mlroseplant

This week I have given up the tie, maybe for the rest of the summer. Church does tend to be much more casual in the summer, although that doesn't tend to affect my decisions about what to wear.

In other news, look for me on the internet. I was out walking this morning, and some dude in a car actually went around the block and came back for a second look with a phone hanging out the window. At 5;30 a.m. He must not be from around here. The best part was, he came within inches of hitting a parked car, and had to swerve at the last minute from not watching where he was going. I really wish he would have hit it. That would have made an interesting police report. "Let me tell you EXACTLY what happened here.  .  ."

I have reached another milestone in my shoe collection. I have a new "most durable shoe" since the death of my Nine West Sizzles, See directly above. I guess I never managed to write about that failure in this blog, but that's probably because nobody would have read about it anyway. The details are chronicled elsewhere. So.  .  . we'll try this thread again.

I present my True Religion, model name unknown, mules with a sort of wooden composite heel. I have them in three colors, as pictured below. The black ones are the ones that have the big mileage on them. I have finally passed the 200 mile mark with a pair of heels. I must have other shoes (such as work boots and hiking boots) with more miles on them than that, but I haven't actually recorded the mileage, so I cannot say for sure. I know people like to refer to having walked "hundreds of miles" in heels, but I can tell you from experience, incidental mileage does not add up as quickly as one thinks it does. That huge parking lot at the shopping mall is, in the grand scheme of things, really not all that big. I don't even try to guess at "incidental" mileage anymore. The 200 miles I've walked in these shoes has been purposeful exercise which has either been tracked and recorded with GPS or walked on routes of a known and established distance.

I have owned 5 pairs of this exact model in total. I still have 3. My story begins fairly early, and by "early," I mean in 2013 or 2014. I bought an orange pair of these within a year or two after I began heeling publicly. I bought them because I was drawn to the "Candies" style wooden heeled mules that I remember from my youth. As many of you know, I am still drawn toward wooden mules, and have around 20 pair in that general style. I would probably have even more than that if it weren't for the fact that most of the wooden heeled sandals you can get are rather on the low-ish side, and I have all the low heeled shoes I need.

Before I get too far off the subject, I will tell you that the orange mules did not last long in my collection back then. I'm pretty sure I donated them or sold them. Yes, I actually used to try to sell my castoffs back then. There were three reasons for this: 1) They were too high for me at the time, 2) They were orange, and I was very self-conscious, 3) I was impatient when it came to breaking shoes in. I can remember walking around the block in them for the first time and thinking, "These things are terrible! They're super tight and uncomfortable, they're loud (in both color and walking sound), and they kinda ugly." They were gone.

Fast forward about 5  years, and I ran across another pair on either ebay or Poshmark, I can't remember which one. This one was dark brown. Being more experienced by then, but still liking the general style, I decided to give them another try. The second time, it was a whole different experience. First, it was obvious that somebody had actually worn these a few times, because the break-in period was minimal. There was none of the squeezing in, little by little, that I had remembered from the first pair. Second, by then, I was used to the 4 inch effective height. And third, they were brown instead of orange. Love is evidently better the second time around. But all was not sweetness and light. Soon after I got the brown pair, I lost a top lift (top piece, heel tip) while on a walk, and I didn't notice it until I got home, by which time I had ground a full 3/4" of wooden composite material off of the heel. So those were trash.

Shortly after that, I went on a search mission and found the featured pair, the black pair. Like the brown pair, it had been worn before, and fit snugly, but not super tightly like my original orange pair. Within 6 miles, I lost a top lift off of the black pair. Luckily, on that occasion, I noticed right away, and walked home barefoot. I am now on my third set of heels after that, each set lasting somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 miles.

Fairly recently, I expanded my collection to re-include the brown and orange versions of this mule. Both pair have been worn not at all or very little, and have required patient break-in. My new brown pair is finally ready for regular use out in the wild, but wouldn't you know, the other day when I was out for a one-miler with them, I lost a top lift! This despite the fact that I stopped every quarter mile and checked to make sure they were still there. Sometime in the last quarter mile, one of them fell off without me noticing. You would think I would notice right away, but you really can't tell with these shoes until it's too late. Luckily, only a minimal amount of heel material got worn down, definitely not a hopeless cause. However, when I take them to the cobbler to get reheeled, I'm definitely taking the orange pair, despite the fact that the stock heels are practically brand new. The stock heels don't even wear all that badly, it just seems like they won't stay on for their entire service life! I'm not taking any chances.

Do I love these shoes? Not really. They are kinda ugly. For one thing, they are peep toe, and I prefer sandals that show at least three toes. The vamp comes up very high, and the contrasting stitching to me makes them look less than elegant. I have no idea how they have come to be the most used shoe in my entire collection, probably because they're comfortable and durable, and I don't really wear them to be seen.

I suppose I'd better put the stats. 4 3/4 inch heel, 3/4 platform, for an effective 4 inch heel height. 3/4" heel width where it touches the ground. I know this has been rather long winded, but it seems a shame to abandon the post since I've come this far.

It has been raining a lot lately. Not the violent storms of spring, but it seems like every other day we are getting some precipitation. I finally had to go walking in the rain or I wasn't going to get in my heeling exercise, and unlike Shirley Temple, I do NOT love to walk in the rain. It is a very important tenet of my life that I stay dry whenever possible.

With a light rain, an umbrella will suffice, but what shoes to wear? I have quite a number that could be ruined by wearing them in the wet, so those are automatically out. As it turns out, I have found the perfect.  .  . ok, maybe not the perfect, but serviceable.  .  . shoes to wear in the rain, at least on pavement. You may think I'm crazy for wearing Prada in the rain, but hear me out. The entire base is made of lacquered wood, and the sole is actually rubber. I'm so glad they didn't stick a thin layer of leather on there like so many designer platform shoes have. The platform is 1 1/2 inches thick, so if one takes even the slightest amount of care, one's feet stay well above ordinary puddles.

When I have to set up for say, a farmer's market in the wet, I wear actual rubber rain boots (mine have a slight wedge heel), but I hate every minute I have to wear those things. I am quite happy to walk down the street in the platform mules, though.

The original question seems to focus in on the fact that they were worn for nuptials, and worn just the one time. For me, what the previous owner did or did not do while wearing the shoes has no bearing on whether I'd want to buy them, unless the activity(ies) somehow compromised the integrity of the footwear.

Just for the record, my ex-wife wore flats for the wedding. They were red, but that was our secret. You couldn't see the shoes because of the length of the dress anyhow, so what difference does it make? My current wife wore substantial heels at our wedding. She wore the traditional aó dài, so one could definitely see the heels, at least when moving.

8 hours ago, Mr. X said:

Here is a new one from my travels today. The weather is getting a little bit nicer here, so I decided to wear a pair of white sandals I purchased recently. With the thicker heel on these, they are very comfortable to wear, and quite easy to walk in for longer periods of time. I was wearing these for a good 4 to 5 hours today with no trouble at all. I like how well they paired with the lighter color of the jeans. It was a little cooler in the morning so the jacket paired nicely. By the afternoon, it was nice enough that I could remove the coat. I could see these heels being a part of many of my summer outfits. 

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who might wear a jacket with sandals. Nice looking ensemble!

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.

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.