mlroseplant

Once again, we have this week's church outfit. I went back to pink again, though I no longer technically have any pink shoes. I tossed my last pair because one of the straps was broken, and it was starting to suffer from the whole chemical peel thing on the inside, which, due to the design of the shoe, was visible while wearing. I had essentially two choices, unless I went with black or something. I had some pink-ish stiletto mules, which I should really find an occasion to wear, but they were far too orange for this outfit. That left me with my Söfft cork sandals in fuchsia patent, so that's what I went with.

One of the advantages to wearing the Söfft shoes is that they are effectively 3 1/2" heels. I've been wearing higher heels quite a bit lately, so these are super easy to move in, and I needed all of my wits about me, as it was my first time leading the music by myself, without benefit of a piano player. It went fine. I wouldn't necessarily want to do that every week, but it was ok for a Sunday or two now and then.

For some reason, these appear quite a bit more bright red than they are in real life. Even if they were red, I don't think they look too bad. Maybe I ought to try actual red shoes with a future pink outfit.

Over in the "For Everybody" section, we got off on a tangent about whether I'm too old to wear shorts. And my friend from university told me that I personally can pull it off, but not everyone can, including her. After some input here, I finally decided, "Fine, I'm going to quit worrying about it."

About a week and a half ago, we changed directly from rain to heat. Because of my work schedule and responsibilities, I have been unable to take advantage of the situation until this weekend, at which time I pulled all the stops out. Whatever it is I'm doing, I guess I need to keep doing that. Within the last two days, I have received a number of unsolicited compliments, all by women, about my legs. Here is my outfit, which is obviously nothing special, just a t-shirt and shorts.

12 hours ago, kneehighs said:

It's not a style that would work for you because lace shirts, wide legged/high waisted pants aren't your "thing".  Nor is his hairstyle and jewelry. It's perfect because it works for him.

You are quite right, I would never wear heels that low! Although I absolutely would wear that wristwatch.

18 hours ago, Gige said:

First of "Howeveah" took me a moment to figure it out....(reminiscent of Mr. Ronald James Dio - sooooo showing my age!).

I had always believed that open shoes, regardless of heel height and style, SHOULD (not could or can) not be worn with either tights (nylons, hose, etc) or unpainted toenails.  Likewise, I automatically assumed that toenails should be painted with open toe shoes, especially with pumps worn for a "dressy" occasion or event. Well, yesterday, I noted that my immediate supervisor was wearing a pair of Toms - "Monica" slingback wedges and her toenails was not polished/painted. Thus, this gave me the inspiration I needed to try it for myself. As, I will pick-up some open toe sandals and see how it looks! 

Neighbor to the east, you know what the weather has been like lately, and it doesn't show any sign of letting up. You won't catch me wearing enclosed shoes (outside of the workplace and when safety requires it) until September. As I said before, I have never used nail polish or varnish of any sort, ever. I also do my own pedicures ever since my favorite nail tech left the biz. No one else is touching my feet. One trick I have discovered is to rub just a tiny amount of petroleum jelly on your toenails before heading out. It gives them a little bit of shine without the hassle of painting them. Also, have you tried a buffing block? That will give your nails shine that will last quite a long time, especially on your toenails.

I used to be self conscious about a lot of things. Going to the toilet is not one of them. Though I do suffer from "shy bladder," which makes things difficult sometimes.

2 hours ago, Shyheels said:

I guess they’re out there. Funnily enough he was the only one I saw wearing heels - the wiremen seemed to be universally in white or cream plimsolls. Odd for Leeds

I seriously doubt you would ever find a wireman wearing plimsolls. Wholly unsuitable for the job. 😜

10 hours ago, kneehighs said:

perfect style IMHO. Make sure to swipe to the 4th and 5th pic

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/C6blM-uIVhr/?igsh=YmR3ZnYzNzV5aThj

Forgive me for saying, but I'm still mystified by this perfection.

Just out of curiosity, I perused the shoe collection to see how many pairs I had left from the early years, say before 2015, and it's three. Not counting my first two pairs of heels that I keep for sentimental reasons. So out of a hundred-some pairs, I have rotated clean through to where the majority of my shoes are less than five years old.

The same cannot be said of my clothes. Most of my good dress clothes are probably in the neighborhood of 10 years old. Especially all of my suits. There's nothing wrong with the suits, and I still like them. What I don't like about them are the pants. They are all quite full-legged traditional suit pants. I used to have them hemmed long to accommodate my heels. I had a couple of suits for wearing flat men's shoes, and the rest required me to wear heels or the hem would be way too long. I'm not a huge fan of that look anymore. Even though that's sort of starting to come back, it's a different cut, and I'm still not a fan. I have a number of slimmer cut pants that match a few of my suits well enough to substitute for the pants that actually came with the suit. I usually wear those.

