mlroseplant

"Thin" is an interesting descriptor, as they appear to have heels of the same thickness of many other pumps of that ilk. I have personally found that the thickness of the heel (within reason) has very little correlation with comfort or walkability. Having so many people describe it as "thin" makes me wonder if it's a bit on the flexible side, which is not good. You'll have to let us know for sure!

The farmer's market season is rapidly winding down, but it's still shorts weather for sure. That may change next week, or it may not. You never know here in Iowa. The reason I mention shorts is because although I wore some pretty standout shoes last night, my blue Bruno Magli "Kira" suede wedges, I got no comments about them at all. However, one mid-thirty-ish lady gushed about my shorts. I do think they suit me rather well, being short enough without being super tight, and not so short as to be really shocking, but I guess I can't get all that enthusiastic about shorts. Another bathroom shot. I have no place else as a practical matter.

My latest is a pair of JustFab "Loola" mules, which I purchased through Poshmark for the low, low price of $24 plus shipping. They caught my eye because a) they were shiny, b) they were cheap, and c) they appeared to have close to 5 inch heels with no platform, which I have been seeking for some time.

As it turns out, they are not quite a full 5 inches in steepnes, but that's probably ok, since I can almost walk in them. The heel height is actually a full 5 inches, as I expected, but these sandals have what is effectively a 1/4" platform, reducing the difference to a mere 4 3/4". Thickness of the heel is a tidge over 5/16", or about 9 mm.

These are a size 9, which is typically too big for me in open heeled shoes, but I think these actually fit fine. There is some real estate around my foot, but it's evenly distributed between toes and heel, and it's not excessive. I hate to admit it, but I have been buying plastic shoes lately, and these are the latest addition to the petroleum based collection. I haven't really truly worn them out yet, so I cannot comment on the comfort and feel, but they seem sturdy enough for cheap shoes, and they may well help me on my goal of mastering slightly higher heels.

As an American, I have never pretended to be interested in such things, but today I do find myself being drawn into the the stories of the queen's life. She was an extraordinary lady.

I thought I recognized those. Did you snag them for somewhat less than the asking price?

I have managed to snag a pair of the aforementioned Steve Madden "Klory" pumps, and shall be interested to see if they are yet another color variation on the same theme. Hopefully, they fit and do not suffer from the same deterioration problems that plague my Daisies. It was one of those deals where I said to myself, "Self, you do not really need another pair of nude pumps, but if they come down on the price.  .  ." So without making an active offer, I waited to see if they would eventually come down on the price, and they eventually did! More to come. . .

22 hours ago, pebblesf said:

Good for you buddy, sounds like great times indeed.  

I worry that I have the "turtle thing" and might be guilty of "clumping around" in my boots.  I'm afraid of watching a video of myself, for fear it will discourage me.  But I do realize that the truth can hurt/discourage, but is needed to make long term improvements.  

I can remember the first time I ever saw myself in a full length mirror wearing heels. I was in my early 20s, and I was so horrified by what I saw that I never put on another pair of heels for 15 years. However, times have changed, and now I can look at something and say, "OK, that doesn't look that great. Why? How do I fix this?" I'm not spending time and money to go to a modeling school or some sort of coach like that, so I have to figure it out by myself. Do not be afraid, my friend. You may find out that you don't look nearly as bad as you thought. And if you do, you can fix it!

14 hours ago, Pierre1961 said:

So better not to watch. It’s already difficult enough. No need to have bad  images in our mind. For improvement only good exemples are inspiring 

I agree that you shouldn't spend a lot of time watching people do something badly, but it can be useful. Sometimes, I just need to answer the question, "Why does this person look awkward?" And then not do that!

14 hours ago, hiddenheels said:

Been working a lot on my posture/confidence. I envy women who can do this without anyone batting an eye. But I rarely see any heels being worn.

Glad you were able to make it out for an extended period. I think it's good to carry yourself well, heels or not. It's probably just flat-out better for your health. One thing I noticed, having taken some videos of myself recently, is that I am starting to do the turtle thing, and I didn't realize it. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, as we get older, many of us tend to carry our heads in a forward position, rather than straight above the body. I refer to this as the turtle thing. I don't know what the real name for it is.

As far as the other, women who can wear heels without batting an eye, I've seen very few. I have seen quite a number of all ages walking in heels this year, and I am sad to report that the number who can do it properly is approaching zero. Whether they know this, I have no idea. I'm guessing they don't, so it probably doesn't faze them, other than the perceived discomfort of heels. I shouldn't be too hard on them, it's something that probably only I notice, since I've made it my hobby to study the mechanics of walking. For something that everybody is hardwired to do, most people walk poorly to begin with, even without the added challenge of heels.

