mlroseplant

12 hours ago, hiddenheels said:

So my latest challenge to myself is to wear tight jeans with pumps, as I really like the look. Have previously worn a pair of black jeans and black 5" stiletto pumps, matt black non-leather, a combination I think looks fantastic. I also have a pair of 4" heels, which are leather, and they're super comfortable, but they have a small platform, and are more office-style than elegant. Been complimented when wearing either one! I've been on the lookout for some very elegant, **leather**, black pumps. But have so many heels that I didn't want to spend a lot...

Was at a department store a few days ago, just browsing around, lots of clearance stuff. Checked out the shoes, not expecting to find anything, as it's a pretty lame dept store otherwise. But my eyes caught one (and only one! how sad) shoe with ~4" heels. It was a very attractive looking pair of pumps, black, leather. These ones specifically:

https://www.stevemadden.ca/products/vala-black-leather

Not sure why that store sells shoes from all sorts of different brands, but whatever. Clearance, ~$90, plus 30% discount. Awesome! But only had like 2 sizes, nowhere near close to what I need. Disappointing.

The shoes looked so gorgeous, couldn't get them out of my mind, but didn't want to pay the full $125 (from the link above).

A few days later, visited another store from the same chain, hoping, maybe. Found the heels, but not in my size.   On my way home, drove by another store from that chain, and after some searching found the shoes, those shoes, and they had 1 pair in my size! Quickly tried them on, perfect fit, and bought them... Was ~$70 all in. Probably my most expensive purchase in a long time, but it's exactly what I was looking for. 4.5" heel, matt black leather, pumps. So am happy! Won't have a chance to try them outside for quite a while though.

If you're ever in the market again, Steve Madden has another model called "Daisie," which is very similar to the Vala, but without the severely set back heel. Highly recommend, and you can usually find any number of these on Poshmark for quite a bit cheaper. Most people selling them either never wore them, or wore them once. I mean, let's be honest--they are beyond most people's skill set.

Try looking for jeans on Poshmark, too! There's a ton of 'em really cheap.

21 hours ago, Shyheels said:

Three miles an hour is no mean pace - it’s average walking speed for most people so in heels I’d say it’s quite good. I know what you mean about lippery conditions. I no longer go out for spins in my bike when the roads are covered with heavy frost. I don’t bounce the way I did a few decades ago.

I am not one of those people who likes to walk super fast anyway. Four miles an hour, or 15 minutes a mile, is not pleasant for my short legs. If I need to go that fast, I'd rather just run. In four inch heels, for me a reasonable pace is right at or right under the 20 minute per mile mark. For mid-heels or flats, 17-18 is all right. 22 wasn't bad for the circumstances.

11 hours ago, hiddenheels said:

Out of curiosity, what sort of shoes are these? Also, is this in a park or city-blocks? Just wondering so maybe there's something similar here that I could do.

On this particular occasion, I was wearing my Nine West "Sizzle" oxfords. This first picture is not a picture from that morning, but it depicts the outfit and the conditions very well.

As to where I walk, I simply walk around my neighborhood. I live in a small town (pop. 15,000) in the midwest U.S. The second photo shows a street close to my home. Our city requires the homeowner to maintain the sidewalks (or pavements, if you must), so most are in reasonably good shape, but there is just enough irregularity there to make things interesting. Add in a touch of snow or ice, and it can be really interesting. Good training for the real world!

I am happy to report that after a month and a half of conscious effort to walk in heels more, I can now do my 2.2 mile (3.5 km) loop without really thinking about it. I probably won't do that one very often until spring, simply because it's often cold enough or windy enough that I don't want to walk more than a mile at a time. Last Sunday morning was an exception, with temperatures right around freezing with no wind. My average pace was pretty slow, at around 22:00 per mile, but I did have to be careful of the many patches of ice everywhere that came from the refreezing of the previous day's melting snow. Call me crazy, but I feel this need to keep the rubber side down. I don't get up nearly as fast as I used to.

These look to be in considerably better shape than the red ones. I'm not sure if the red ones are as worn as they appear in the picture, because sometimes photography can fool you.

