.

I never thought of it that way, because I never knew any men who'd like to wear heels. That's sad that you (men) who want this have to deal with such boundaries. And most the women who'd have the opportunities don't use them. But yeah, I'm sure this will turn at some point.

That's a good point, I also think that flats will become too boring (for me, they already are/always been) and then people will seek for something more exciting again. As long as they're still producing heels I can get through that dull phase 😀