Life has gotten much more casual, and these days, wearing a shirt and tie with no jacket puts me in the top five percent of dressiest clothing at church, and that includes the women. When I say my clothing is old, I basically mean my dress shirts and ties. My pants and my shorts are actually on the newer side.

Here is my church outfit of the week, which was kind of a sad one for me because my choir director of seven years has taken another position at another church. This was the last Sunday that my son and I got to make music with him. I think we finished pretty strong, even though once again, we had no rehearsal.

This week's choice was totally based around my new Stuart Weitzman shoes, the details of which are cataloged elsewhere. I actually have a pair of pants that matches their dark olive green color more closely, but they're getting a little bit ratty looking lately, so I chose a lighter colored, but newer, pair of pants. My shirt and tie were chosen mainly to not offend the rest of the outfit.

I missed celebrating my 12th anniversary of "coming out" in heels. Perhaps "going out" would be better phraseology for shoes. It's funny, I don't remember the exact date for sure, but I remember what day of the week it was, so I'm calling it Wednesday, May 16th, 2012, as the first day I ever stepped foot in front of anybody wearing heels as my own serious footwear. Oddly enough, the location was at my church at a choir rehearsal. Perhaps this is why I think of it now.

The point of this last paragraph is not so much to celebrate my own accomplishments, but rather to note that enough time has gone by that the clothes I bought to match my new persona are starting to physically wear out. I have bought quite a bit of clothing over the years, but I have gotten rid of precious little, unlike my shoe collection. Some of that clothing, like most probably the tie I wore three days ago, predates my heeling days, and a lot of it needs to be retired for one reason or another. Perhaps this is a subject for another rumination in the future.

I wasn't looking for a new pair of shoes, but I have always wanted a pair of high heeled penny loafers. I thought I had found such a pair a year ago when I bought some New Religion shoes of that description, but they had a fatal flaw: No matter how many fitment devices I used, I walked out of them every other step. So I got rid of them. Then, a few weeks ago, these Stuart Weitzman Mocup loafers in olive green suede appeared in my Poshmark feed. Not my first pick of colors, but a unique addition to my collection. The seller kept dropping the price over a period of time, and by the time the price got down to $27, I couldn't resist. And this for Stuart Weitzman!

What I did not realize is that these shoes have evidently never been worn. Not a mark on them anywhere, top or bottom, even though they did not come in a box. They are rather more attractive in person than I thought they would be from the photos. Their appearance is super narrow, even though they don't necessarily fit that way. They have a 5 inch heel with a 1 inch platform, which at one time was a staple of my collection. The heel is 3/4" wide, and is simulated stacked leather.

I wore them outside right away, which is something I used to shy away from doing until I vetted them properly. I can kind of tell fairly quickly nowadays. I wore them for several hours with nothing negative to report.

Not meaning to be a jackwagon, but somehow or other, you switched from third person to first person at the end of the first paragraph. Is this on purpose?

Today, I want to talk about heels, compromises, and peoples' comments.

As many of you already know, I bought a new motorbike about two months ago. I have now ridden it a total of 1,500 miles, mostly commuting to work. A good deal of the reason why I bought a scooter style motorbike is because I can easily ride in heels. Not that I can't ride a regular motorcycle in heels, but to me it's absolutely no fun, and I tend to damage my shoes in the process. The other percentage of the reason why I went to a scooter is practicality. Because of the layout, there is a lot of storage space underneath the seat. This allows me to lock up my helmet and jacket right on the bike, rather than lugging that riding gear onto the jobsite, where I might or might not have a good place to put it during the day.

The safety compromise I make every day is the fact that I don't wear leather pants. I wear a helmet, jacket, and gloves even in the heat of summer, but pants are too much of a pain in the neck. Around my town, I really make some safety compromises, and just wear whatever I happen to have on that is appropriate for the season. In the summer, it's often shorts and sandals. I live in a 25 mph (40 km/hr) town, and although statistical analysis might not be with me on this one, I figure I'm probably not going to get into a wreck around here.

If I need to leave town, usually to go to the capital city of Des Moines, I will not go in shorts and sandals, and here's where the weird compromise part comes in. Up to now, I've never had a scooter style motorbike that could do highway speed. Therefore, I've never considered wearing heels, except for around town, running errands and such. Now, I can leave town wearing regular street clothes. I recently purchased a pair of block heeled booties that seem perfect for riding in terms of safety vs. style, and I've been wearing those, but I wanted to wear sandals went for my appointment with the dentist up in Des Moines. I wound up bringing sandals with me, since I can do that now, and changing in the parking garage. It worked out great!

