mlroseplant

Perhaps this comment was made facetiously, but what is the deal, especially in this day and age when we know about the dangers of skin cancer, with insisting that people be tanned? There is not a thing wrong with pale legs, if that is one's natural color.

Not only do I wear high heels to the dentist, I've gotten a bit of a reputation there. The dentist himself has never actually said anything, but the dental hygienists, who are all women, look forward to seeing which shoes I have selected "this time." I try not to repeat a pair of shoes when I go there. My long-time personal hygienist even admitted that I inspired her to try heels again for the first time in years. I haven't actually seen them, but she told me she bought some wedges, and enjoyed wearing them. I only wish that my old dentist had not moved away before I started wearing heels. She always wore heels to the office. Not super high ones, but they were always very stylish and somewhat trendy.

I just did an inventory, and I have 52 pairs. The number changes fairly regularly, both up and down. I feel like it's not quite enough. I'd be happier at around 75 or so.

Looking through my collection, I don't have any terribly "girlie" shoes, though my definition might be skewed. Some would say if it has a noticeably high heel, it's girlie. I nominate these two because 1) they're both mules, which has got to be the girliest general category, right? And 2) because of their color and heel shape. In the first photo (center), we have our cheap knockoff of a Steve Madden Barbb, discussed elsewhere on this forum. These qualify because they are a light pink patent color, and the heel is super thin. Other than that, I don't think they're particularly girlie. I wear the black ones often in the summer with dressier stuff. The lighter colored ones are new. The gold thongs probably qualify for the bling factor with the gold colored fringe, but I don't feel they're so much "girlie "as they are "old lady at a casino," if only the heels were short wedges instead of 4 3/4 inch stilettos.

Since I wear heels every day and everywhere, getting "caught" applies only to a certain segment of people in my life, and that would be my coworkers. I work construction, so I am unable to wear high heels at work. I have attended some outside of work get-togethers in heels, but it's unusual. Every once in a while, I'll run into somebody from work who doesn't know I wear heels. I've never really gotten a comment about it one way or the other.

Who is John Gault? HA! Haven't heard that one in a while.

Oh, don't even say that! I bought these mainly because I lost three pairs of sandals last year, due to catastrophic failure. I'd hate to think I will experience the same this year, since I'm not particularly hard on shoes. I guess I should expect it, walking in shoes that aren't really designed for walking. Speaking of walking, the weather was finally warm enough (50° F / 10° C) to go for a spin last night in the coral pair. They are already way easier to get on and off. A couple more times, and I think they will actually be comfortable.

Springtime is here (so far in name only), so it is time for new sandals! I scored two new (to me) pair on ebay. Both of them are mules (really, is there any other kind worth wearing?) Both of them are Nine West. Both of them are non-current models by several years which I'd never seen or heard of before now. Neither has been worn much at all. The salmon colored pair is called Dance Card, and features cork-look heels of a whopping 5 3/8 inches, but with a 1 1/4 inch platform, so they are surprisingly easy to walk in. The black pair is called Versell, and I believe they've never been worn at all. There is one silver metal doodad missing on the front, so I got them for $5 (plus shipping). The Versell model has a 4 5/8 inch stiletto heel which appears to be made of molded plastic. With a 5/8 inch platform, they're right at 4 inches difference between the toe and heel, making for relatively easy walking. Actually, I can't comment on either of these yet, because I have worn them only cursorily. Both of them fit exactly the same--tight. I can tell they will straighten up and fly right in pretty short order, but they're a bitch to get on with the multiple straps to scrunch up your foot. It will just be a matter of wearing them for a few hours, and they will be fine.

In theory, I like flat sandals also, as long as they are leather and fairly thin-soled. However, in practice, I rarely pass up the opportunity to wear heels, so I am reluctant to purchase flatties of any sort, for fear it will be a waste of money. I have one pair of flat sandals which never gets worn, to the point where the leather is starting to become hard from neglect.

I only like the ones at the upper end of the heel height range, which would be 3 - 3 1/2 inches, and I only like to look at them on other people (probably women, to be honest), and I don't think they look very good on me. I was considering a pair to use as organ shoes, but soon realized I'd better stick to the specialty shoes for that purpose.

My tastes have changed over the past few years. When I first started heeling, I was most comfortable in ankle to mid-calf boots with boot cut jeans or pants/trousers. However, as I have become more confident in my style, I have taken to wearing skinnier pants almost always, though I rarely wear truly tight "skinny" jeans/pants. Mid-calf boots don't seem to work out so well with slimmer pants--what do you do with them? Outside or inside? Neither looks that great on me to my eye, so I have gravitated toward either knee highs on the outside of the pants, or ankle boots. All my boots are in the heel height range of 4 1/2 - 5 1/4 inches, and are either stiletto heels, or nicely tapered thicker heels. I'm not a big fan of straight sided block heels. To me they look clunky. Oh, and all of my boots save one have a small platform, 1 inch or less. I have one pair of boots with a 5 inch heel and no platform, but I'm still working up to them as far as wanting to wear them in public without looking silly. I am aware of my physical limitations. My graceful limit right now is about a 4 1/2 inch difference between heel and platform (size 9 U.S. women's).

I own 6 pairs of flat or nearly flat shoes. 2 pairs of work boots, 1 pair of runners (which are too worn for actual running), 1 pair of tennis shoes (used for actually playing tennis), 1 pair of casual non-athletic shoes, and 1 pair of formal black oxfords. Of these, only the oxfords and the tennis shoes are technically "men's" shoes. I also own approximately 50 pairs of high heels. The work boots are the only flats I wear regularly.

I had to think about that one. Since I work construction, I do not wear heels to work, so I guess it depends upon whether I have to go out in the evenings when I get home. At home, I generally wear the same pair of Steve Madden open toed mules as house slippers, but if I have to go somewhere, I generally pick a different pair of shoes each time. I know that in the past, I would purposefully make sure that I didn't wear the same pair of shoes twice to church or to choir rehearsal, but I care less about that now. Even though I have somewhere around 50 pairs of shoes, I always feel like my selection is so limited. I wish I had more. Of course, 50 pairs sounds like a lot, but you have to figure that about 1/3 of those are summer shoes, and 1/3 are winter shoes. The remaining third are shoes I rarely wear for one reason or another. These fall into three main categories: Shoes that are too high for me to walk in gracefully (these are aspirational), shoes that are too low to hold my interest any more (I have quite a few like this from my early heeling days), and shoes that are OK, but maybe don't fit quite right or have some other defect that causes me not to wear them much. To more clearly answer your question, I rarely wear the same shoes out two days in a row.

Oxfords were sort of what got me to get into heeling, because they seemed to me to be very masculine, and at first that was very important to me and my self confidence. Nowadays, I'm not really concerned about whether I look masculine or not, but I still like oxfords. I have, if I'm thinking correctly, 5 pairs. I will have to post a picture at some later time. I would probably own more, but I think I've run into the same problem as you--it's difficult to find oxfords with a traditional round-toe, but yet with a decently high heel. If I were interested in wearing a lower heel (3 inches or less), I'd have plenty of oxfords to choose from, and some nice quality ones. Anything higher than 4 inch, it seems you always find a "fetishy" aspect to them, rather than super dressy. I'm always searching for a pair of oxfords with a tall heel, but with styling more conservative. More about this later.

Haha, I have the opposite problem--short legs. Luckily, my best friend is a tailor!