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It just so happens that Halloween is my wedding anniversary and this year, I wore a pair of faux suede, just OTK boots with a leather skirt to dinner.

Yes four inch heels does have a ring to it. Here in Britain we use both measurements regularly. Our speed limit signs are in mph, but we guy our food in grams and kilos. We measure our height in feet and inches and talk about our weight in pounds and stone. Screws and bolts are metric, as are most tools. We buy petrol in litres but talk of miles per gallon. It can be weird. a mile walk in 10cm heels - to continue our mixed use if measurements - is impressive. The weather was vile out today so I went nowhere but wore my 10cm heels indoors all day. I should have worn my 12cm but I was lazy and the 10cm are so easy to walk in. It felt really odd, deflating, to take them off at the end of the day.

Is anyone interested in a "Best Dressed" contest for 2026? If so, respond and I will be happy to organize it all! I'm in with an intent to give others (i.e. @CAT) a run for his stilettos! The photo is a picture of some new pumps from this past summer.

Hey All, Read recently that wedge heels may come back big time in 2026. Recent sitings at fashion shows suggest this. Has always been one of my absolute favorites. Enclosed are two different looks with high wedge heels, 5.5”/16 cm or more, with a dress and skinny jeans. I’ll try to post more as I love this style and not many post about them though I do remember our favorite Iowan, Mlroseplant, talking about them. HinH

I, too, love wedges. To me, however, they seem to be more of a summer shoe but I do have a pair of wedge knee-high boots that I love. I tend to think that when worn "properly" wedges can be just as alluring as a pair of stilettos, as illustrated by my photo.

Hi Heelguypa! I think any of the "regular" members can appreciate your feelings. First, those Larina heels are wickedly gorgeous! If did not have seemingly 300 pairs of shoes and boots, you better believe that I would pick-up a pair! When it comes to wearing heels out in public, there is "a lot" of advice on this forum about how to approach doing so - all of it good. Any man/male who has ever worn a pair of heels out in public knows exactly how you feel, and any one of them will tell you that the first time doing so is always the hardest. Trust me when I say that it gets easier the more you do it. I recommend that you read through those posts on the "for the guys" part of it as there are many great stories and encouragement about doing so. If it was not for this forum and the stories of others I read some time ago, I probably would have never summoned the courage to take that first step - literally. Now, rarely can I head out in a pair of heels without receiving a compliment. I have said this in many previous posts but it is always worth repeating - "Those that mind don't matter and those that matter don't mind." The photo included is the outfit I wore to work to day. So yes - it can be done and doing so is one step at a time. The outfit: Boots/Jessica Simpson Tulip; Boot chains from Shoebidoo (out of Utrecht).

We’ve had light flurries and a hard frost - enough for the towpath to harden even if the puddles are now iced over. There’s no way anyone would risk their heels or their ankles trying to walk on that surface in stilettos, but it was nice to be able to go for a stroll in my blocky heeled knee boots! @higherheels I’m impressed that you’re making progress in those lofty new boots of yours. I can see how the progression in heights - normal heels, Hot Chicks and then the new boots would help. Because if my time practicing in my 12cm boots my 10cm feel wonderfully easy. I’m really pleased by that.

I thought I must include my most durable stilettos in this thread, even though the total mileage is not all that impressive. My Shoedazzle rainbow mules are among the most comfortable truly high heels that I own. Even though they measure every bit of 4 5/8" without a platform, they feel very natural to walk in, and I have caught myself walking further than I intended more than once. As I have said on several occasions in the past, I don't normally wear stilettos for actual walking because I don't really find it all that fun, having to watch out exactly where I'm stepping every second. Nevertheless, I've managed 32 miles in these particular stilettos, and at some point I'll probably put a few more on. Part of the reason why I chose these for longer distance walking is because I wanted to do an experiment a couple of years ago to see if in fact I could make a pair of heel tips last a decent amount of time with a gentler style of walking. The answer to the question was yes. I was able to squeeze 16 miles out of a set of tips when my previous average was 8. For comparison, a thicker heel will last me four times that distance. While these shoes are easy to walk in, they do have their drawbacks. The nylon mesh fabric that the uppers are made of does tend to rub the feet raw if you're walking any real distance, so I need to make sure I use bandaids if I'm going for an actual walk. With a little bit of forethought and preparation, these are two mile shoes.

I had a similar experience with a pair of boots I’d not worn in ages. The fit felt awkward for no obvious reason.

Very impressive to walk in those! I think I’d be lucky to stand upright! im back to my block heeled OTK boots as the cold weather has settled in here. Down to -4°C at night. Getting up in the morning it’s very nice to be able to put on heavy suede OTK boots. My stilettos are thinner and not so warm!

Ah, yes I've also seen her on the Fuss-Schuhe Shop when I looked for the older videos I remembered. She's also very skilled! I agree with you that this isn't a typical "walk" anymore, but it's still impressive. Such extreme heels are probably made for photoshootings only and to show what's possible, I don't think anyone uses them for normal things like we use our heels. I'm a big fan of pointed toes, but I also don't like the super long ones. Despite the extreme height I actually like both heels from the videos, the peeptoes even a bit more.

