mlroseplant

I ran across an Instagram post the other day which was a split screen of a model's feet. On one half, the model was wearing what looked to be 4 inch stiletto sandals. On the other half, the model was wearing 4 inch block heels with a mild platform, less than an inch. The caption read something to the effect of, "Which one is more likely to cause you to sprain your ankle?" I have yet to answer one of these kinds of things, even though I want to. I didn't reply to this for two reasons: 1) I was on my phone, and didn't feel like typing out a long reply, which is what it would take. 2) The post was already 3 weeks old, and had probably 500+ replies. I don't need to waste my time for that. My answer, of course, would be, "It depends." For most situations I am in, however, the single sole stiletto is more my friend, though I can't say that I'm worried about spraining my ankle in any case. I wear platforms all the time out in the wild, and it's absolutely true that if you step on a pebble or a twig in platforms, it's going to apply a lot of unwelcome sideways force to the ankle, a force that would be much less in single soles, regardless of heel configuration.

I have seen, in the past two weeks, no fewer than five women in substantial heels. Interestingly, all of them were in wedges, and all of them were wearing light, floaty, rather attractive sundresses. I think everyone, including me, is trying to get in the last wears of the summer items of clothing before we can't anymore.

I am finally back in my "ultra high" 4 inch/10 cm heels, so far without any problems. That was a bit of an eye-opener. What if I actually had to give up wearing high heels? By the way, 4 inch heels are simply not "ultra" high. Maybe to somebody they are. But, they do give me that high heel feeling, which I have missed for a couple of weeks.

I have no idea why I like categorizing things, as if ANY of this matters. Total heel height used to mean something to me, but these days, not so much. I do wear platforms, but generally not platforms over one inch (with some exceptions). I don't mind a platform if it's got the heel to back it up. Those are very difficult to find. Typically, if a designer uses a platform, they make the total steepness a little less in order to make the shoes "somewhat easier to walk in." The shoes that were in style approximately 10-15 years ago were extreme on some level. Every shoe it seemed had a heel over 5 inches, and usually closer to 6. But, almost all of them included a huge 2 inch platform, which kind of takes away the point of "high" heels, which is that elevated heel posture. I'm with Cali on this, somewhere in and around 4 inches is about right, preferably on the higher side of that.

Which is funny, we seem to remember "high" heels being a thing of the past, but I really think most women wore what we'd call "mid" or "low" heels back in the day. At least, my day in the 1980s. I was just talking with my friend from university a couple of days ago, who is now someone who can't wear heels for very long anymore. When she was 18 or 19, she wore what were among the highest heels of anyone I personally knew. Keep in mind, she did not wear heels every day, they were only for "dress up" occasions. For whatever reason, she happened to leave her high shoes behind in my dorm room one night. I have no idea how that happened, as there was no romantic relationship there, I only know that it did. Only now, 30-some-odd-years later, did I admit to her that I measured her shoes. If they had been a little closer to my size, I would have tried them on as well, but being a size and a half too small, that wasn't happening. So I told her that her "high" shoes were 3 1/2 inches, which absolutely floored her. "HOW did I EVER wear those?" I, on the other hand, was thinking, "Those are barely heels." They were black stiletto pumps, by the way, in case anybody is wondering.

My younger Gen Z child has no problem working. The reason he always looks a little trashy is because I can't seem to get him to segregate his "good" clothes from his "working" clothes. The kid has probably eight pairs of jeans, and every one of them is greasy from working on machinery of some sort, which is what he likes to do in his free time. On the other hand, he also knows how to tie a necktie, and owns a suit. His fashion is either "1" or "0", there's no middle ground at all. As an aside, he has never given any signs of being ashamed of his father in any regard, fashion or otherwise. I guess I'm lucky.

What goes around comes around. I was talking with my son the other day about how sloppy kids look these days. That would include my son, but his sloppiness is discernibly different from your average sloppiness. His sloppiness is also a hell of a lot cheaper. He was commenting that kids (or their parents) will spend a lot of money to achieve that look. I mentioned a Billy Joel song from 1980, which has the line, "You can't dress trashy 'til you spend a lot of money." The song, of course, is "Still Rock and Roll to Me."

