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I recently got new (and rare) red stiletto ankle boots. They're Domina 1023 like my well worn black pair of the same shoe. The heel is 6 inches high and they're no problem to walk in.

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.

Yes, welcome! I would like the 60s too. It was the era of the go-go boot and fun.

The outfit for today - simple with a timeless/classic feel to it.

Had to make a trip out of town to a specialty store for an unrelated item. Took advantage of the opportunity to hit a few chain stores in an attempt to find some kitten or low block heeled slides. I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did find a pair of pumps. I tried them on not really expecting them to fit since they are standard width. I was pleasantly surprised to find they not only fit, but were comfortable. I put them on for the drive home for a bit of break in time and they started to "pinch" a bit in the toe box. Made a stop along the way and when I was standing/walking in them, the pinch went away. First pair of heels that I've ever had that were more comfortable to stand/walk in than to sit. 🤷‍♂️

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.

I would like to get a time machine and go back 60 years. All those beautiful heels. The music and the cars too. No boring nude color but a pretty taupe. I watch Perry Mason and see all the greatest of the 20th century. In the last season Perry is sitting at a table where there is a party for the new newspaper president. Behind him is a woman in the most perfect 4" heels you could ever hope to see.

Hi Luvmaryjanez! It appears that this is your first post and if so, I would like to welcome you to this forum! I agree with you that the heels of the 60's were so elegant. They were simple and always had a timeless design to them. Likewise, the simple black pump without any sort of embellishment will always have a timeless elegance to it.

Why it so difficult to find designer high heels in big sizes?

Interesting. I like it! Might just have to add something like that to my want list.

That's great, join us if you want to mlroseplant! I am the same, when I worked my way up in heel height I always started wearing them at home only until I felt confident enough to wear them out (except as a teenager, but that's a different topic 😉) @ShyheelsGreat, how were your calves doing? I also started today, I wore my Hot Chick 130 while cooking. The last time I did that was when I bought them and also started practicing at home. They get uncomfortable pretty quickly, that's why I only used them for short walks with a lot of sitting until now. I hope that will change now.

Got another pair of shoes off of Poshmark. My first "bad" experience there. The two weeks to ship should've been the only red flag I needed. But I loved the look of them and thought it was worth the wait for less than $20. Then they arrived. The tops were flawless. The soles were atrocious. It looked like they had been removed and reattached with a hot glue gun with glue oozing out the sides. None of this was visible from the angles that the half dozen images were taken from. I almost rejected them, but for the price I'll just keep them for around the house. They fit well, and from my perspective while wearing them, it's not visible. Lesson learned... I hope.

Even though our town streets and sidewalks are in more of a state of disrepair than in years past, they are still quite acceptable. However, it's much better if one sticks to routes one knows well when the days grow short and it's dark during the walk. As far as rain, here are my favorite rain shoes. They keep my feet out of the puddles. Not much good for mud, though.

Fernando Berlin makes all kinds of awesome boots in tall sizes too: www.fernandoberlinboots.com Arollo has some of their boots available in big sizes: www.arolloboots.com Nice italian heels are sold by Shoebidoo Shoes: www.shoebidooshoes.com Be advised that Italian shoes and boots tend to run large. Typically you could fit one size smaller than your normal (non-italian) fit. For more customized heels: www.sanctumshoes.com If you like real designer boots (expensive!) then have a look at Jean Gaborit: www.jean-gaborit.com Happy shopping!!

I will admit to having a couple of pairs of extreme-type shoes, which I bought because I wanted to see if I could actually walk in them. The answer is no, and the problem is two-fold: 1) They are made so cheaply that they're not even nice to put on, much less walk in, and 2) I do not enjoy the experience like I thought I would. Even though no one has ever seen me in these shoes, I walk so badly and awkwardly that I feel silly. If I make myself practice, I do get a little bit better after a short time of warmup, but on the whole I do not like wearing them. And yet still I aspire to wear them. I cannot explain this paradox. I will say one thing for practicing in 13+ cm heels. After wearing them for 15 minutes, your 11-12 cm heels feel like butter! I wish I had some evidence to actually prove it, but I feel like I walk so much better in normal height high heels after spending a quarter of an hour in extreme heels.

