mlroseplant

Nah, you just need to walk more in heels! 😆

I posted elsewhere about the proliferation of platform boots on the streets these days. I don't get a ton of comments on my shoes anymore, but I got a bit of a strange one the other night at our farmer's market booth. It was quite warm, about 90º F or 32º C, and I was wearing shorts and my mid-heeled silver Söfft sandals. Some girl in a short skirt and combat boots came up to me and said, "Man, I sure wish I had worn my sandals!" And then, in the twinkling of an eye, she was gone. Yeah, I thought to myself. I wish you had worn your sandals, too, rather than those hideous things.

In a more casual setting, it is my observation that the platform trend has settled largely on combat type boots with a thick sole, and a low to mid-rise clunky heel. This can range from kinda cool to absolutely hideous, depending upon the extremism of the sole. I even saw like an 8 or 10 year old girl wearing combat boots with a dress the other day. They had 4 inch heels and 1 inch platform. On the other hand, on the same night, I saw another girl of similar age wearing a dress and cute little gold wedge sandals, so there is hope for the future.

One demographic that does not seem to have embraced the huge platform is Asian women my age. They either wear flat sandals or mid-heeled sandals at this time of year, same as they always have. Latinas wear heels sometimes. White women do not wear heels. Trainers are everywhere for all demographics. I am speaking of casual out and about situations, not weddings or church.

A couple of Vietnamese women friends of mine, who happen to be from the same neighborhood in Saigon, both love to wear heels, but they refuse to wear heels higher than about 3 1/2 inches. Maybe approaching 4. Certainly nothing higher than that. The reason they won't is perhaps not what you expect. When they wear super high heels, their calf muscles protrude noticeably, the way that a body builder's do (though not to that extreme, obviously). They find this objectionable. For whatever reason, although my calf muscles are well defined and toned, they are not bulky, even on tiptoe. Therefore, they desire calves that look more like mine. However, I think they are quite happy to do without looking like the rest of me.

I have been trying to get back to walking regularly, as in several times a week. I've been doing all right so far this year, with the exception of the month of May, in which I somehow managed only 5.4 miles for the whole month. This is an outfit I would typically wear for my constitutionals, if it were a bit on the cooler side.

Featured are my third pair of BCBGirls "Bonny" mules, which, as I've said many times before, are much better walking shoes than you'd think. The last pair of these failed at about 115 miles, which is somewhat disappointing, but better than some. I shall be interested to see if pair No. 3 lasts any longer, because I have refined my walking style and technique somewhat, and the one thing I have noticed so far is that my heels are lasting significantly longer. I've gotten 22 miles out of the stock tips so far, and they've still got plenty of material left. Typically, I would have replaced stock tips before now. Other shoes I've worn for walking this year have shown the same trend, lasting significantly longer than they have in the past. I almost want to try walking in stilettos (which I gave up doing years ago because the heel tips wear out so quickly) to see if the same is true there as well.

I wonder what it is specifically that she desires?

18 hours ago, StilettoLuv said:

Joe, your tan stilettos are lovely. You and I seem too share a love for the classic high stiletto pump. I especially love that you enjoy your high heels in public.

I finally received my Hey Si Mey 14cm pumps and I love them. I will post photos when I find a way to reduce the size to an acceptable level for this forum. I believe you said that you too had these pumps and I wondered if you have much opportunity to wear them,

I don't know if this will work for you personally, but when I email photos from my phone, it automatically asks me if I want to change the file size. Therefore, I email photos that I want to post here to myself, and the problem is solved without any sort of photo editing.

13 hours ago, bambam said:

Love this sandal style!

Well thanks! Coincidentally, here they are again, in the obligatory bathroom mirror selfie at the farmer's market.

This is the first time this year that I've worn shorts out in public, mainly because I've been very lazy about shaving my legs. I almost had to yesterday, as temps were in the upper 80s (or lower 30s C). Sales last night were respectable, but nowhere near record levels. To keep it in perspective, though, what I consider respectable now would have been beyond imagination two years ago.

This is also the first time this year that I've worn actual "high" heels to work a farmer's market. I've been very conservative thus far about what I think my endurance is, until this night choosing mid heels with an effective height of 3". These BCBGirls Poland are effectively 4" or better, but the height didn't bother me at all. Some other things did, and I might not be wearing them again in this capacity.

9 hours ago, Mr. X said:

I didn't think anyone owned any shoes these days that needed to be cobbled

Well.  .  . that's a load of cobblers.