I have a new dentist, and a new dental hygenist (the old ones retired at the same time). The old gang would always comment on my heels to the point that I would make sure I wore something really interesting each time I visited, about every six months. This new bunch refuses to say anything, even when prompted. I can't even detect a sideways eye thing going on. They are much younger than the old crew, probably older Gen Z or younger Millennials. We all know that people notice, but it seems the younger crowd, if they're not interested in shoes, just moves on in their mind as if it were an everyday occurrence. I guess that's where we want to be, so I shouldn't complain.

5 hours ago, Shyheels said:

While walking in some rather picturesque countryside yesterday, looking at a view not too far off the road, I encountered a young lady wearing blue knee boots with about 2.5" heels - they were emphatically not hiking boots, and quite smart looking. Very citified. What was striking was that she would have been about 6'4" without the heels - must have been nearly 6'6" with them. She was with another young lady, also in tall stylish boots, who was only a couple of inches shorter. It was a surprise to see in the countryside like that. As for me I was in hiking boots.

Would you say that the boots were inappropriate for the situation, or just unusual?

@peterboroughAs it happens, I wore shorts for the first time in 2024 out in public only this Monday. The weather is definitely starting to get summery. I thought I would take a quick snapshot for the purposes of this thread, so we have some stuff taken recently. Not that my style has changed a whole lot in the last 5 years, but it's nice to have an example of something I wore two days ago, rather than five years ago.

I have no idea whether I look super white on the first outing of the year, but I have had zero sun exposure on my legs since last fall. It is always a struggle to keep arms and legs somewhat even, given my construction job. I have to admit that sometimes in the past on Saturday mornings, I have lain out in such a way that only my legs get exposed to the sun, in order to "catch them up" a bit. I ain't got time for that sort of nonsense anymore.

If there has been a change in my shorts and heels style in the last five years, it is that the shorts have become less extreme, and the heels have become more extreme. These particular shorts are from Joe's Jeans, purchased used on Poshmark for $14. They are size 27, which is the equivalent of size 4. As you can see, they're not super short, and they're not super tight. I would prefer them to be slight more of both. They have a 4 inch inseam, and I wish they were about an inch shorter, and about an inch less baggy in the legs. However, I'm not going to mess with them. They're fine. I have literally 20 other pairs of shorts to change them up with. One has to be careful to not get carried away with shortness and tightness, especially as a guy.

The sandals are Nine West Potpourri, one of my fairly extensive collection of wooden heeled shoes. They've got a 4 3/4" heel with a 1" platform, so not super high. I would consider them to be a walking heel, and fairly casual looking, so they don't clash with the casualness of the shorts and t-shirt.

This is what I feel works best for me personally, but obviously everybody has different tastes, styles, and bodies. I hope you find something that works for you.

18 hours ago, Rockpup said:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/9ydbt4t9rrw25z2yoilk4/2024-05-23-15.53.21.jpg?rlkey=9bxtw0fte0pno0bah3f13euxb&dl=0

Recently got some So Kate 120mm booties. I’m a bit out of practice for heels this height, but I plan to wear them out for dinner for our tenth anniversary in September, so I’m getting lots of practice.

Super nice looking booties! Just curious, what is the actual heel height in your size? Those look somewhat taller than 120 mm to me, and definitely more than I could manage.

Oddly enough, I wore pumps over the weekend, and I have several pair in this general style. All of them are between 4 1/2 and 4 3/4 inches. This particular pair, which are Steve Madden Daisie, are quite comfortable. I had them on for about five hours, much of that standing, and never regretted it. In fact, I did not feel anything but good vibes.

To go along with the main subject, however, I can't just slip these things on or off. It's a bit of a production. The good thing about this is no unintended shoe loss. I still do not understand how some people manage to slip right into their pumps and still walk around normally.

This week's Church outfit. It was a special week at our church. We had a special service to commemorate the 175th anniversary of our existence. It was a nice service, and many people from the days of yore travelled a long way to attend this service, some of them pastors from my youth.

What I did not enjoy about the service was the music, which was contemporary Christian Pop, and the apparent contemporary band dress code, which was a red t-shirt proclaiming the 175th anniversary of the church. I don't normally play with them, but their guitarist was out of town. There's nothing wrong with a red t-shirt, but I looked much nicer than the rest of the band, if I may say so. I did don a red t-shirt after church to do a little bit of grocery shopping, this one featuring our arch rival college. I think I know how I came to have this t-shirt, but it's a long story, and nobody cares anyway.

Ah, the old shorts and high heels question! Once upon a time it was a question that wasn't even asked. Yes, Daisy Duke was on the TV every single week in shorts and heels, but nobody outside of a club, or maybe a car show, dressed like that in real life. Then suddenly it was ok, and even I can do it.