5 hours ago, CAT said:

I wish I could!!!   There is no issue with wearing them for an entire day as I have.  It’s wishing I could do it every day!!!  That would be awesome.   

I think maybe we've had this conversation before, because I often wish I could wear heels more often, but do I really wish I could wear them at work? Yeah, for some of it. I would rather enjoy walking the quarter-mile long buildings when I'm in supervisor mode. However, when it comes to doing any actual work like lifting something heavy, carrying something heavy, walking on rocks and/or mud, and many other things---nah, not really. For one thing, I don't want to mess up my good shoes. If I had a job like one of these server techs where I was guaranteed to never have to run outside real quick and take care of something, sure I'd try to push the envelope and wear heels at work. As it is, I'll just let it remain a fantasy. Because, like the song says, sometimes a fantasy is all you need.

It is unfortunate when a substantive post is the last one on the page, as it tends to get ignored. And yes, I think most people don't think about the distinction between truly high heels and mid heels. I find that anything 3 inches or less is not really a heel for me anymore. However, my learning curve is over with pretty quickly, as I can't seem to deal with anything higher than 4 1/2 inches, and I have the video to prove it!

In my lifetime, I've seen gambling go from being completely illegal to full-blown casino here in Iowa. I don't see that as a positive, but I will say that as a band, Prairie Meadows (local casino with the following slogan) was indeed my "favorite place to play." They paid twice as much as any other gig as the time, and we were done by midnight! I cannot say what the reaction would have been to my heels, as I didn't wear them at the time. I did wear regular cowboy boots, as we played both types of music--Country AND Western.

It's been several days since I posted anything, and that's ok. I have nothing new to post, outfit-wise. I'm continuing to recycle what I've worn. The fewer stories I have to tell, the better for all of us.

I got gushing compliments from a Costco employee yesterday about this outfit, different variations of which I have worn many times. I call it my "earthtone" outfit. I chose to pair it with my Söfft "Calvados" sandals partially because I realize my lower heels are not getting any love lately, and they are good solid shoes that never bite me back. I should appreciate them more, especially given the fact that the Costco employee mistook them for high heels. Speaking of high heels, there was only one customer in Costco at that time who was wearing actual high heels (there were a few others with mid-heels like me), and that was a 10 year old girl.

In other news, the records say that I have been remarkably lazy for the past year in the fact that I have not walked as much as I used to. The last month that I walked a truly significant amount was May of 2021, when I walked 37.2 miles. So far this month, I have walked only 15.1 miles, and most of that was in the last week. My legs and ankles are out of shape. The good news is that my 2 mile route no longer wipes me out muscle-wise, after only one week of getting back with the program. Pictured here are my True Religion mules, which are effectively right at 4" in height (5" with a 1" platform).  I have them in for new heel tips at the moment. The old ones lasted about 45 miles, which is pretty decent.

18 hours ago, hhboots said:

I have those same Steve Madden pumps and speaking of the many shades nude, they appear to be essentially pink rather than nude, but I still really like them.  They are surprisingly very comfortable and easy to walk in, I agree.

15 hours ago, bambam said:

Yeah, my Steve Madden Daisies are amazingly easy to walk in, I almost hate how they feel less like heels, and more like slippers...

Steve Madden seems to have this other model called "Klory." It appears to be quite similar to the Daisie, but with slightly more inward curve to the heel. The Vala seems to go the other way, and has a straighter, more set back heel. Do you guys have experience with either of these? I'm not so much interested in the Vala (I think the set back heel looks strange), but it would be nice to know if the sizing is fairly consistent in this basic style of shoe.

The pointy toed Steve Maddens are actually like walking in slippers. I only wish they weren't suffering from material degradation on the inside. I'm still looking for a replacement pair. The Jimmy Choos suck big time. This is my second pair of Jimmy Choos, and I will never buy another pair again, no matter how much I am attracted to them visually. Thank you, Jimmy, AND the horse you came in on.

22 hours ago, kneehighs said:

Adornment can be a gateway to heels. A stepping stone.  Because adornment can satisfy similar needs that wearing stilettos satisfies. It's a good thing.

Oh I don't know, I think it all depends on the person. Personally, if for some reason I couldn't wear heels anymore, I wouldn't even bother with the mental energy it takes to be a bit different. I actually bought some gals' flat sandals a few months ago. I haven't worn them once. I have no idea why I bought them. I'm kind of a big believer in the "high heel gene." Either you have it, or you don't.