Take it a little easy on him, it's February, and he's from Canada. I haven't been taking any pictures lately, either. Way too cold to be modeling skinny jeans, especially those with holes already in them! Give us a couple of months.

In addition to our other head-scratchers, 120 USD seems like a really bad price range for Asian customers. I realize that Chinese have, on average, more spending power than Vietnamese, but 120 bucks or its local equivalent seems a bit steep for your average working gal.

22 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

Red at work. This is a old pair of Italian Heels. Well worn and feel like leather gloves.

Yes, they kind of look like leather gloves, too! How many miles do you have to put on before they look like that? Also, what is the sizing like with Italian Heels? I realize these shoes are old, and your experience may not be applicable any longer. 98% of the time, I take a 40 in EU sizes. So many conversion charts that claim 39 = USW 9, which drives me nuts. I'm sorry, 39 ≠ 9. It just doesn't. It's taken me a long time to figure that out.

I have more BCBG shoes than any other brand in my collection. They seem to fit me well, and they're decent quality. There are three basic levels of BCBG. BCBG Max Azria, which is the expensive line, BCBGirls, which is the cheap line, and BCBGeneration, which is the middle line. I think you will enjoy the boots. Too bad the company is no longer in business.

I know it seems a little strange to our Western sensibilities, but that is the most normal guy I've ever seen in heels who is not one of us. Normal for East Asian advertising, anyway, phải không?

Edit, further thoughts: And do you know why that is? It's because he's selling women's shoes, and and not some super-glam, strange looking men's boot with a big honking heel on it. This has got me fairly convinced that any high heels that are designed "for men" are intrinsically inferior to high heels that are designed as high heels.

And yet a further edit: It seems that, after having viewed that video, all of the ancillary ads associated with this site (hhplace) have now all turned to Chinese. Weird. At least they're not trying to sell me Tevas or Birkenstocks.

16 hours ago, Chorlini said:

The problem with downsizing is that it takes a lot of work and above all energy to downsize. Offering shoes for sale, both here and on the local auction sites can sometimes take forever. And when you try to sell elsewhere it draws in a lot of crazies and low ballers. Sometimes it's just easier to throw your unwanted pairs into a local 2nd hand clothes collection bins. Easy to do with cheap shoes, but what about the really expensive ones? No wonder we get out of control collections. I finally understand women in that regard. It takes zero effort to buy new shoes, it takes quite some effort to sell old shoes.

I used to sell shoes, but nowadays I give them to the thrift shop. It just so happens that when I did my latest shoe inventory and decided to get rid of a few pair, there is this one particular pair of clogs that I just don't wear at all anymore. There is nothing wrong with them, I've just gotten out of the habit of wearing them. So I put them in the giveaway pile. Then I discovered what they're going for on Poshmark. Like 150-200 bucks! I know I didn't pay that much for these clogs, but I guess I'll keep them now. Or actually attempt to sell them.

There is no question that Work From Home is here to stay, because of the many benefits to all as mentioned in depth above. However, it doesn't work for everyone (no pun intended). WFH is not an option for me, both because of the nature of my work and my personality. First, it's awfully tough to build any physical structure from home, and second, I'd be fired within months if I worked from home. I'd never get anything done. I'm finally old enough and mature enough to admit that shortcoming. Luckily, I've got a place to go every day, where I'm not allowed to get distracted, but when I leave in the afternoon, I don't think about the job (much) until the next day. There are definite advantages to having work and home completely segregated. My only regret is having a profession where I can't ever wear heels to work.

I guess it is encouraging to see shoes as well as boots in this ad campaign. I'm not going to give CL himself any crap about doing what is apparently a 180 on his former men in heels statements. Even if you can ignore money/profit motives, you have to give people room to change as the world changes. Having said all of that, there are no shoes or boots featured in this set that I would actually wear.

I can appreciate those who like collecting things for the sake of collecting them, but I really hate to possess too many of these items if I'm not going to actually use them, especially since my excess is not necessarily limited to shoes. I do not get much pleasure or satisfaction from simply having 100 pairs of shoes, but I do get those feelings from actually wearing them, and more specifically, wearing them out and walking in them. Believe it or not, I really don't wear heels around the house--well, I do, but they're mainly mid-heels, and the biggest criterion for a good house shoe is to be able to slip it on or off hands free. Typically, if you can do that, it doesn't make for a good walking shoe. On a positive note, I did wear some stiletto ankle boots that I haven't worn in several years to choir rehearsal last night!