I've got about half a dozen pairs that I wear regularly for each season, so there's about a dozen, or roughly 10%. Of these, there are some that I don't really wear out in public because they're a little beat up looking. It's not that I never wear the others, but the occasions are relatively rare. For example, I have a bunch of Steve Madden pumps that have gotten a lot of picture time here, but very little wear time in the real world. Speaking of wear time, I have been very lazy this month about keeping up on my walking. It's been an incredible year so far up until this month. Hopefully I'll get my act together again next month.

I am in the same boat. I have not counted lately, I really should, but 100 pairs seems in the ball park. And with limited opportunties to wear them, I am sure pretty sure I have plenty of shoes that have yet to see the light of day.

Not much has happen, but this was something I hadn't happen in over 10 years. But first: I wore my Impo black small heels boots on Wednesday. 4.25 heels, .4 in platforms. Exiting a Safeway (grocery) store with a bag of food, a woman shouted "I love your boots" (nothing new) then shouted "Damn, you can real rock those boots." Then yesterday, I started the day out in my Jessica Simpson knee high stilettos (5", 1" platform). Then I had to changing into flat boots. I used my snow/ hiking boots from Eddie Bauer. Hadn't worn them since 2015 when I tore my calf. I was part of a tour of a new building still under construction so closed-toe boots with thick soles was required. The woman that organized the tour told me she was wondering (worried) what I would wear since she had only ever seen me in high heels. After the tour most of the people walked to the entrance area, I parked close by, so as we pass my car I pulled out my knee highs to confirm I still wear them. A good laugh by all, especially from the woman who organized the tour.

I also really like the aesthetics of 12 cm, but there are certain shoes I like that are higher than that, particularly some of the 14 cm from Maison Ernest, which I can't afford. Or these days I should say I WON'T afford. I can do 10 cm all day, 11 cm for a good chunk of time, still workin' on 12 cm. Keep in mind that this measurement is on size 9 USW/ 40 EU, so my 12 cm is maybe the equivalent of 11.5 cm on size 7/38. Attached is a picture of my favorite 14 cm Maison Ernest mules which I will never own because of their ridiculous price, and I doubt I could ever walk in them anyhow. Look at that ankle flexibility!

Not posted for a while. Here are some boots I’ve got recently

Yes they are definitely a challenge. My 13 cm heels took me quite some time to get used to, and I still only wear them when I don't have to walk too much. 9 cm really is a good height for wearing all day.

My Church Outfit of the Week. I wanted to wear my red Via Spiga patent leather sandals, which I do not wear very often. I suppose at some point I need to either get over my reluctance to wear dressier shoes with everyday clothing, or I need to cull my shoe collection down to something more reasonable. It has remained at about 100 for several years, but the problem is, even if I wore a different pair of shoes every week, it would take me two years to run through everything once. I'm lucky that I have something to dress up for, because I really can't see wearing these shoes with shorts. The woman who sent me a picture of her feet two weeks ago was wearing flat sandals for church, disappointingly. She laughed about it and promised to do better in the future. I am trying not to overthink this, because it seems perfectly reasonable and normal to me, but it suddenly occurred to me two weeks after the fact, that most people would think it very strange that a woman who is certainly nothing more than an acquaintance would send me a picture of her feet. I did get a compliment during after church grocery shopping. A thirty-ish woman told me that she "loved my monochromatic look." Didn't say anything about the shoes specifically, though.

My first experiences with high heels were the same - cheap, not well-fitting, uncomfortable, and way too high for the beginning. But somehow I kept going, I just liked them too much. But I can understand that this is a part where many might choose not to ever wear heels again, or only very occasionally. Then after a few years I started going more for a perfect fit and good quality. I was quite surprised how comfortable high heels can be, and that was when I started wearing them also for everyday life.

Hi, my name is Isabell and I am from Germany. I love high heels since my teenage years when it all started with the first times of going to the clubs on weekends. Good times! Since then I'm wearing high heels, went through many different styles but settled down a bit over the last decade. Now I'd like to try something new again and that's how I got here. I remember I stumbled across this forum sometimes in the past already and thought, why not join the community 🙂 Other than high heels I really love hiking and city trips. Greetings, Isabell

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

I just have received those beauty. So comfortable. I love.

