mlroseplant

Stiletto heels are fragile in the sense that they are very easy to damage from stepping down in some sort of gap in the walking surface. I have never found that the heels themselves are the weak link--it's the shank. For those of you who don't know, the shank is a strip of stiffening material, typically metal, that runs below your foot between the inner and outer soles, and connects the heel with the front of the shoe. I have broken exactly one heel in my life, but I've broken several shanks. Once the shank breaks, it feels like the heel is broken because it just caves in, even though the heel itself is still securely attached. I also have a couple of pairs in that 10 to 12 mm "near stiletto" range, but ironically, they are some of the least stable feeling shoes I own, and it has to do with the shank, not the heel. I'm not making a plug, but I have over a dozen pair of Steve Madden stilettos in various styles, and I've never had pair of Maddens feel anything but rock solid when walking. The heels on these shoes range from about 10 mm all the way down to <7 mm. If you didn't see what you were wearing, you'd never know that you were walking on heels that thin. To be fair, I also weigh 60 kg. That may have something to do with it.

Perhaps that is an idea for another topic someday, though it's not "high" heels--one's preference for work boots. I know my own preference has changed over the years, and I've settled on something rather unusual in my trade. I would start the thread right now, but I think some pictures would be rather helpful, which I'll have to take later.

Interestingly, we had an extensive (some might say exhausting) discussion about what is and what is not a "stiletto" heel. I can say with a certain amount of confidence that no-one here at HHP would call that particular example a stiletto. It is clearly too broad. I personally would call it a "slim" heel. There is some disagreement, but the maximum width of a heel can be no more than somewhere in that 3/8" or 10mm range to be a stiletto. I say "somewhere" because it's not always clear, due to other factors, such as taper and total height. My skinniest stilettos are barely more than 1/4" or 6.5 mm thin, and I have many more than come in at 8 mm. 10 mm seems to be numerous in my collection as well. There seems to be little correlation between heel width and walkability, which is counterintuitive, but it's what I've found in practice. The main advantage to "slim" heels, like the one you submitted, is that the heel tips are going to last you five times as long compared to stiletto tips. This is the reason I don't walk in stilettos anymore. Also, it's far less critical to look out for cracks and holes in the sidewalk. If you're just wearing them to the office or to church or the supermarket, fine. Putting 30-40 miles a month on them is not something I care to do.

HiH, that's not what I really had in mind when I used the phrase, "one of us." Number One, I'm not a member of the LGTB community, as I do not meet the technical requirements, and Number Two, though your postulation is not beyond the realm of possibility, it seems almost certain that the woman in question is cisgender. What I did mean by "one of us" is someone who actually enjoys wearing heels for their own sake. I do not believe I have ever met such a woman before, at least not to my knowledge.

I, like CAT, do not have the opportunity to wear heels at work, as it would not be advisable or even desirable. However, just for the record, there was a time when I thought I would never wear stilettos, either. I'm going to make a prediction that it will only be a matter of time before you're comfortable with stilettos.

That was/is exactly my plan, should the opportunity ever arise. Obviously, this plan does not work very well if I'm wearing work boots. But who knows? I've been around for 12+ years.* She may already know who I am. Many of the bank tellers there do. *As a heel wearer. I hate to think about how long I've actually lived in this town. More than quadruple that number.

I have definitely created a two-tiered system with my shoes. First class is for walking, and second class is for showing. Actually, that should probably be the other way around, as I wouldn't wear most of my walking shoes in any but the most casual situations. What this mean is that 80% of my collection is worn very little, and I should probably be more ruthless about getting rid of pairs I haven't worn for a couple of years. Most of the time, but not all, the trouble is caused by a combination of leather upper with a man made lining. That combination does not seem to age well when exposed to oxygen. My all leather shoes do not seem to have this problem, and my plastic shoes seem to have it less. Sandals seem to suffer worse than fully enclosed shoes. Maybe this is a false perception on my part, as once this problem starts happening on a sandal, you might as well throw that pair away, because the flaking is usually quite visible as they're being worn, whereas with a fully enclosed shoe, such as a pump, you can't really tell until the shoes are removed. The latest example of this was when I wore my red Steve Madden open toed mules to church a few weeks ago, and by the time I came home, I noticed I had red flakes all over my toes. Not a good look, and there is nothing to be done about it. They're just gone. I used to have a rule that if I couldn't walk at least two miles in reasonable comfort, I didn't keep the shoes. Nowadays, I do not maintain any such hard and fast rule. I think that I probably could walk two miles in a lot of my "dress" shoes, but I don't want to for a number of reasons.

