mlroseplant

I have an update about the banking gal. It would appear that she's for real. I went in there with my son to deposit money he'd earned from mowing grass. This was on a Friday afternoon, and I'd just gotten home from work, and was not dressed up at all. I think I had on a t-shirt and jeans with my sort of house slipper style thong wedges, about 3". While we were waiting, the High Heeled One appeared again. This time, she was wearing single sole D'Orsay pumps that slightly exceeded 4 inches in height. They were not stilettos, but they were slim (not block) heels. She had on dress pants and a nice blouse, no jacket. Again, even though I was technically wearing "heels," I did not feel I was up to snuff enough to make any sort of comment. Next time I go to the bank, I shall have to make sure I'm better dressed. This gets me all nostalgic for the days when we used to get paper checks and had to go to the bank at least every Friday. No, not really.

Interesting talk about red shoes. I only own black boots, but I just counted, and I have 5 pairs of red shoes. They don't get a ton of wear, but as you can see from last week's photos, they do get some. The two pair that get the least wear are the most casual shoes of the bunch. Go figure.

13 hours ago, pebblesf said:

I love wearing my stiletto boots, but beat up the heels fairly quickly...

I am in the process of doing a semi-scientific durability test on my heels, but I can tell you already that stiletto tips just don't last very long, even with my careful stepping and light weight. A heel with twice the diameter of a stiletto will last at least 5x as long, all other things being equal. In my personal experience. Your mileage may vary.

Crocs actually do make some regular looking shoes (not many). I've never considered them special enough to warrant much of my attention. I have never seen an oxford style from them, I am curious.

13 hours ago, Puffer said:

Melrose:  can you please clarify what the 'public health issue' refers to, and its impact   Is this to do with Covid?   

The public health issue that made us all stay home for a long while and quit caring much about fashion. It is my habit to name it somewhat cryptically in order to avoid stupid political exchanges. I won't even call them arguments. I was referring to dysentery, of course. 😛

21 hours ago, Bubba136 said:

Over time, there have been several questions that keep popping into my mind concerning your situation as covered by your posts here that I have been hesitant to address.  The comments above present an opertunity to mention two that I have been curious about.  1) given the location where you usually take your pictures and the close proximity of your neighbors house to your driveway, I have often wondered if your neighbors are aware of this activity and give you any feedback?  And 2) while living with a reluctantly supportive spouse — but one that really would rather not have to deal with the situation— for over 36 years, I realize that there is a point where tolerance has been stretched almost to its limit, how do you deal with this situation? ( l learned early on where these limits were and vainly tried never to exceed them, which at times was extremely difficult.)

Ok, fair enough. 1) The driveway has become a thing now, I guess. It has largely replaced the drainpipe that @Puffer has admired for so many years. I suppose I could turn 90º and have the background be the deck and the back yard, but that is often littered with cast-off motorcycle parts and other junk like used oil bottles. I probably wouldn't take any pictures at all, except for this group. The driveway is a compromise between decent photo quality and spending lots of time to grab a few snapshots. My wife used to make me go to the park almost every Sunday after church and take photos of her there, which she would then post on social media. For a number of reasons, this stopped after our public health issue reared its ugly head.

But I still haven't answered your question. Our neighborhood is fairly static. Typically, houses only come up for sale after a death. Therefore, my neighbors are long familiar with me, and don't question why I have a tripod set up in the driveway. They probably know. Frankly, it's still a little embarrassing to think about a 56 year old man taking selfies, but ah well.

2) As I alluded to earlier, my wife is a bit of a fashionista, or used to be. For reasons I won't get into, that is largely no longer the case. Sometime around 2018 or 2019, I got to a point I wanted to get to, as far as pushing my fashion limits, and have pretty much stayed there. Of course, the public health issue changed everything, and it seems since then, my fashion choices are not a subject of discussion anymore. I naturally know which situations require me to be invisible, and in which situations I can do what I want. The subject has not really come up for a long time. She doesn't even get mad when I occasionally get a new pair of shoes in the mail.

The skirt, on the other hand, that's a one-off. I'm not really being serious. It was truly an experiment, and my wife certainly doesn't need to know about it. It would be foolish to upset an equilibrium that largely works for us. She rightfully has other, more important things to criticize me about.