I personally find pumps to be much more difficult than sandals. It's probably due to the shape of my feet, and I am a little bit embarrassed to admit that as much time and effort as I have spent measuring and analysing my shoes, I really have no idea how my feet stack up against an average woman's foot, even there is even such a thing. I know I'm a size 9 U.S. women's, and that I'm halfway between a B and a C width, so most women's shoes work just fine for me. What seems to be the case for me is that my heels must be kind of narrow left to right because a lot of the time I walk right out of pumps without even trying. I have found that Steve Madden pumps tend to work for me, but I have to wear them pretty tight, and some might say uncomfortably tight. Sandals do not have this problem, as they are held on by straps which are usually adjustable. Or there is no back at all (my preference), and you don't care how the heel fits because it doesn't exist. You and my both my sons have something in common. None of y'all ever wear anything but boots. Of course, theirs do not have anything higher than a normal work boot heel. Although I my older son (26) has got a pair of loggers that have pretty decent heels on them. 2 inch, probably.

LOVE those red boots.

That’s a nice look! I can see where it might seem odd about the foot photos but within the context of your conversation, perfectly natural too - a friendly sort of informality. If you know, you know. a nice compliment too - one that doesn’t over-emphasise the heels, but speaks to the overall look in which the heels are a finishing touch

Maybe I shall give pumps or sandals a try sometime for the experience - although stylistically I much prefer boots. Except for running and cycling I don’t even own any shoes!

If they fit right, pumps or sandals don't have to be more difficult than boots. For sandals it can get more difficult if they only have few straps.

I’ve always preferred boots to shoes - typically hiking boots - so when I went to try high heels for the first time, it was in a pair of stiletto knee boots which I think gave me a bit of an advantage as they offered a bit more support. I started with 10cm heels which was high for a beginner but doable in boots. I've never worn pumps or sandals, only boots. I would kind of like to try sometime, to see what that’s like, how much trickier they are, but because I’m not really a shoes person, I’ve never bought any.

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 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.

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

TBG is certainly missed here.

In all honesty, even though high stiletto heeled boots were made for women, I believe the men are owning it!!! I got my 1st pairs of REAL stiletto boots thanks to HHPlace back in the early 2000s. With a fresh reliable DSL hookup to the interwebs, a credit card in hand, and AltaVista on my screen, HHPlace was the first link listed in my search which led me to Leatherworks where I purchased my 5.25 inch babies. Then there was La Piazza, but I digress 😊 OK, so my "high stiletto heeled boots hero" of all time is this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re5sHX0Trfg (I thought it was a woman for the loooongest time, but I was wrong) Now when I search for videos on extremely high heeled single-sole stiletto boots, I see men rocking and having fun with these heels more naturally than the women. As a matter of fact, it appears that most (not all, including myself) of the women are forced to wear these by their employer/lover/abductor when you compare facial expressions and body language. It is also clearly evident here @ HHPlace given the male/female membership ratio. Hey, I thought us women had a higher tolerance for pain than men 🙃. So CHEERS to the boys!!!... My bet would be on them if there were ever an open-gender marathon in high stiletto heels competition. Sorry my fellow ladies 😁 'Envious regards, Prima

Hi Prima, yes, let's go for it! Funny to have a high heel place with so less women, from real life I only know it the other way around😅 Oh, did you already have bad experiences? In germany it would probably be the guys who would receive harassment. I can't complain, the only thing is that I really stick out if so less other women wear heels. We can absolutely discuss stiletto boots, I really like them! (for winter at least)