Thank you for the suggestion. I do have a couple of situations where epoxy would be a good solution. Most of my problems have either to do with sandal straps breaking, which a person might as well forget about repairing, or the deterioration of the inner lining of the shoe/sandal. Normally, it's just an irritant, but sometimes it gets to the point where one can begin to notice it from the outside, and that's a bridge I cannot bear to cross.

I hate to keep coming back to the same subject over and over again, but I've had occasion to visit my bank yet again, this time for an unfortunate event (which actually turned out to be nothing), and yet again my bank lady was in real, honest-to-God heels. The difference this time was that she was the person who assisted me directly, and was not sitting behind a desk or standing behind a counter. It seems that every time I have occasion to physically go to the bank, I am either in the middle of, or preparing to do some grubby project. Friday was no exception, and I was in work boots rather than heels. I was so very tempted to mention footwear but I resisted that temptation because of the creepiness factor. Now that I've had a chance to interact and observe her up close, I am even more curious about her specific motivation to wear heels a lot of the time. This is because she is objectively the opposite of the type of person I would expect to wear heels by choice. I can tell you that she is married, or at least wears a ring. She appears to be about 35 years old, and is in reasonably good physical shape for an American that age these days. She wears little or no makeup. Her nails are unpolished, but well taken care of. She seems to dress very conservatively. I've never seen her in anything but tailored pants. What I'm getting at is that there is absolutely no reason for her to wear heels, and yet she does. Maybe she is one of us. I am not going to make it one of my life goals or anything, but I feel like if the correct opportunity presents itself, I ought to ask.

2024 has been a hard year on my shoes. I went through my collection a couple of days ago, and found that I've had to throw out 11 pairs of shoes this year. About half of these simply grenaded on me, and the other half simply deteriorated to the point where I couldn't wear them anymore. I have many more shoes which leave pieces of colored lining material all over my feet every time I wear them, but are otherwise sound. I have half a dozen which need some sort of repair or other. It has gotten to the point where these phenomena happen more and more with shoes I've just purchased, and have worn only once or twice, even though it's obvious they have never been worn before. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to do something different in the coming years if this trend continues.

I have never actually flown in heels before. Nowadays I have grown to dislike the whole experience, such that I'm not sure it would improve my attitude even with heels!

With colors like this, I would say it is impossible to get an accurate rendition that is universal. They look different than what they looked like in the sale pictures. I still like them, but they are less purple-y than I expected. To my eye, they look browner than they do purple, especially when put next to my other pumps in that color range. It's about time for another shoe inventory, and things have shifted a lot since the last one. I have quite a few pairs of shoes that I would call some sort of "neutral patent." And yes, I sent the pictures to my friend. So far the only reaction I've gotten is a heart icon, but that means little.

I have two things to report. Number One, I talked with a college friend of mine and told her that I was wearing my giant Prada mules for my morning constitutional on account of the fact that it was raining. I know I shouldn't abuse such expensive shoes in this way, but hey, they keep my feet out of the puddles. I didn't pay anywhere near the grand that this brand normally goes for brand new. For one thing, they're slightly damaged, and that was before I started using them for rain shoes. This particular friend is not in my true inner circle, so she said the usual "I want to see pictures, or it didn't happen." Number Two, the other picture you see here is my church OOTW. I got my new pants to go with my new shoes. This is one of the few times, maybe the ONLY time I've ever worn the same pair of shoes to church two weeks in a row. To refresh present recollection, they are Steve Madden Daisie pumps in mauve. They're just a tad under 4 1/2", which puts them more in the 11 cm range, but hey, I can walk in them!

I totally agree with you, at about 12 cm, it's the classic look. Higher than that, it so much depends upon the design of the heel. There are some 15 cm heels that I absolutely adore, and there are others that look just plain odd, and I am unable to qualify exactly what makes something "odd." Unfortunately, I can't walk in any of them. I think a reasonable goal is to be able to walk in the 12 cm someday. And by 12 cm, what I mean is probably about 13 cm in my size.

Speaking of for real, there is yet more evidence that the lady at the bank is for real. I went in there again (of course in work clothes), and she was there, wearing a different pair of heels than what I'd ever seen before. It would appear that not only is she a heel wearer on the regular, but she's also a shoe junkie. I have now seen her five times, and she's worn five different pairs of heels. What is also notable is that the styles I have seen her wear overlap with the styles I wear. This means that she must not be buying new shoes either, but rather keeping old ones or buying them used.

