I must be passing part of my sensibility down to my 15 year old son. No interest in heels, but knows how to tie several different necktie knots.
It seems that we have been on this subject off and on for the past 10 years, but we'll drag it out again for the new guy. Otherwise, we're back to talking about lawn mowers and stuff.
We have several factors at work here, pun intended. Somebody, at some point, for some reason, made up a rule that you can't wear more than a 4 inch heel to work. In fact, I think I've heard in some cases, 4 inch is really pushing it. Somebody made up that rule, and people began to believe it. There is some logic in that, because few people can actually function normally in 4 inch heels. That's just a fact. When your shoes are preventing you from doing your job, they're too high. And by preventing, I mean if when you get up to walk across the room and the first thing people notice is that you're walking funny. For some people, that's 3 inch. For some people, they just walk funny anyway and 2 inch is too high.
Those hard and fast rules are somewhat dated. I mean look at what's happened with hair, ink, and piercings. It may seem odd to us shoe guys, but most people do not notice your shoes right away, first thing. Nobody is going to notice an extra 1/2 inch, except when the wearer can't carry them off naturally. That's why I brought up this whole subject of hitting a wall somewhere shortly above 4 1/2"--that's the point at which even the most casual observer will notice that there's something wrong with me. Therefore, my Steve Madden black pumps are completely appropriate for the office, but actual Loubie So Kates would not be. Nobody but us will notice the 10 mm difference in height, but they will notice as soon as I take more than a few steps. I believe that those of us who have taken the trouble, sometimes years of trouble, to learn how to walk and live in this silly but attractive footwear get to make up our own rules about what's appropriate for the office.