21 hours ago, Tangerine said:

I haven't posted in this forum for a year, and a lot has changed in my life in this past year. First of all, I realized that I am transgender and started transitioning. So I guess I don't strictly belong in the "For the Guys" subforum anymore, but I still feel a kinship with men who have a love for high heels. As for wearing heels in public, I have been doing it frequently since I socially transitioned. I wore these two weeks ago when we went to a restaurant with a couple of friends for a birthday celebration:

My immediate reaction is to say those are way too platform-y for me, but who am I kidding? I'm headed toward that at a tremendous clip, plus they're oxfords, which are my favorite style of enclosed shoe. As for the other part, I am personally none of those letters, but I'm right there with you, sister. We all got to stick together.

19 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

Excellent look. Please continue in the for guys section. It's the only way we can two way and for the most part women have disappeared from the site.

Thinking about that in my opinion tech should just do away with 3 main categories anyway.

Yes, I agree, we should probably admit that we are now a group of guys who wear heels. The couple of women who occasionally visit usually post in the guys forum. The girls' section, when posted in at all, usually contains fetish-esque stuff that supposedly we don't want here anyhow. What would we call the main category, were it to be created? "General High Heel Discussion?" "It's All About the Heels?" "Heely-um?"

I don't know when fashion people started calling this basic shade "nude," but they have for quite some time. I suppose "beige" is too boring. I personally blame the people of Irvine, California for the fact that beige is boring. I know about 3 people will laugh at that joke, but I told it anyway.

At any rate I have acquired quite a few beige shoes, and all of them within the last two years. I never wore this color, or more correctly, color range before, and now I wear it probably more than any other. I could have included two more pairs of shoes in these photos, but one of them is quite clearly taupe, which to my mind is much grayer in color range, and the other is cork, which is the right color range, but the wrong texture.

I have 7 pairs of nude shoes, and none of them are the same shade, which I found very interesting, so I decided to drag them all outside at once to get a photo which might actually capture something close to accurate color. They are all patent leather, except for one, they are all high heeled, except for one, and of the high heels, they are all stilettos, except for one.

Do you all like beige or nude colored shoes?

Not much to tell this week. Our choir director was gone this week, so we played with a substitute pianist. It was fine. No comments. The only thing of note is that the no-name, Alibaba type sandals that I am wearing in this picture are pretty high, very skinny, and yet at the same time very stable and very comfortable. They had a brand name on them once, but it has been worn off long ago, and it was a name that you never heard of.

Second try with my Bonny No. 3 sandals. I experienced no troubles from them this week. We did experience a slow night, though. It was the first day of the Iowa State Fair, which did not help turnout at our market, and it was bloody hot, as evidenced by the sweat marks on my shirt.

The Bonny No. 3s are just about broken in now. Given how long this process acually takes, I am surprised that I ever kept Bonny No. 1. These sandals are incredibly stiff when you first get them, and it takes quite a bit to get them to soften up. In addition to that, when I got the Bonny No. 1, my toes did not really want to bend in the way that they need to bend in order to wear these sandals. I do not really remember, other than the mere passage of time, how my toes got more flexible in that direction to the point that I had forgotten how uncomfortable these things were when I first started wearing this model some 8 years ago.

Included, since it was such a good snapshot, is the brains behind this operation wearing her high viz sandals, which are NOT high heeled.

7 hours ago, alicialehoux said:

they won't be comfortable to wear anymore

The couple who did this wasn't really interested in comfort. They were more interested in taking creative photographs. Alas, they are no longer with us.

I got my Bonny sandals glued back together with a minimal amount of super glue, they shouldn't cause me any problems for the next 25 miles, which seems to be the average life of the stock heels on these things.

In other news, I got some new Michael Kors sandals, reviewed in the "New Sandals" section. Here is the outfit I chose to wear with them. I've done the "grayscale" look before, but this is a slightly different take on it, since I have gray sandals now!

When I saw these Michael Kors sandals on Poshmark, I had to at least look at the listing. I've had several pair of this same basic platform over the years, and I knew they'd fit me in a size 9, even though I usually take and 8 1/2 in sandals. But gray suede? No way was I paying the seller's asking price for what is destined to be a shoe that gets worn maybe twice a year at best. If you don't know how Poshmark works, if you see something that you are interested in, but don't want to buy right at the moment, you can "like" it in order to save it for later. In the process, the seller is alerted that you're at least mildly interested, and many times they will offer you a lower price, often at a reduced shipping cost as well. That is what happened here, and I kept ignoring the offers and ignoring the offers until I got one that was about a third of the price of the original listing. At that point, I caved, and now I own yet another pair of shoes I could have easily done without.

