mlroseplant

My advice is to take video of yourself. It may be painful to watch, but it will show you exactly what you're doing (or not doing). Your limitation is that you can only do a few steps at a time, but I think that even so, it might be rather enlightening. I have a difficult time believing that it's simply a matter of walking heel-to-toe, because unless you have ankles made out of elastic, it's impossible to walk any other way in 12 cm heels with straight knees.

Good luck to you, I have many pairs of Steve Madden, from traditional looking pumps to platform sandals. I have found them to be pretty good for what they are. Like every other affordable shoe manufacturer, they've gotten away from using leather like they used to. At least their synthetic pumps, of which I have quite a few, are actually decent.

The time has come to once again wear clogs and boots after many months of sandals. Because the weather became suddenly much colder, I skipped an entire step and went directly to boots. It probably was not strictly necessary, but I believe it helped me psychologically to keep walking, even on days that were not so nice.

I tried on a couple different pairs of my winter clogs last night, and neither of them feel very comfortable, despite the fact that I walked miles and miles in them last season. I hope it's just a matter of not being used to them.

OK, let's talk some physics and techniques, then. What, exactly, do you find awkward about 12 cm heels after having been away from them for a time?

Consider it good experience for walking on uneven and unlevel pavements! I know there are many times when I am glad nobody can see me. That's kind of why I chose the method I did--late at night or early in the morning. This against the advice of many members on here at the time.

There was a young lady in church who wore 8 cm black pumps yesterday, with slim, near-stiletto heels. She was one of several new members of our church who were welcomed in. I did mention to her that I was glad to see someone else wearing heels besides me. She reacted in a friendly manner, but in a rather noncommittal way. In other words, it was not a conversation starter.

I am really trying to get up the motivation to go out for my walk. It's the first day that it's been really cold here (below 0). The temperature wouldn't be that bad, but of course it is very windy, and it has just rained yesterday, and whatever is left over is ice, I'm sure. My deck is probably a death trap, especially in heels. I gotta go. Bye for now! Wish me luck!

Concrete adhesive and cold weather are not the best of friends, I hope your repair/project goes well. I actually have a couple of sweater dresses hanging in my closet. I've worn one of them outside exactly once. Maybe it's time to break them out again, and at least try them on!

15 hours ago, Shyheels said:

Although I’ve not mastered my 12cm heels yet, I can stand with straight knees in them and can straighten them when I walk. That part is fine. I am just clumsy in them - or clumsier than I would want to be! I feel like I am clomping around

14 hours ago, higherheels said:

I'd say being able to straighten the knees while standing and walking are the basics.

Of course you can also walk with bent knees, but as it can be seen by your (and also my) experience, even if the basics are covered it can still be difficult.

This is a point of great interest to me. Having studied many walks, both in person and on video, I can say with a fair amount of confidence that it is not 100% necessary to have a locked straight knee when walking, like a latin dancer would do. It's just a question of how much bend is there in the leading knee, and for how long is it slightly bent. I have not yet reduced this to an exact formula. Naturally, the length of the stride is a key component of the equation.

They are very nice looking, which is unusual for something this steep. If the photo accurately depicts the product, they are not fetish-y looking at all. But yeah, they sure look steeper than 13 cm. The front of the model's foot is pretty much the same as 90º with the floor--that's always a good indicator that you're approaching Very Difficult Territory. The other thing that scares me a bit is that the model's knee is not 100% straight.

If you do wind up getting them, I hope the shafts fit your calves similar to what the photo shows. Perhaps hat is one of the reasons why I don't care for boots all that much. I have yet to find a pair that truly fit my calves well. Evidently I have skinnier legs than the average person who wears size 40.

23 hours ago, Shyheels said:

I’m hoping the heater will be sorted this weekend. It’s not so much the temperature but the bone chilling dampness that is do unpleasant. England gets a damp cold and doubly so when you’re on the water! 

I've often said the same thing about Hanoi winters. Theoretically, at 10 or 15 degrees, I should certainly be comfortable without a jacket. But Hanoi is so damp, even I am cold at that temperature. I don't blame people for wearing winter coats inside the house. I imagine England is the same. Someday I hope to find out for myself.

17 hours ago, Shyheels said:

I’m so envious of your skill level when 12cm boots are the easy ones to retreat to when you can’t find 13cm boots. They’re still quite a challenge for me. I’m getting a load of wood this weekend so I can heat the boat and go back to practicing in my 12cm boots on my boat! 