Now that you say that, it's absolutely right. For some reason, I couldn't think of the word "mauve." Anyway, I just bought some pants to go with the shoes. They are not matchy-matchy, but I think they go better than the pink pants. In other news, I am still largely wearing flats around the house. If I have to go out somewhere, which is not all that often, I'll put on some heels, and I'm still pounding the pavement almost every morning in heels, but I don't feel like I wear them all that often these days. I don't skip days or anything, but I don't feel like I'm putting in the hours that I used to. Hopefully I can report soon about my newer shoes and my new pants.

Couple of things to report on the young women's fashion front. Number One, when asked (or ordered) to dress up, high school girls still often wear heels. They may not be to my exact liking, but they're better than the alternative. I witnessed this when I went to drop off my son for his All State Band audition. Number Two, which is related to Number One, our neighbor down the street just posted her daughter's senior photos on social media. Nothing really remarkable about them except for one thing: Her choice of footwear. I haven't seen anything like this on a teenager in at least ten years. I cropped out most of the picture for privacy and discretion reasons. To tell you the truth, until this social media post, I didn't know my neighbor had a senior in high school. Unlike my kid, all of her kids are very standoffish with adults. I only know the twins that are in my son's class (sophomore). This, of course, begs the question, "Are these for real, or just for a photo shoot?" The answer to which I will probably never know, and really don't care.

Here I am with another church OOTW. The only notable thing here is my new shoes is the color, which I cannot define. The camera actually captured the color fairly accurately, it's a sort of purple, but it's not really purple. Anyway, like most of my Steve Madden pumps, I can wear these things just fine. They're not really all that high, coming in at 4 3/8 inches.

I bought yet another pair of Steve Madden pumps, model Daisie. I bought them because they were purple. Only once I got them, they were only purple-ish. I don't know what color you would call this, but I wore them for the first time today, with pink and salmon attire. I don't really have anything purple to wear with these shoes. As you can see from the picture, they are tall, but not super tall, coming in at 4 3/8". The heels are super skinny, though.

I have to admit to having done that in my life--that is, stop at a gas station when I didn't need gas just to check out someone's shoes. However, I have never engaged anybody without some other intervening factor. I think the subject's age would be a big factor also. Mid 40s, not a problem. Hey Nineteen, Big Problem. Hey Nineteen is probably not going to be wearing decent shoes anyway.

In addition to this, there are only so many picture variations one can do before it feels like, "Is anybody else as bored with this as I am?" Even among very popular people on social media, who actually know how to dress and pose for pictures (unlike me), after a while it becomes way less exciting. As far as the potato sack dress and Birkies, a certain staff member at one of the institutions I frequent wears such attire pretty much daily, but she is also fabulously overweight. I cannot say that I would do any better, given those circumstances. It may not be fair or just, but I will say that it's much easier to dress nicely when you're thin.

To be fair, they don't really need high heels, as they already walk at quite a steep angle on their forefeet.

Don't worry about posting too much on here, you're just taking over for me while I try to figure out why I don't feel like posting much lately. Your transformation, both physically and mentally has happened at lightning speed. After more than 12 years, I'm not at all sure that I want people to notice me, which is kind of silly, isn't it? After all, I'm on livestream every week that is archived forever and ever, amen. I would caution against becoming too manic with this newfound confidence, if for no other reason than because it has come quickly. You seem like you're very conscious of taste and style, but I've witnessed a couple of different people who found that taste of freedom and confidence, but failed to follow the adage, "Just because you can wear something doesn't mean you should." You seem an unlikely candidate for that particular problem, but I'm just putting that out there. Everything I've seen looks very nice.

Congratulations on your newfound confidence, and the willingness to experiment. I always thought you were a little more worried about what was "appropriate" than you ought to be. Like you said, many workers show up in sweatpants and Crocs. What are they going to do? Send you home because your boot shafts are three inches too high?

I guess I am counting myself as back. I have worn 4 inchers for a week, and haven't had any pain. I am still wearing mostly flats at home, and am very careful about stretching my calves and feet, and am careful about how boisterously I stretch my calves and feet. My right ankle is still not as flexible as my left, but that's always been the case. At least I don't feel a slight pain with every step like I did before, particularly if I've remembered to warm up. Oh, and I didn't even tell you about how I injured my left foot a week ago (not high heel related). That's now back to 100%, so I'm in reasonably good shape coming into the last third of the month.