For me personally, if I'm going to wear shorts, I'm going to wear sandals. Though I've modeled them before, I would never wear an enclosed shoe with shorts, unless I'm playing tennis. If I'm actually working outside, I'm covered head to toe (for sun protection), so it's not about the heat, it's about the style. I do usually wear open toe mules with shorts, and they do tend to have a wooden heel. But not always. I don't often wear stilettos with shorts, and I'm not 100% sure why.  Perhaps stilettos with shorts still have that "clubby" look about them that I don't necessarily want to wear out and about under normal circumstances. Wedges also seem to work very well with shorts. For some reason, wedges seem to take the edge off the look.

Oddly enough, I do not have all that many pictures of me in shorts, probably because I've been doing this church outfit of the week things for some time, and I still will not wear shorts to church. Even though many people do this nowadays, it just seems wrong to me. Especially when I'm on the livestream camera that gets saved forever and ever. So I'll find some quick examples. I don't do long shorts, because they simply do not look good on me. I don't have a lot of real estate to waste covering it up.

I'm not into dangling, but I figure the title would attract more attention than something more mundane. And it's not totally clickbait--this is a serious question I have for our members. How tight do you have to wear your slip-on shoes to be able to actually function in them? The answer for me personally is, pretty tight. This goes especially for pumps, but also for mules. I have very few shoes that I can easily slip in and out of, hands-free, and those that I can, usually get relegated to house shoes for that very reason. I say "relegated" because there's a converse consequence to and easy on-and-off. Those shoes typically do not make good walking shoes, because I step right out of them mid-flight. And that's just the mules.

When it comes to pumps, I know there are some of you who wear them pretty much exclusively. @Jkrenzer And some of you can't wear them at all. @Cali I was kind of in the Cali camp before, as it was difficult for me to walk in pumps without simply stepping out of them, which is highly irritating. Still to this day, I don't usually wear pumps unless I feel I need to really dress up for a number of reasons, but the main one is that I have to work at it to keep them on. I have found over the years that heel grippers make zero difference. If anything makes any difference, I need to add a ball of foot pad to take up some room, but that often makes the toe area super tight.

Now to tie in the title with the subject: Are some people's feet actually built in such a way that they can actually just slip into their pumps and actually walk in them? Can some people just simply flex their foot and pop their heel out of their shoe and still actually walk in such a shoe? Or is this just social media trickery?

20 hours ago, Gige said:

Update (Reprise)!

So, for this past week, Frick told me that she has been involuntarily transferred to another building and Frack has been on vacation - it has been absolute bliss! After considering the words of others members in response to this post, I decided to move my work station away from Frack so that I no longer have to listen to her comments regarding my appearance - I have no plan to let her know I have done so. It has been such a delight to know that I can just be myself without having to hear/endure Frack's envious comments about my appearance or the like. I agree with Mlroseplant that it is hard enough for us to be ourselves and Frack's needling only made it that much more difficult for me to do just that - be myself.  I find it to be interesting that of all the people who made their way into my office this past week, not a single person made any comment regarding my outfit or appearance.  And if Frack is bothered by my decisions, well, too bad! 

Having spent more than half of my life in the construction industry, now would be the appropriate time for me to make some smart aleck comment, but I shall refrain from doing so, as I don't know you very well, and these things don't generally translate well into print. Some people have mastered the art of good-natured banter, and some people have not. I'm glad it turned out well without the need to go to war.

I think that is one of those things that doesn't translate directly or literally. Accelerator, perhaps? For the record, I don't think I've ever damaged anything with my heels, at least not that I'm aware of.

22 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

What other heel material do you have. Hardened rubber, plastic (worst) and steel tips are all I'm aware of. 

I hear Kryptonite works great. It's kind of hard to find, though.

I did talk about this subject with my only remaining friend from university, the fashionista lady. She works in a retail clothing shop (Loft), and is required to wear at least some of the things that the store sells. She is also very honest with me. I asked her if I am too old to be wearing Daisy Dukes. She said without hesitation, "You can get away with it." Meaning me personally. So I guess I won't worry about it.

Having said that, I really can't think of any women my age who wear short shorts. I can think of one, but she's a youngster at 49, and her appearance is much younger than that. I do know one woman who wears skinny jeans at age 60, and she doesn't stick out like a sore thumb, but again, you would never really guess that she's 60.

Not a lot to say this week. The Asian festival is over, everything is packed up and back home. The second day I wound up wearing my Bruno Magli blue suede wedges both for setup and teardown. We got back home at midnight, and then I had to get up too early to prepare for church. I feel like I keep repeating myself, and this week's picture is not all that great.

22 hours ago, pebblesf said:

For sure.  Normal looking heels, not the crazy stuff seen on runways that most would want to wear.  I've seen Harry in a few pairs, they all seemed pretty tame to me, would be interesting to see pics in the heels you are referring to....

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/red-carpet-dresses/a9645702/harry-styles-heels/

I don't know if this link is going to work, but here is an example of what I'm talking about. Those aren't heels! Not really.