Another curious thing about me is that in the past when I have bought doubles or triples of a shoe model that I think I really, really like, not long after said purchase, I've lost interest in them. Not always, but it has happened several times when I've bought them in two or more colors. One of these days, I should make a list of all the shoes I've gotten rid of over the years and the reasons why. It won't be a complete list, but it will be in the neighborhood of 80% complete.

I touched upon this subject on Christmas Day a little bit, but it has been eating at me quite a bit more since then, mainly because I've already broken my resolution and have bought more shoes since then. I didn't really make a hard resolution, but I did say 99 pairs were enough. Now I have to say 102 pairs are enough, and I no longer have quite enough space for everything. I was full up before.

Back when my collection was around 50 or even 60 pairs, I could honestly say that yeah, it seems like a lot of shoes, but I actually wear them all. And it was true! I did have summer and winter shoes, but except for maybe a couple of novelty items, I didn't really neglect anybody. Nowadays, by contrast, I just counted 10 pairs that I have not yet even worn outside the house.

Part of the problem is not just sheer numbers, but style. I would say that about three quarters of my collection is definitely on the dressy side, and that includes sandals. If I could actually wear heels to work, I would not be writing this now. The fact is, I just don't have occasion to wear heels that much, and especially not super dressy heels. The fact is, we don't really go anywhere anymore, especially after the pandemic. I do and will have the farmer's market, at least the one on concrete, but the type of shoe that I would wear there is limited once again by style--it needs to be rather casual. By my seat-of-the-pants estimate, I would say that I wear about 15-20 pairs out of the entire collection 90% of the time, and if I want to be brutally self aware, of that 15-20, there are probably half a dozen pair that I wear 75% of that 90%. I definitely have my favorites.

Because many of my shoe styles are quite dressy, as a practical matter I only have around 52 opportunities a year to wear half of my collection. Doing the math, even if I never repeated at any point during the year, that's one wear per year per pair of shoes. As a practical matter, this means some shoes never get worn at all. This was certainly never my intention starting out, but that is certainly what it has become.

20 hours ago, Rockpup said:

Not sure the brand, but they are dance shoes called ‘character shoes’. I’ve been too lazy to try a pair, but have always been curious to.

 

Interesting choice of words. Too lazy? Or is it that you only have a casual interest? That's certainly the case for me. Every once in a while, I'll think, "Those are cute, I should get some character shoes!" Then I think, "Come on, when am I ever going to wear those?" Never.

https://www.laducashoes.com/products/roxy-tap

23 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

Italian heels is a great manufacturer. In general all European products have this in common.  Most middle tier suppliers don't tell you specifically but do state the heel height based on a specific size and often state height is different according to size. The cheaper guys say a height and don't make any other statement. I never buy without reading the reviews and seeing pic's in the reviews. 

FSJ shoes are the worst about this. I honestly don't know if their heels get gradually taller with larger sizes or not, but their photos are always misleading. Pretty consistently, the first photo, the one they will use as the main photo, will show a shoe that looks like it's in the 5+ inch range. What you actually get is something like 4-ish inches. The set of photos that shows when you click on the product does in fact show the actual, lower heels, but they look nothing like that first picture that made you click in the first place. In my limited experience, they're not horrible shoes, but they for whatever reason purposefully attempt to misrepresent their product in a subtle way.

I don't necessarily have a problem with the overall quality of any of the products I mentioned above, I just find it curious that they would differ in that one specific way. I have doubles of several other shoes, and these three are the only ones like this. I have experienced this twice in the past. Once was the same as the current situation, where I had three different colors of the same model shoe, and all three heel heights were different for no discernible reason. The other instance of this was a mystery at the time, but is now explained. I had bought several different pairs of Michael Kors sandals which were all based on the same basic platform (no pun intended). Some of the heels measured 5 1/8", some of them 5 1/2". I finally figured out that for this particular platform, the line of demarcation is between sizes 8 1/2 and 9. If I bought a 9, I'd get a 5 1/2" heel. If I bought an 8 1/2, I'd get a 5 1/8" heel. I'm guessing that they use the exact same heel for a certain range of sizes, and don't have a gradually increasing heel height for each discrete size.