Yes there are many men here on HHP - or I should say mostly men, as there are not many people in general active on HHP, but rather a small and good-natured group who share a fondness for heels. Our individual tastes vary, but we recognise that we are unusual in our liking of wearing high heels. Speaking broadly, it would be fair to say our fondness for heels is based on aesthetics and a certain envy for the fashion freedoms enjoyed by women, who can pretty much wear what they like, free of censure. Men are expected to keep their style choices within very narrow bounds. As you say, you seldom see men wearing heels. Personally I've never encountered another man in stilettos. As for my own tastes in heels I personally prefer chunky heeled boots, with 8 to 10cm heels, although I own a couple pair of stilettos - I'd always wanted to try stilettos and having tried them ind them a fun challenge, but I don't wear them out and about like I do my chunky heeled boots. The styling is still feminine, although less so than stilettos, but when worn in combination with something neutral like jeans and a jumper seems more 'edgy' to my eyes than outright feminine. It plays to my inner bohemian I guess. Heel wearing among women does seem to be at a low ebb at present, but fashion is cyclical and I imagine it will pick up again. I suspect men in heels will continue to be a rarity for quite some time, despite the occasional appearance of heels in men's fashion shows. They are usually pretty ugly styles and presented outlandishly and not something many men - including myself - would ever take up. But variety is the spice of life

I'm in 4"+ almost every day. Many day for 10 hours or more.

I would be in 4 and 5" every dam day if I could !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay! Another fellow girly-girl. Heaven knows we need more female representation in here ☺️ Hi Isabell. Willkommen 🙌 I haven't had the pleasure of meeting or have been greeted by any of the women in here yet, but the men are quite sweet including Mr. Shyheels (I think he may had been nominated as Chairman of the Welcoming Committee; For good reasons too). I'm from the Big City (nearly 50 years) and love the increasing cultural diversity and spirit it generates, so I totally get why you love visiting (Just beware of the haters and thugs in certain areas). Like you, I too came across this site many years ago, but joined only recently because I want to: 1) see if I am really suffering from a rare form of OCD for stiletto boots 🥰 2) discover the secrets as to how the guys are able to flaunt their extreme heels in public without receiving the types of harassment that us women face when we decide to wear anything higher than 5 inches 🙃 I look forward to sharing ideas and experiences with you and our other fellow members. Especially if we are going to discuss stiletto heeled boots. 'Sweet regards, Prima

While I'm not really a fan of mules, I have to say: Well done! I really like the style and it seems you put a lot of effort into also making them wearable. Even though I think I still wouldn't be able to properly walk in them 😉

I certainly like stiletto boots - I noticed your style preferences in another if your posts. Like you, I dislike platforms, for the same reason as you, and I’m not fond of pointy toes either. i do like stiletto ankle boots although my preference with ankle boots is chunky heels. I think the long stiletto heels is better balanced visually with a long shaft. i don’t go for the super high heels. For me the look is too “crunched”. For me, the perfect height, aesthetically, is 12cm or just under five inches. I have a pair of 12 stiletto knee boots and love them, although I find them difficult to walk in (I’ve not practiced nearly enough - my calf muscles just seem to cramp up in 12cm heels. I have 10cm (four inch) stilettos knee boots which I also love, and can walk easily in and enjoy. i like heels for the aesthetics and 10-12cm is my perfect range for stilettos, although I have several pair if chunky heeled ankle, knee and OTK boots which I wear a great deal!

Still no interaction between me and my high school classmate. I can't really blame him, he's got some major health issues going on right now, but it still seems strange to me that a guy I actually hung out with back in the day would boldly ask a question, and then not really react to the answer. On the other hand, the last time I actually saw the man, in my mid 20s, I was playing a gig at a bar with my band, and our drummer, 6 foot 4 and an imposing presence, had threatened to do harm to him. My last in-person mental image of him was his backside as he was running out the door. By the way, he deserved it. In other news, I'm still working overtime at the data center, and I have been getting up very early in the morning so that I can get my walks in. It's the only way. If I try to do it in the evenings, it ain't happening. I'm not good for anything after supper. I posted in the "New Shoes" thread, but I'll share some more photos of my Pentecost Sunday outfit. There's nothing really special about it, other than the red color, which is the liturgical color for that day. Now we're back to Ordinary Time until Advent, so everything will remain green for a long time. I've never felt comfortable taking pictures of myself, but I've tried some new poses that I picked up from social media. I hope I don't look like a complete idiot.