Different lady. Here is some video of of the Dutch woman on Instagram. They are much shorter videos, and tend to be centered around artwork. I'm not sure what kind of a deal she's got going with Fuss shoes, but she does occasionally show up on their promotional material, and ver1astyle does seem to own a lot of Fuss shoes lately. I rather like the shoes in the video from your example. Almost round toed. It seems like a lot of extreme heeled shoes have a super long pointy toe, which I find objectionable. With both women, what they do is rather amazing, but certainly stretches the definition of the word "walk." I personally would like to be able to get across the street before several hours pass. And I would like to eventually be able to do it in 12 cm, maybe 13. I think 15 may be impossible. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DND-eA_IJzv/?igsh=cjhxZ2tpdGU5NmQ4

That’s my plan come spring. The nearest spot for that is a town about 15 locks east of here. At the moment that would be too chancy a journey. The canal I’m on has been closed to navigation for much of the year because of a water shortage and reopened only about a month ago - mainly to allow people who were stranded in awkward places for months to move somewhere better for the winter. Nobody expects the canal to remain open for long, despite our rainy weather lately. I’m in a really good spot at the moment. I’d be nuts to move

Yes you’re right. I definitely need real world walking experience and longer, more open walking areas. Putting my boots in a backpack and hiking off to a park in town - about a mile and a half away - is the best bet. The trouble then becomes time and commitment - finding the hour and a half minimum it will take to walk to the park and back and put in a bit of practice time. To say nothing of short days up here and foul weather. It becomes so easy to decide to practice in my boat

I agree, just walking around a bit inside your boat is probably not going to help much. You really need to get out where you can take a decent walk, develop a stride, and adapt to the heels. It seem like your only choice here is to place your boots in a back pack until you get somewhere that is suitable for a decent walk. The other issue is what to do with the back pack once you find a decent spot. I have wrestled with a similar dilemma with some of my more challenging boots/heel heights. Sure, I can walk around the carpeted hotel room fairly well, but hitting the open sidewalks was another story. I would quickly tire and get soar, and I'm sure all this was showing in my strides/steps, which ultimately attracted just the type of attention I did not want. One way I have realized when I am comfortable/confident with a particular pair is when I almost forget I'm wearing them while out and about. One of my biggest issues is self confidence, so once I am proficient enough to almost forget I'm wearing them, I stop "overthinking it".

Unfortunately I don't know anything about her. Always suspected she's from Germany, but just because Fuss-Schuhe is from Germany too. But I just had a look at the Fuss-Schuhe Shop and found the videos, one for example: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KrykbpYnDJ8&pp=0gcJCR4Bo7VqN5tD

I probably need to re-vet the clogs. I have discovered that I definitely don't like wearing any pair of shoes two days in a row, but the other extreme is probably worse--not wearing them at all for months and months. I got a chance to wear my Vince Camuto pumps last week, and it was like there was never any vacation there--they fit perfectly and were very comfortable from the outset. I also got them reheeled! They kind of needed it.

@Puffer I have a size 37. We found out that apparently most manufacturers rate their heel height at size 38 or so. This means that if you have a smaller size you'll get a lower heel and if you have a bigger size a higher heel, so the steepness is the same. The Hot Chicks are a good example - advertised as a 130 mm heel (probably in size 38). In my size 37 with a 12,7 cm heel and in mlroseplant's size 40 a 13,7 cm heel. I think your girlfriend was an exceptional talent in heels. Her 14 cm heels would mean something like 13 cm in standard size, so like the Louboutin Hot Chick again. I was well used to high heels when I got mine, and yes I was able to walk in them from the very beginning. But it was not an elegant/comfortable walk in a way that I would've worn them out immediately 😉 And I've seen so many other women struggling to walk in something like a 7 cm heel. So I think there is some kind of natural talent for walking in heels, and your girlfriend definitely had it! Generally we here are already on the top end with anything of 12 cm+, considering that most people don't wear heels at all or only low heels. There's also the other extreme - I remember a women modeling for Fuss-Schuhe (a german shoe brand/seller), and there were videos of her walking even in the most extreme heels. This was a big motivation when I got my Hot Chicks - if she can walk in 15 cm (?) heels I sure should be able to walk in 13 cm 😀

@mlroseplant that's a good description of what I meant with fluid heel to toe motion. As I thought about it more, I think I also have this issue a little bit in my new boots. In my case while walking it feels like they flex my ankles to an angle they can hardly achieve, so the muscles have to work harder to make them achieve this angle. I had the same issue when I first started with my Hot Chicks, but it got away with practice. I'll try some additional stretching this time, maybe this helps to gain flexibility quicker and makes the start easier. Your mules in this height must be even more of a challenge! I definitely want to master my boots this winter, at least so far that I can wear them to a restaurant or so. @Shyheels You can definitely compare it to some sports. You say you're on the beginner's slope but that's always relative. Now with my new boots I also feel like on the beginner's slope again 😉