I was going to just leave it at that, but then I got to thinking. Because I do that sometimes. I do not visit my cobbler all that often anymore. I basically use him to replace heels, or top lifts, as he calls them. However, since cobblers have become very uncommon these days, he's always crazy busy. It's the same with the watchmaker I finally found. Not too many watches out there anymore that you don't just throw away. That watchmaker has got two or three customers in there every time I drive by the place. What was once commonplace has become a niche market.

The outfit of the week is a boring earthtone theme. The short sleeved button-down has fallen out of favor these days, and I'm not 100% sure why. I believe it has gained a reputation of being something only old men wear, young men evidently preferring to roll up their long sleeves with a technique I've never really mastered. Less old man are my Buffalo (Costo) skinny pants, which are also evidently supposed to be going out of style.

What shouldn't go out of style anytime soon are my BCBGirls "Poland" sandals. The feature I like about them best is that they have these little medallions at the ankle strap which bounce off the skin of your feet as you walk, just underneath the ankle. It's an oddly pleasant sensation. I haven't worn these sandals since they broke last year, but I finally got round to fixing them. A simple glue job, with no cobbler needed.

I dunno, I guess I just felt like wearing pink today. Some of it is technically salmon or coral, depending upon your eye. Aldo mules, Loft corduroy pants, no-name Vietnamese shirt.

14 hours ago, SF said:

Well not to sound contrary, but I do.  A beautiful Grandmother clock that stays wound for 7 days and chimes every quarter hour.  Keeps perfect time too.  I love that sound.  

And yes, I see no sense in Tick Tock either.  Seems like a tremendous waste of time, but that's my two cents.  sf

What kind is it? We've got two Seth Thomas "humpback" mantle clocks, one of which chimes every quarter hour, and one Seikosha wall clock.

I have many several pairs of leggings, but for now they have been relegated to the status of undergarments, and for that purpose they work very well. I just haven't figured out how they can work in my normal preferred wardrobe at this time. Of course, mine aren't shiny.

21 hours ago, ohnoberty said:

So 2 things, first regarding egg rolls, and I'm sure I could dig through the forum and find out myself but could you narrow down the location? Even just to the State would be a start.

 

And secondly shouting at the TV or computer, oh yes! Not generally about anything in particular but just often, maybe hurling insults at the stupidity of people on the news,or even just the stupidity of people. Tiktok seems to be the home of stupid and time wasting, not that it's everyone but from what I've seen it's rife.

Do you mean, where was the above picture taken? I think it used to say right on my avatar "Central Iowa," but for some reason they made us change it a while back. At any rate we're in the Des Moines metro area.

I only ever got on TikTok in order to study the mechanics of walking in high heels, using those Chinese street fashion videos that were popular a while back. Maybe they still are, who knows? But yes, TikTok is a very, very silly place. I have no idea why people find it so entertaining. Also, I don't even understand the name. I mean, who, besides us, actually still has clocks that go "Tick, tock?"

Do any of you remember your fathers yelling at the TV? Maybe you've done it yourself. I caught myself yelling at the computer screen this morning. Do you know what it is in this world that really bothers me? When people try to sell a European shoe, such as Jimmy Choo or some such thing, and they convert size 39 to USW 9. I'm sorry, it is not, despite what half the conversion charts say. It just isn't. In fact, I'm trying to recall ANY purchase of size 39 I've ever made where I didn't regret it. I am done yelling now. In fact, I am done buying shoes for a while now.

That looks like something jazz pianist Connie Han would wear.

On 6/1/2023 at 1:27 PM, Peeptoe said:

And whatever you do.... DON'T GET THEM WET! 

 

I'm always nervous about leather soled shoes and the potential for traversing catastrophic terrain. Sorry to hear about your misfortune.  

In my younger days, I always wondered why my ex-wife was so concerned if it rained a little bit when we were out on a dressier occasion. My only experience with leather soles had been with traditional men's dress shoes and cowboy boots, neither of which seemed to be bothered by getting wet. Maybe you wouldn't want to ford a stream, but ordinary weather was not a thing I ever thought about. Until Halloween of 2013, when I discovered that women's shoes are built far less durably than men's, starting with the fact that the thickness of a leather sole on women's shoes is about 1/3 the thickness I feel is necessary to have a leather sole.

I used to think leather soles were the way to go, but I have done a 180 on that opinion. Unless you need them for dancing or organ playing, in which case you can't wear them on the street anyway, they basically and fundamentally suck.

I guess that nothing is impossible with Steve. The real question is whether anybody will still wear heels. Will humans even exist? I guess I'll be dead and won't care.