I do not know the model name of these sandals, but they are the same exact shoe as the "Oksana" model, except with a different upper, which in this case features an enclosed heel. Like my Oksanas, they feature a 5 1/2 inch heel with a 1 inch platform, which makes for a pretty steep shoe to walk in (for me, anyway). In one of the pictures below, you can see a comparison between this shoe and the Oksana model I've owned for a number of years. They are exactly the same design with different uppers. They also share the same strengths and weaknesses.

The heels measure just a bit under 7/16" in diameter, or 11 mm. This is a gray area (pun intended) as to whether these qualify as stilettos. When you see them on, they look like stilettos, but when you put them next to a pair of true stilettos, it's obvious that the heels on these sandals are considerably thicker. Nevertheless, I find the shape of the heels to be pleasingly curved and proportional.

I really like the way these look, but their future is uncertain as there are a few negative factors, some of which I can control, and some of which I can't. First of all, if I'm being truly honest with myself, I shouldn't wear these shoes out in public again until such time as I've overcome certain physical limitations. I don't feel like I look horrible walking in these, but I don't look great either. And I'm slower than Christmas. Second, they are light suede. You can apply all the Scotch Guard you want, they are not really compatible with Iowa weather. Maybe if they were black. Maybe. Third, they've got the same problem that all models of this shoe based upon this platform have--weak shanks. This is my fourth pair of this basic shoe, and in my opinion the shank is not nearly stout enough to last for years. I've had one pair bite the dust because of shank failure, and the others have basically the same feel to them--not sturdy.

I do not care for the enclosed heels, because my pants keep catching on them, and I do not think the answer is to crop my pants even shorter. There are those who would say the answer is to wear them with a skirt, but that's not going to happen anytime soon, if ever.

This review sounds very negative, probably more negative than I actually feel about my new sandals, but I'm just trying to be realistic. I'll probably keep them, maybe even for a long time, for those few occasions when they're the perfect choice.

It just goes to show you that beauty is really in the eye of the beholder. I know a couple of Vietnamese gals who really like high heels, but they refuse to wear anything more than about 3 1/2", even though they like the style of heels higher than that. The reason? The really high heels make their calves look too bulky.

It also helps a good deal if YOU are wearing heels when giving the compliment. There is no way I would ever think of complimenting a stranger, and it would likely be a female stranger, if I were not wearing heels myself.

I get three layers of harassment training at my work--the customer's, the general contractor's, and my company's. They're not that painful, but I feel they can all be pretty much distilled down into one sentence: "Don't be a jackwagon." Evidently, people can't seem to follow this simple rule, and evidently a LOT of people can't seem to follow this simple rule. Therefore, we all have to suffer through the training.

20 hours ago, SF said:

Very attractive sandals, have fun with them.  I don't get all philosophical when someone asks about my heels. Usually it's a compliment, and I just tell them thank you, it's something I do.  If the conversation goes further, I will oblige with further details, but most of the time the comment / compliment is merely to take note of that fact that I am wearing nice looking shoes.  

As for folks reacting to or noticing my heels, when I first began wearing heels wayyy back in the 80's, I did get more comments from folks.  But for the past few years, it has been very rare to get a comment.  Maybe folks are getting used to seeing a guy in heels?  Not likely, since I sill have NEVER seen another guy in heels, or gals flats for that matter.  It's a lonely life - smile...  But I will handle the challenge..  sf   

Part of the reason I did it is because I had the time, and the other part is that she (the woman who commented on my shoes in the first place) kept going on and on about how she could do little heels, but not ones like I had on, and started describing her exact symptoms, and HOW do you work a farmer's market in those things? So I started to explain how. Evidently, it turns out she didn't really want to know how. And that's fine.

Since you mentioned it, SF, I actually saw a boy in gal's shoes that night, but had forgotten about it until now. I'd say this kid was probably 11 or 12 and otherwise dressed like your typical boy that age--athletic shorts that were on the loose side, t-shirt, short hair, but with sandals that were obviously intended for a girl. Not frilly or anything, but very thin straps and very thin soles with a 1/4" heel on them. They fit him perfectly, so I'm guessing they weren't borrowed from a sister or a cousin.