Is that because the diesel heater is still on the fritz, or is it actually time to kick on the real heat? We are supposed to get our first killing frost this weekend, which is a little on the late side for us.

1 hour ago, higherheels said:

@mlroseplant Yes I also think I'd be fine continuing in 12 for winter, but I'm still interested in continuing with some higher boots.

I finally found a pair of boots online which might be around 13,5 cm I guess. Still thinking if I should buy them.

Is there a reason why your boots are lower than your other heels?

@Shyheels 

All just a matter of practice, and I think your skill level is very good 🙂

I could make this answer a lot longer than it needs to be. The reason my boots are not on the higher end of the spectrum is because I typically do not wear boots unless it is absolutely necessary to wear boots, such as when it's snowing. Therefore, for practical reasons, the heel height does not exceed 10 cm, and is typically more like 8. I'm still wearing sandals in November! I will need to change that this weekend, as temperatures in my area are expected to dip below 0º for the first time this season.

This Sunday it was back to our regularly scheduled program, and as usual, I picked out my outfit at the last minute based upon what was clean and what was ironed, then checking to make sure I hadn't worn the same exact thing in recent times.

The only thing of note this week is that I got many comments on my shirt, and zero comments on my heels. The shirt came from Vietnam, and I have worn it occasionally for many years. One of these days, it will become unpresentable. It has already lost some of the sheen it once had, but somebody always comments on it every time I wear it.

The shoes, on the other hand, have never really attracted that much attention. I mean compared to others, not on an absolute scale. They are Michael Kors, and their main claim to fame is that they are both black and tan, so theoretically they go with everything. Or, you can do what I did, and wear tan pants with a black belt. They're not quite stilettos, and they're not super high (to our eyes, anyway). Evidently, I wore them about two months ago. I did not realize this when I selected them for the morning. I'm of two minds about that--one the one hand, I hate to repeat stuff, but on the other hand, I'm always saying that there are some things in my collection that do not get enough love. I guess I can't have it both ways.

At least with 12 cm boots, you won't lose too much ground over the winter. Whether I continue to progress over the winter depends entirely upon the weather and my motivation. My high heeled boots are much lower than what I would typically wear for shoes or sandals.

I do like wedges, with reservations. The wedge has to be on the thinner side at the heel, left to right, like these Bruno Magli wedges. I suppose a resurgence of heels of any type is welcome at this point. I'm not holding my breath.

I wouldn't want to wear Louboutins in the snow, either! But what will you replace them with over the winter? It seems that a lot of makers do not make 13 cm--they go directly from 12 cm to 15 cm. I'm guessing if you could somehow find some 13 cm boots, that would be ideal. But who makes such a thing?

That sounds like what you'd see attending our contemporary style church service.

It occurred to me that back in the mid-to-late '90s, which was a dark time for nice looking shoes (not unlike today), the popular heel was a black ankle bootie, typically with a very chunky heel and a lugged platform sole. These came in various heights, with the mildest being probably two inches and the wildest exceeding four inches. Subtracting for the platform, it was probably a three inch heel.

Germane to this topic, you used to regularly see young women doing service jobs wearing such shoes. Waitresses, department store clerks, fast food workers, et al. In particular, I can remember going to the grocery store, and you'd nearly always see at least one girl at a cash register wearing chunky heels that were sometimes quite high. Evidently, they must have been comfortable standing for several hours in these, because they certainly weren't required. In fact, in the end, they were apparently banned. This was a trend for the better part of a year, but something happened. I almost guarantee you somebody got hurt somewhere, because suddenly they were gone from this particular store. And I mean suddenly. Like overnight. I would love to know the story behind that.

22 hours ago, Shyheels said:

Speaking for myself, I find that walking around for a few minutes in my 10cm heels is a good warm up for wearing my 12cm ones - although if I do I have a way of becoming distracted and forgetting to change boots.

20 hours ago, higherheels said:

@mlroseplant No, I don't do any warm-up before going outside. But I put them on first before the rest of the clothes, so there's already a bit of standing in them before walking.

What makes a difference is weither I been at home barefeet all day or already been out in heels all day. Even if I only wore lower heels like 8 cm all day, the transition is easier.

I don't normally warm up before wearing "regular" heels, but I often think that maybe I should. There comes a point, however, at which I can't walk properly. This begins to occur somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 cm. I haven't really looked in a mirror or filmed myself, but I feel 95% of it is that I can't straighten my knees all the way. Many times, 10 or 15 minutes of pacing around will correct that problem.