And now, a question for you. As I recall, one of the stipulations between you and your wife was that the kids never know about your fashion proclivities. How did you manage to wear heels at all during that couple of decades of child rearing?

I guess I didn't realize that toes had a box.

On 4/30/2024 at 3:11 PM, HappyinHeels said:

Mlroseplant,

Well-done on your whole-hearted JKrenzer endorsement! Practice over time makes just about anyone master a skill whether it’s walking in heels, learning electricity, or delving into amateur radio. Time spent in heels will also tone those calves. Keep it up! HinH

I don't believe this should be phrased in the future tense. Haven't I done enough time already? 😆

20 hours ago, Bubba136 said:

Great look.  Appearing in Church dressed like that must make more than one woman jealous because everything matches in good taste and, I would guess, not one female would be wearing higher heels than you do.

WOW.  What a great look. Going anywhere wearing that outfit would take a ton of courage.  Especially to Church service .  But, then again, you have been wearing heels to church for a long while, I doubt the skirt would raise many eyebrows.  Any criticism given might be along the lines of the skirt is way too short for wearing at a religious service.  (You should submit the picture of you sitting on the motorbike to the Best Dressed contest.)

I think I told the story about when the 40-ish woman wanted to compare heel heights at church, and as it turns out, she severely underestimated the general height of my heels. As an aside, her kid is graduating high school this year, my kid is a freshman. It just tells you how old I am compared to most parents.

It is really unlikely that I will wear that skirt beyond the confines of my driveway. The main limiting factor is not the church, but rather the fact that my wife would probably kill me. I know at least one neighbor saw me out there with the tripod capturing the above images, but the wife was working. She has no idea. As far as the length, we are several inches from that being a concern. As a normal congregant, I could get by with wearing much shorter to church. Not that I would, but I could. As the public face of the church via livestream, however, I don't know what the limits would be, and I don't intend to find out.

And now, it is time to reveal the week's truly interesting event--my "new" motorbike, which broke down after only having owned it for one week, is now back in service.

Actually, that's not the news. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves. I just wanted to see what it would look like. I don't hate it.

12 hours ago, HappyinHeels said:

Don’t like it when a company makes a shoe which does fit me but it comes with an ankle strap 1-1.5” shorter than normal. It’s relevant if one has to perforate some extra holes in the strap. Don’t see a lot but it’s annoying. HinH

12 hours ago, Cali said:

I have a new pair in my closet waiting for an old pair to give up a strap so I can lengthen the straps that came with the heels. Or maybe I'll just pick up a pair of old shoes at a yardsale.

Gentlemen, if I have a problem with straps, it is usually the opposite problem--I run out of holes before the strap is tight. I suppose this, among other things, is why I favor mules.

I find myself very short on time this week, but I'll make a quick post about last Sunday's outfit, with a teaser/promise of more to come. Shoes are Via Spiga, and I got along with them a lot better than I did the last time I wore them, comfort-wise. Pants are Loft, and shirt and tie are no-name Vietnamese. They are not actually unbranded, but they have some silly, so-very-Asian name like "Caring Known" or something like that.

I am not sure how I missed this post for nearly a week, but evidently I did. Thanks for sharing your story.

21 hours ago, Bubba136 said:

Speaking of Nike, I just read an article on U Tube where the star of the University of Iowa’s women’s basketball team, Caitlin Clark, signed a huge endorsement contract with Nike shoes worth over 50 million dollars, even to a point where Nike will produce a “signature shoe” with her name on it.  I am wondering if mlroseplant has any interest in getting a pair when they become available?  If he does, he might be setting a new trend by wearing a pair of women’s basketball shoes by men.  A new thing for sure, but it just might catch on.

It seems unlikely that I will make such a purchase. For one thing, I rarely wear "nice" sneakers, so I could hardly be a trendsetter. For another, I'm sure the asking price is way more than I would want to pay. As an aside, though I didn't really know him at all, I went to school with Ms. Clark's father. Somebody asked me recently ago if I knew him, and I sort of vaguely remembered him. "Why?" I asked. I didn't even know who Caitlin Clark was a couple of weeks ago.

20 hours ago, pebblesf said:

I really want a pair of those nike sky high wedge sneaks.  I wish nike would make a pair of sneaks with actual heels....