Oddly enough, I've never had the actual thong break--it's always the other bits. In the instant case, it's obvious that one of the side straps came loose on the black pair, and there's just no fixing that. On the beige pair, the entire wedge heel is starting to detach from the insole of the shoe. Admittedly, that could probably be fixed, but the "patent leather" material is starting to peel in at least five different places, so they will never look very nice. Oh well. I did once have a pair of more expensive, high quality thongs from Michael Kors. The problem with those was that the real leather was so buttery soft that after a while it stretched out massively from use, so that eventually the sandals became unwearable. This whole behavior is cyclical. I go through a phase every few years where I suddenly get this urge to find some heeled thongs, just to see if maybe this time they'll work out.

I have some good news, and I've got some bad news. The good news is that my Achilles tendon seems to have returned to somewhat normal. I'm still going to take it easy, but it no longer feels like I'm going to make one misstep which will land me in the doctor's office. It's funny that my right foot is my stronger, more flexible foot, but it is the one that has given me all the problems. The bad news is that I bought four pair of thong sandals over the past month, and I've trashed two of them already. I never have any luck with those things. Maybe I should just give up. Both of these pair were awesome to wear, right up until the point that they failed. This type of fastening must somehow be intrinsically weaker than others. This always happens to me, and fairly quickly.

Oh, I don't know. I don't consider something to be a "high" heel unless it reaches 4 inches, but that's just my own little personal scale. I don't think that the actual exact height is important for the purposes of this website. I mean, we're not here to talk about trainers, but the occasional flat still finds its way in. I believe even I posted some knee high boots last winter that are sporting sub-2 inch heels, and the Hunter boots would definitely fall into that category. I don't really see what's wrong with it. High Heel Place is really a name of convenience. Somewhat Elevated Heel Place would be much more awkward.

To answer the questions in order, I have never met or heard of a guy who has a desire to wear high heels outside of the online community. It is unlikely that it's the case, but as far as my own personal experience goes, I'm the only one. The answer to the second question is no, the thrill hasn't faded much at all. To be sure, wearing heels is ordinary to me, but I will say that when I put on whatever shoes I'm going to be wearing that day and stand up, feeling the full height of the shoes for the first time since waking up still gives me the same feeling it always did. That has not faded over the years. What is different is that sometime over the last 12 years, I now require more steepness to get that feeling. 12 years ago, in 2012, I started off in effective 3 inch heels, and I very clearly remember my first real walk in them. It felt like a mile was going to last forever. I could not WAIT to get back home and get out of those shoes. My very next pair of shoes, bought several months later, had a 4 1/2 inch heel with a 1 1/4 inch platform, so effectively 3 1/4 inch heels. By this time, I was somewhat better at heels, but 3 1/4 inches still seemed pretty high to me, definitely felt like a heel. I started actually walking places in heels in 2013. I had a few more pairs by that time, but most of my walking heels were in the 3 - 3 1/2 inch range. Over the years, this has gradually increased to the 4 - 4 1/2 inch range. 3 inch heels no longer do it for me, and I have proven this in the past week, as I have been wearing lower heels (the few that I have left) in an effort to avoid further injury. I'm trying to take it real easy, hoping my Achilles tendon gets back to normal soon. The last three days it's been feeling pretty good, but I forced myself to wear low three inchers this morning, even though it feels like I can do more. It's just not the same. On pavement, it doesn't even really feel like I'm wearing heels. I was a little bit grumpy wearing the shorter heels. I need around four inches of steepness before I'm thinking to myself, "Yeah, this is the life." As to the third question, I'm with Shyheels on that one. If I'm putting on Hunter boots, it's for work purposes. I've never thought they looked all that great as a fashion statement, no matter how shiny they are, or what color they are. I will make an exception for Shirley Temple. She looked cute in them. No offense to anyone here who likes the way they look. I probably cannot get over the association I have in my mind with doing a job I'd rather not be doing.

It's a very common expression on this side of the pond. Of course, the sound of the actual insects only happens about six months out of the year where I live, so I have no idea how that became part of the slang lexicon. It's been fairly recent, I would say within the last couple of decades.

Just as soon as they do, let me know. I need a project to carry me through until retirement.

We can them "muck boots" in my trade. I have two pair: One nondescript plain black pair for actual mud, which I keep at work, and one shiny PVC pair with a pink lining and a 2 inch wedge heel for use at home. If I need to wear either pair, I'm probably hating life, at least a little.

Crickets on this one so far. I think we're to the point where we don't have to gush over every article which refers to us in a positive light. Wordy, but not in an academic way. I'm not sure what the heck it was I just read.