I can remember being disappointed for the first time about the durability of what were some pretty expensive shoes. It was Halloween, and a friend and I were taking our kids trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. It had rained earlier that day, so everything was quite wet. I had a brand new to me pair of Via Spiga chunky heeled boots that I wanted to wear. I almost didn't, but then I thought, "Eh, they're boots! They're designed for this sort of thing."

Uh, no, they were not. I pretty much ruined those things in the space of two hours. The uppers actually fared pretty well, but the leather sole and the heel covering did not. Since I did not buy them new, I didn't have the opportunity to write any sort of review, but if I had, I really wonder if it would have been fair of me to pan the boots.

Naturalizer and Söfft cater basically to the same market, and I have sort of gone with the latter brand for all of my lower-heeled needs. I used to believe that there was something extra durable about Söfft, probably because my very first pair of Söfft sandals still had the original heels on them when I finally had to trash them, after over 100 miles of use. Since then, I have acquired numerous other Söfft products, and they're not necessarily bulletproof, especially when they get to be about 10 years old before they're worn for the first time. However, they are reasonably durable and I've never had a Söfft product bite me back--they are very comfortable for extended periods. I assume Naturalizer is similar.

This is even more true, if, like me, one prefers to buy his shoes on Poshmark or Ebay. In that case, all that matters is whether the thing got there on time or whether it got there at all.

I concur with Shyheels. Most reviews are useless. However, if you notice 50 bad reviews, and most of them say, "The strap broke after only 3 wearings," then it's probably useful. Otherwise, it's a waste of time. I don't know how many shoe reviews I've seen that have some saying that these run large, so order a size smaller, and a short scroll down, you'll find others saying that these run small, order a size up. By the time I feel qualified to write a review, they have usually quit making the product that I liked. I'm only about 80% kidding.

I am probably a little bit biased, but my wife, despite all her faults, makes the best product available locally. I think it's because she has the perspective of having grown up in Asia, but also having lived in the West for a long time. She understands how to modify the Asian food to cater to the Western palate. Also, to be clear, I did not come up with the business name, "Egg Rolls Yum!" That's about the dumbest name I could ever imagine, but, like my own presence as an ugly old guy in high heels, it doesn't seem to have hurt sales. I do seem to have mastered saying, "Thank you! Y'all have a good night!" in an enthusiastic way.

A standing offer to Shyheels and all other hhplace people. While I seriously doubt we'll ever take our van to Sussex, if any of y'all ever make it out this way, you eat for free. That's not my decision, that's my wife's.

Last night was the 4th week for the "big" farmer's market. For those of you who don't know, my wife has a side hustle making egg rolls and crab rangoons. The "big" farmer's market is not really a farmer's market at all in the true sense of the word, as about a third of it is food vendors. At any rate, it's on a city street that has been blocked off for the evening, so I always wear heels of some sort to work the evening. It can involve up to 5 hours of more or less continuous standing, with loading and unloading bookending the evening. We actually bought a full size cargo van to accommodate all of the necessary equipment to make this operation run.

I have not been very brave so far this year, and have been very conservative in my choice of heels. I have not worn anything so far but my Söfft "Calvados" mules, which are effectively 3 inch heels. I have them in 3 colors: Black, silver, and taupe. The reason I haven't ventured any higher yet is because I have been slacking off on the endurance training this month, and also because our sales volume so far this year is a big upstep from last year. We set up at 3:15, start selling at 4:00, and so far, every week by about 4:45 or so, there is a line of 3 people or more from that time until closing/teardown time at 8:00. I am pretty much tuckered out by then, and ready to go home. Achy feet would be a big liability in such a situation, but nevertheless I'm sure I will wind up pushing it by summer's end.

The Söfft mid heeled mules have not disappointed so far. It is very difficult at that height to notice that you're even wearing heels, and I've suffered no ill effects at all from any of the 3 pairs so far. I hope to get some pictures at some point of me actually working instead of taking a mirror selfie in the bathroom.

On 5/23/2023 at 1:24 PM, Jkrenzer said:

They are, provided it's an up and down day. I wouldn't be able to walk or stand 8 hrs in these in all honesty. 

These are a hot trend on alliexpress right now. They are obviously Chinese which is why I pushed the heels hard before plunging into more colors.

Once the heel tap is worn I'll insert a cap screw tap for replacement. They'll be very loud of course but won't require constant replacement. Besides, who doesn't want to be seen and heard anyway. 

My personal test for heels is my wife's farmer's market booth, and that's only 5 hours of 95% standing. If I can work that in relative comfort, then I have something there. I have not been brave so far this year, sticking with effective 3 inch heels.