Unless you really, really like that style, you ain't missin' much. I bought a pair several years ago, 8 years ago to be exact, thinking that I was going to be getting away with something forbidden, and I did. Nobody ever said anything or gave me the stink-eye. That's because they're not really high enough to be considered heels in my mind. What you get is less than 2 inches of steepness* between forefoot and heel. They are clunky, don't work well with skinny jeans/pants, and in my estimation, not particularly comfortable. They're a bitch to get on and off, which is kind of a big concern when you're in Vietnam, as you have to remove your shoes quite often, maybe even to go to a restaurant or coffee house. Because your foot only goes about halfway down into the shoe (because of the wedge), they have all the disadvantages of a low-top sneaker, along with all the disadvantages of a high-top sneaker. I've worn them maybe three or four times since 2016, just to remind myself why I never wear them. Either go with flats, or wear real heels.

* I believe they are advertised as being 2 1/2 or 2 3/4" or something like that. Technically, that's true, and they would give you 90% of that in extra standing height, but you have to figure in the fact that the toe area is nearly 1" of that. Hence, my "less that 2 inch" figure. That's a flat, really.

21 hours ago, bluejay said:

Bubba, I like Nine West shoes and knee boots. They fit me well and I have many pairs of each, from pumps, sandals, slides, knee boots, and ankle boots. It's a great brand for my feet.

Happy Heeling,

bluejay

I can't say that I've never had a bad pair of Nine West shoes, because I have, but overall it's a fairly solid brand, and I can pretty much count on a size 9 being a size 9. It's also the one brand from which I have bought several pairs new. One pair lasted me 11 years and 200 documented miles before it failed catastrophically. I still have several pair in my collection, though they don't dominate like they used to. Of course, I don't buy new anymore, both because of cost and because of style.

Yeah, squidgy carpet can be precarious! Our church used to have such carpet, and I have always thought it was very unfriendly to high heels. Not a big problem now, but it certainly must have been when the carpet was installed originally. By that I mean back in the day when women actually wore high heels. In fact, I once wrote a standup comedy routine which contained reference to the squidgy carpet. I never got to try it out because of our international health issue. The carpet is now gone, replaced with some sort of industrial grade carpet that seems to be installed with little or no padding. This benefits everyone in three ways: 1) Steadier footing, especially in heels. 2) The pipe organ now sounds noticeably more brilliant, due to more effective reverb. 3) No one will ever have to listen to my comedy routine. It was terrible!

The 20,000 steps wouldn't bother me too much, as long as it was on pavement of some sort. I have proven that a number of times in the past few years, exploring the limits of my stamina in heels. However, I still don't like to walk more than a few steps on anything soft like dirt or grass.

Not that it has anything to do with anything, but my son and I noted last weekend that our two "big" lawns, and by "big" I mean about half an acre, require substantially more steps to mow than do our four "small" lawns combined.

17 hours ago, Cali said:

As a kid I had metal taps put on my dress shoes. Hated those metal tabs. I also had to endure arch supports, which caused uneven wear. In the 50's early 60's that's part of what they did to control uneven wear on my shoes.

The real problem was that my foot is very different from a 'average' man's foot, so all those those things they did to me was to try to force my foot into a boy's shoe. I now understand the damage it did to my knee and ankles.

Women's heel is like wearing slippers compare to any ill-fitting men's shoe.

It is a vague memory, but I remember that my pediatrician was concerned that my natural gait was too pronated. I had small lifts put in my shoes, underneath the inside parts of my heels. Not exactly arch supports, but something like that. I cannot remember them really feeling like anything. Whether they did any good, I can't say, but I will say that as an adult my shoes have always worn out evenly from side to side. What they should have done is put me in heels from a young age, then maybe I wouldn't have had a terrible looking walk for so many years.

Men's or women's shoes make very little difference to me, it's mainly the narrower width that led me to women's shoes, ever since my favorite boot company quit making work boots that were both narrow and short. Evidently, they thought the only people with narrow feet also had long feet.

34 minutes ago, Shyheels said:

I do wear OTK boots with heels (and without) and they are a benefit - especially on cold mornings, either inside or standing at the tiller. Stilettos though would not only be silly but dangerous)

Yes, I quit wearing high heels in silly situations a long time ago. Some would argue that no, that's not the case, but you don't catch me mowing lawns or doing any sort of heavy lifting in heels anymore.  I seriously doubt that I'll ever visit Disney World or any of its iterations, but if I did, I'd probably wear heels. That is undoubtedly bordering on silliness, but silliness that I'm aware of and can deal with.