Welcome to Melrose's thread, where we talk about anything random. Keeping with the trucking theme, are road trains generally company owned, or are there owner-operators out there? The owner-operator used to be a fixture of American trucking, but they are a fast disappearing breed.

I know this is a topic I have visited before, but I have some new examples of this somewhat strange phenomenon. My first example is almost not worth including because the difference is quite minimal, but it's measurable. I have two examples of the Steve Madden "Klory," which I consider to be the perfect all around pump, but for the fact that it isn't leather. I am willing to put up with this because they are otherwise quite comfortable, and I can't think of an occasion in the last several years where I would wear a pair of pumps for more than a few hours at a time. At any rate, the nude or beige Klorys (which is the pair I bought first) measure 4 5/8" up the back of the heel. The black ones, which are the same exact size, same exact model, measure 4 3/4". This is in some ways hardly worth noting, because you notice it neither from wearing them nor looking at them without benefit of a measuring device. Even side by side, you don't really notice it until you place them as I have them pictured here.

The next example is also from Steve Madden. This model is called "Daisie," and is pretty similar to the Klory, but has thinner stiletto heels, and perhaps slightly more pointed toes. However, there is a remarkable difference between the nude patent and the tan patent colors. The nude comes in at 4 5/8", just like the Klory, but the tan pair measures only 4 3/8". Again, same model, same size, different color. This difference is quite noticeable both visually and in actual use.

The last example I have for today are my True Religion open toe mules, model name unknown. I have had four pairs of these over the years, but the first two are long gone for reasons which I won't get into in this post. I have about 100 miles on the black pair, and they have the potential to become my most durable heels ever. Since this is a model that was offered more than 10 years ago, I saw the brown ones and figured I'd better snap them up--you don't see them around so often anymore. Imagine my surprise when I try on my new brown ones, and yeah, they're a little snug, but something else is off, too. It turns out that the brown pair's heels are 4 3/4", while my old black pair is 4 1/2". The difference is actually more than 1/4", but I'm not measuring to the 1/32". Even I am not quite that geeky.

We call them doubles and triples too, but triples are not allowed in every state, and they are shorter than the triples in Australia by a long shot. Iowa does not allow triples, and until 1980, did not allow doubles either, until the U.S. Supreme Court made us.

53 feet is the standard length for a single trailer. If you're doing doubles or triples, I believe the length of each trailer has to shrink to 40 feet. In any case, each trailer is noticeably smaller.

I can see why you'd love those.

12 hours ago, Puffer said:

I assume you mean 'Arctic'?   This is an artic (or what I think you call a rig in the colonies😞

But the coat would doubtless be snug when driving, in an artic or otherwise, in the winter.

Maybe, under very specific circumstances, would this be called a "rig." However, most people call them a "semi." And that is always pronounced with a long "i" sound at the end. People who actually drive semis usually call them tractor trailers. The Iowa Driver's Manual refers to them as "truck tractor semitrailer combinations," which is where the "semi" part comes from.

3 minutes ago, Jkrenzer said:

The image doesn't work 

That's probably because I was in the middle of trying to get the photo to load right side up. I failed at that, but try it now for a sideways view.

I received the same coat for my birthday in red. In this photo, the tags and the wife are still attached.

I have no idea why the picture continues to load 90º off from the way it actually looks, but I'm not going to spend a lot of time trying to figure it out.

On 1/13/2023 at 5:30 AM, Jkrenzer said:

Baby boy🤣

I'm not too heavy, 175 lbs, but it does make a difference as the heel itself is the same size. The force being directly proportional to weight. 

True, but if you have worn through your plastic or rubber tip, that nail holding it on is bound to be about half its original diameter, therefore increasing the pressure on somebody's (or your own) poor floor by about four times what it would normally be. That alone might account for a good deal.