chipley

Please don't feel guilty. Be brave. One of my nicest experiences was when my husband and I were waiting for a train on the London Underground. A young man rushed over to us slightly red in the face and said "Excuse me but I have to tell you how stunning you look wearing those shoes." Before either of us could answer more than "Thank you" he rushed off and squeezed onto the train just as the doors were closing. All we could do was smile and wave to him as he looked back through the window of the train which was rapidly disappering into the tunnel. I was wearing my favourite black court shoes with no platform, rounded toes and a slightly thick 5 inch heel, so I knew he must have had good taste! It made our day!

Yes, I'm learning to be more open about my love of heels, inspired by all the remarkable things I have read here.

Home is the best place to wear your highest heels - the ones that are not possible to wear with sufficient grace outside (yet!)

I wear the highest heel I can manage all day every day. It depends on what I'm doing. Nothing lower than 4 inches unless it's completely unavoidable. I slip out of my highest heels last thing at the bed side and slip in to them before I stand up in the morning. I hate feeling my feet flat on the floor.

The two go together like strawberries and cream! I have been corseted for 35 years with increasing severity and am now the proud possessor of a very small and tightly-;aced waist. I know it might sound heretical but if I had to give up one or the other I'm afraid the heels would have to go.

I have a pair of black knee-high boots with slightly thick but not chunky 5 inch heels. The very closely spaced front lacing is the only way to get them on and off. I always insist that my husband does them perfectly with no twists in the laces and so it takes him an age to do; consequently, once they are on they tend to stay on! The longest I have worn them continuously is for 5 days and nights while we were on holiday in London. I had my husband wrap them in small canvas draw-string bags at night to keep any dirt off the sheets and avoid any ripping. My feet do not seem to sweat too badly but I have to admit that they were a bit whiffy when I took them off. It was a joy to finally feel some air getting to them. It was a truely exciting feeling to know that I was to be in them for the whole of the holiday; we had planned it all in advance and I refused to take any other footwear with me so I knew there was to be no escape from them until I got home. My brother and sister-in-law, with whom we were staying, were amazed to find me coming down to breakfast in my boots but we told them that we were going out around the town as soon as possible so I had put them on straight away to save time. I'm hoping we'll do it again before too long.

Round toes every time. Pointed toes lengthen the foot and undo the shortening effect of very high heels. Round toes reduce the footprint and make a neater shape with all the emphasis on the heel and the arch of the foot. Why is it that these days it's almost impossible to find a nice round toe without an ugly platform stuck on the bottom?

Hello to everyone. This looks an exciting place and I'm glad to have found my way here. My taste in shoes is rounded toe but no platform. The heel can be thick or thin or it can be a wedge and I even rather like the idea of no heel at all! The crucial thing is that it must be as high as I can manage gracefully. I love the feeling of being on tip-toe and defying gravity with practiced ease; it both stimulates and empowers me. My husband is my biggest fan so that makes it even better!