Another week, another church service. I was feeling rather more ambitious this week, and wore my @Jkrenzer approved shoes. I do believe that my Steve Madden Daisie pumps were the ones that got me started off with my smallish collection of traditional pumps. I do not often wear pumps, partially because I do not have that many venues really to wear them. Also, my budget does not include funds to buy real leather pumps, so my time in them must necessarily be limited.

Having said that, I spent about three hours in these yesterday between church and grocery shopping. As noted elsewhere on this forum, these are a little bit difficult on the polished tile floor of my local supermarket. A heel tip replacement to hard rubber would improve things markedly. However, after it was time to change clothes and shoes, I was not ready to take them off. They are actually quite comfortable for 4 5/8" stilettos. I am on the verge of being able to walk in them. I can fool most people.

One of the things about playing in the band at church is that, in time of need, I can sneak off to the bathroom during the first part of the sermon. I would estimate I do this about 20% of the time, depending upon how much coffee I have consumed on any given Sunday morning. The only person who can see is whoever is serving as liturgist that morning. Yesterday morning, I quietly opened the sacristy door to make my temporary escape, and the liturgist stopped me and whispered, "You're going to walk down those stairs in those shoes?" I whispered back, "I know! I'm taking my life in my hands, aren't I?" The stairs back there are very steep. Then she mentioned it again after the service. Well, you know, 12 years of more or less constant practice never hurt a thing.

I have never tried metal tips. Frankly, I'm afraid to. Oh, they'd be fine on concrete and such, but the second you skated into anything with a polished floor, watch out! I personally prefer hard rubber, Vibram or something along those lines. They meet the two requirements of being both long lasting and slip resistant. True, you don't get quite the clicky sound, but that's not all bad.

But @Bubba136, you're the one with the 60-some years experience. What do you use?

It depends upon your definition of "wear." You mean, like, out? In that case, it would be my Steve Madden Daisie pumps, catalogued elsewhere in this forum. What I am using as house shoes this week are my Style & Co. wedge thongs, which might not be recorded anywhere on this forum. After all they are not really "high" heels.

10 minutes ago, Puffer said:

Does not walking 'heel to toe' put an initially large weight on the small tips of high stilettos, as they are the only item in ground contact?   Conversely, walking in low heels, where the foot is placed almost flat when walking, would surely distribute one's weight more evenly?   I can see that, if standing still, more of one's weight goes forward as heels get higher, but wear when stationery is minimal so not really relevant.

I suppose we'd have to do some sort of a test or experiment to find out for sure, and I'm not sure who'd be willing to do it--buy and wear kitten heels, that is.

On a more serious note, I am not sure whether the tips would in fact wear out significantly faster than a more normal height stiletto heel. So much of that would depend on exactly how you walk. I have changed the way I walk in heels over the last 12 years quite a bit, to the extent that my heel tips on average now last anywhere from 150 - 200% longer than they used to (see what I did there?). This appears to be true for any style of shoe, from stilettos to chunky heels. I now put far less force on the heel at first contact than I used to. This is a conscious effort, but increased ankle flexibility might cause me to do this a bit more naturally than I used to.

Theoretically, putting one's heel down very gently should be much easier in kitten heels than higher heels, then very quickly, the whole shoe will be touching the ground, and although more weight will be on the kitten heel as opposed to the normal heel, unless you are doing some sort of odd wiggle as you step, the shoe shouldn't move, and therefore shouldn't wear hardly at all.

On the other hand, such factors as heel flex and shank flex could blow that theory out of the water, causing quite a bit of wear when both toe and heel are touching the ground. If somebody wishes to conduct such an experiment, more power to him, but don't take video of it--I do not need to see any more kitten heels, ever.