16 hours ago, Cali said:

Once my nail bed on some fingers started to have issues, I had to get the nails covered with acrylic to hold them together; then you need to cover the acrylic with gel.  That was 10 years ago.  It took awhile to get use to having colored nails.  I get compliments from both men and women, and may people will compare my nails to their....really no comparison

You could start with a translucent gel with a very little color.  Or you could ask your nail tech to do a magnet gel on your baby fingers.  I think she would be excited to do it.  The polish is sometimes called 'cat eye' when you use a different magnet to get the total cat eye effect.

Cat eye nail polish works by using special formulas with metallic or iron particles that are pulled into patterns by a strong magnet. Google it and see all the effects you can get.  It very similar to the special effects of some car paint jobs in the 70's

Just make sure you're not wearing your vintage watch while doing this. Magnets cause old mechanical watches to do some very strange things.

I have sighted two pairs of stiletto heels last week. The first was part of a Halloween costume, which almost doesn't count, but I think it counts considering the circumstances. One week ago was the last football game of the season at the high school, and therefore was also the last marching band show. The band kids did not wear regular uniforms for this last show, but instead wore Halloween costumes. There was one girl who dressed as a witch, and her costume included stiletto heels. To be sure, she wasn't marching in those heels, she was in the frontline percussion section, playing a xylophone. Nevertheless, she pushed her own instrument on to the field, and then pushed it back off and down the running track, a distance of approximately 150 m each way.

The second sighting was at our joint church/college service last week. There was a communion server, age 20 or so, who was wearing stiletto heeled booties and a skirt. I sort of wanted to interview her a bit on the subject, but as an old man, I can't really get by with that. It was fairly obvious to me that she wasn't really used to wearing heels all that often. It was also obvious that she hadn't acquainted herself with an iron in quite some time, if ever.

@higherheels, do you find with your Hot Chicks that you need to warm up extensively before actually walking anywhere? I find that with my higher heels that I have to sort of pace around the house or the garage for about 10 minutes before my ankles limber up enough to take on the real world. I failed to do any of this preliminary warmup (preflight? 😆) the other day when I tried out the Bakers oxfords. I think I might give it another go this weekend.

Being as my "training" shoes are in the shop, I was looking for alternatives, and I settled upon a pair of Bakers oxfords, model name Reissa, that I've had for a very long time. I won't say that I forgot about them, but I haven't worn them in years because I don't love the way they look, and I've always had trouble walking in them. I've always thought of them as having 13.5 cm heels with 2 cm platform, but they somehow feel steeper than those numbers would suggest. Now that I've kicked it up a notch (aiming high), I decided to put them on for a short walk. Much to my shagrin, I still have trouble walking in them, and I decided to cancel my walk, for fear of somebody seeing me struggling in these ridiculous shoes. Why are they so hard to walk in?

I went back to the basement, took the shoes off, and pulled out a tape measure. Surely there had to be more to the story. There was. The platform, as you can see, is hidden, and there's no way to determine its thickness except to feel where the footbed is on the inside of the shoe, then transfer that mark to the outside. When I first measured them, I failed to do this at the heel as well, which in this case turns out to be significant.  On this particular shoe, the footbed maintains its thickness all the way up to the top of the heel. In fact, the wearer's heel rests a good 1/2 inch higher than the point where the top of the shoe's heel is attached on the outside. Effectively, the shoe's steepness slightly exceeds 13 cm. That accounts for a good deal. No wonder.

I don't feel like stilettos are any harder to walk in than other heels. The only thing that makes them harder is that out in the real world, you have to be more careful where you step.

Come to think of it, pretty much any tree can shed hazards to platforms. I just happened to walk through some freshly downed acorns the other day.

Before I get to the winner, I should go through a few honorable mentions, and maybe some up-and-comers. One pair that deserves a mention is my Prada wooden mules. I call them my "rain shoes" because of the big 4 cm platform--they keep my feet out of the puddles. I must have walked on enough rainy days that somehow I've accumulated 62 miles on them (100 km). Although they truly work for their intended purpose--they do, in fact, keep my feet out of the puddles--the drawback is that they are susceptible to the usual platform weakness. Every imperfection in the pavement, every small, hard object that you might step on, such as a pebble or twig, causes an amplified lateral reaction compared to a single sole shoe that threatens the integrity of your ankles. It might also cause you to look foolish in front of others.