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Thanks! I was drawn to the bling. To be honest, the femininity is what drew me to them. And they will most likely wind up as housewearing only. I wish I was going to the Junior Prom next month, so I could rock these. But in all honesty, these may never see the light of day. Truth be told, I am probably just as much a collector as I am a wearer. I see objects of great beauty, and I must have them, lol. With all the shoes I have ammased over the years, I bet way more than half of them have never seen the light of day. But if the mood strikes me with these ones, you just never know. These will probably end up being house shoes for me as well and may never see the light of day, but you never know.

I have been getting this persistent advertisement in my social media feed for the last couple of weeks. It is a 30-something woman telling me that the staple of my shoe collection should be kitten heels. Every so often, it seems to happen that somebody, somewhere, thinks that the kitten heel is the greatest compromise ever, and that the fashion vs. function problem has finally been solved once and for all. Luckily, hardly anybody falls for this nonsense. I submit that the kitten heel is the worst of the worst. Not because they are actually the worst looking style ever, but because they pretend to be something that they are not. Yes, Crocs look way worse on an absolute scale, but at least they have no pretense of being anything other than what they are. A 2 inch spike heel has no place in this world. If you need to wear a 2 inch heel, get shoes with block heels, pretty please!

These ‘ASOS DESIGN heeled chelsea boots in black faux leather with chain detail’ seemed to me to provide the right balance between enjoyment and discretion and I could no longer resist them when a double discount was on offer. I usually wear a UK11 or 12 and opted for 12 (securing the last pair, it seems) to allow thicker socks if needed. First impressions were favourable – a 3 5/8” heel, a zipped shaft taller than the online advert implied, and an almond toe. The fit was good and comfortable indoors. The ‘round’ heel may not appeal to some, but it is not really noticeable. Likewise, the gilt chain detail is perhaps rather too ‘blingy’, but could be removed. The hollow plastic heels were, as expected, rather noisy – and the plastic top pieces will obviously wear and need replacement. I decided to modify them before wearing them outdoors. The top pieces (held by four pegs) were carefully prised off and fitted with discs of 1/4" composition material, glued on. (I used a hole cutter, without its centre drill, to produce discs just a tad too large, which were then reduced and smoothed on my grinding wheel before glueing.) To dampen noise, I filled the hollow heels with compacted sawdust, with pieces of crimped drinking straw inserted temporarily into the peg holes to stop sawdust entering. The top pieces were then pressed in; the fit seems firm enough not to need any adhesive. The composition layer can of course be removed when worn and replaced. Adding the extra layer to the top piece has increased the heel height to 3 7/8”. The balance of the boots has not been affected; indeed, they sit rather better with the extra height. I wore them outside briefly with thick socks and bootcut jeans and they seem comfortable enough. The pics show the boots as received, as worn with bootcut jeans, and the stages of heel modification.