20 hours ago, Bubba136 said:

Sorry for probably misposting/misplacing my comment in this thread.  But, given the state of affairs existing in our existence today, finding the right thread would not have been easy.  Likewise, in my opinion, any man appearing in public wearing a pair of dainty “Barbie” girly shoes obviously is making a statement that would probably be received in a similar manner- One of surprise and total “wonderment.”  Not that I don’t like the shoes because I really think they’re exquisite and probably would wear them around my house but not outside in public.  Because, they are way too girly for my taste and I don’t feel any need of making a statement.  Like I posted before, this is the time for being “Offended.”  However, I chose curiosity over offense because if I am comfortable wearing my girls shoes in public, why shouldn’t anyone else wearing anything they want to wear, as long as it is legal, also be?

Oh, I don't think anybody is in the least offended by your post, I'm just saying that according to the terms of this website, we are not allowed to discuss the subject plainly and openly. And especially not at great length. I am not opposed to such discussion, but not here.

The real question is whether such a presentation is cringeworthy. I realize that it's a very subjective thing, but it's something that I consider pretty much every day. My problem is that I consider myself a representative of an unofficial movement. It is my desire to show that men can indeed look good in fashions that are outside the "traditional," without pushing the envelope so hard that people immediately think I look totally bizarre.

In reference to your recent observation, I think a large part of the reason why I get away with what I get away with is because I am not physically large. I can think of a few situations where I could get away with wearing the Barbie shoes, or indeed heels in general, without looking too extreme where some of my larger male friends and colleagues could not. That is probably a bias on my part, but I am quite open to changing my opinion, as I have done many times over the course of my life.

21 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

I agree 100%.

There is no balance to the shape. Anything under 3 inches should be blockier. The heel tips must wear very fast. Higher heels carry a lower percentage of weight on the tips. Walking heel to toe the shoe is already level before all the weight is transferred from the other foot.

Another pet peave, people who say more than 100%. There is no such thing. 

"I agree with you 1,000%." I had a guy at work who would say this on a fairly regular basis. I pointed out to him several times that this was impossible. I think he understood on some level, but continues to this day to say 1,000%. I think he just likes saying it.

It was very much in style to say "give 110%" a few years ago, at least in the U.S.  Although this is also theoretically impossible, as an industrial electrician, I can make this one work, and teach a valuable old man lesson at the same time. Most industrial facilities are heavily based on electric motors. Of course, the customer always wants to use the smallest motor possible that will still do the job. Unlike internal combustion engines, most electric motors are designed to run at 100% of their rated capacity continuously. This is why you can replace a 5 hp rated Briggs & Stratton small gasoline engine with a 3 hp electric motor, and whatever it is will probably work better with the "reduced" power.

However, electric motors are always rated with something called a "service factor", or "SF" on the nameplate. This is a rating which tells you whether a motor can be pushed beyond its rated capacity briefly. A typical service factor for an industrial motor is 1.2, meaning that for a short period of time, you can overload this motor by 20% without damaging it. Put another way, it can give 120% for short periods of time, e.g., on startup, when the loads are temporarily higher than they are at full running speed.

I believe that we humans have a Service Factor also. We can, in fact, give 110% (SF of 1.1) for short periods of time when necessary. However, if we are asked to give 110% on a regular basis, guess what? Just like that electric motor that is overloaded too often, we're going to burn out, and we will have to be rebuilt or replaced. Hopefully not after going down in flames.

I have been getting this persistent advertisement in my social media feed for the last couple of weeks. It is a 30-something woman telling me that the staple of my shoe collection should be kitten heels. Every so often, it seems to happen that somebody, somewhere, thinks that the kitten heel is the greatest compromise ever, and that the fashion vs. function problem has finally been solved once and for all.

Luckily, hardly anybody falls for this nonsense. I submit that the kitten heel is the worst of the worst. Not because they are actually the worst looking style ever, but because they pretend to be something that they are not. Yes, Crocs look way worse on an absolute scale, but at least they have no pretense of being anything other than what they are. A 2 inch spike heel has no place in this world. If you need to wear a 2 inch heel, get shoes with block heels, pretty please!

I am not entirely sure what the above reply has to do with Mr. X's "Barbie" shoes, but it is something worth discussing. Not here, and not now, regrettably. I'm afraid we are dangerously close to the line of demarcation.

As a reply to @Mr. X, I have mulled upon these shoes for a couple of days. While I have zero objection to them in principle, I agree with the others: Where, exactly, do you plan to wear them? Are you going to the Junior Prom next month? And I don't mean to ask that question just to be difficult, I have a few pairs of "out there" shoes that I have actually worn in public.