mlroseplant

14 hours ago, m1super90 said:

Well, looks like nobody has any suggestions on where to find pictures of highly extended insteps (vs arches). Was worth a shot! 

You have to admit that it's a very narrowly focused interest.

I'm pretty hard core when it comes to sandals and cold weather, but even I have given up already this year, as the temps have dipped into the teens (that's around -10º C) on several occasions. Winter has come early this year!

18 hours ago, Cali said:

What about the parents?  I know at least one had real heels.

The parents are a little tougher to gauge. The kids are up on a stage, and walk by on the way to their proper seats in a long line, so you get a chance to see what each student has on their feet, at least for a few seconds. With the audience, you may only see a small percentage of lower extremities, so no, I didn't see any real heels on the parents. Ankle boots with 1 1/2 to 2 inch block heels do seem to be popular among the Mom crowd this year, though.

2 hours ago, Shyheels said:

Both nice looking boots, very presentable, altough the photography is a bit weird - someone's used a wide angle lens making them look very large in comparison with the legs of the person modelling them. The second one looks like it ought to be a size 17...

So that's how you do that! I'll have to try it sometime. Oh yeah, I forgot. I don't have a real camera anymore.

18 hours ago, SF said:

New sandals, just in time for winter.  I had eyed them last fall, and Zappos now had them on sale.  I could not resist.  The are Abercrombie and Fitch "Austria."  Slightly less than 3 inch kitten heel with a wide vamp strap and toe loop.  Very minimal, a style that I like.  They are size 11 and fit very nicely.  I have only worn them around the house, they are comfy and I hope to get a lot of wear when spring time rolls around.  The only downside, they are all synthetic, but have soft, material.  I much prefer leather sandals but that is getting hard to come by.  

Attached is a pic, I think they look "cute."  Uh, can a guy wear "cute" sandals????  sf

 

 

Um, no. He cannot. It's just not physically possible.

19 hours ago, Puffer said:

My wife professes to now dislike high heels, partly for (alleged) reasons of comfort but more, alas, because she considers them inappropriate stylistically.   She is scathing about my liking for heels as an admirer and, equally, whenever I wear even my modest cuban heeled boots, which she considers ridiculous for someone 'of my age' etc.   She does occasionally wear a modest heel (especially on sandals or ankle boots) and used to like the wedge sandals in question, but they have not appeared for some time.   I quite expect her to roundly reject the new sandals, but I can only try.   (If I disappear after Christmas Day, you will know why!)

I get the same sort of feedback from my wife. She usually uses a phrase something close to, "Look very funny!" Imagine that phrase spoken with a heavy Vietnamese accent, and you've about visited my house. On the other hand, she usually follows this up with something like, "But whatever, you do what you want."

In other news, amongst the young people here in my locality, the high heel is not dead, but it's not particularly healthy, either. At a 7th and 8th grade band concert last night, I counted approximately half a dozen real heels, and probably a couple of dozen short heels. This is out of maybe 100 girls. Zero boys wore heels. Out of the "real" heels, which for the purposes of this discussion means 3 inch or above, there was only one pair of proper pumps worn with a conservative, if shortish, black dress (the kids were told to wear black and white if possible). The rest of the "real" heels were either block heels or wedges, and mostly booties, which makes some sense at this time of year. There were zero "real" heels as defined in my personal world, not even close.

23 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

Fine looking pumps. I have found that rounded vamps can actually be less comfortable than almond shaped vamps. I also have found hose or other foot covering tend to cause my feet to slip forward into the vamp loading my toes a bit more, less friction. I'm wondering if your went barefoot in those if you would have had less long-term discomfort. 

I didn't really have any problems with the comfort of the shoe, it's just that I'm not used to being in that position for that long these days. I tell people it's like ballet dancing or practicing a musical instrument. The subtlety and endurance leaves you rather quickly. I have been very lazy this last month or so. Not that I haven't worn heels every day, but I haven't really gone anywhere, and my walking has been severely curtailed by the cold weather I don't want to go out in.

It may be hosiery vs bare feet, but then again, it may not be. I did not have any trouble with walking out of these particular pumps as I do with many when I wear hosiery. I'm going to chalk it up mostly to not wearing heels enough for the last two months, and losing that hard core edge.

11 hours ago, Puffer said:

Thanks.   I rather agree about the squareish toe, and can understand a preference for a toe-post.   In fact, my wife has a pair of toe-post strappy wedges that I admire and I think you would approve of.   If I can locate them, I will provide a pic for your delectation.

Or, if not, that's perfectly fine too. Though I am now curious about your wife's wedges. I thought she didn't do the high heel thing anymore?

Nevertheless, Lenny Kravitz is not a regular guy, any more than David Bowie was, or Prince was.

Not a concert situation, but similar as far as standing: I wore these shoes to church yesterday. I had them on for about 3 1/2 hours. Out of that 3 1/2, I got to sit down for about 30 minutes. Maybe 45 tops, and not all at once. I am somewhat dismayed to report that I was quite ready to get out of them by the time I got back home. I have been very lazy about following my own advice, and I've gotten out of condition. I find that for me personally, it takes a great deal of endurance training to be able to hack wearing heels that high for many several hours of standing. I've been slacking lately, and it shows. Not that the shoes were painful, it's that my feet and ankles were fatigued after 3 hours, and I was ready to stop.

1 hour ago, Puffer said:

You 'liked' my post, melrose, but would you wear those sandals I pictured?   Just curious, knowing your tastes.

Enquiring minds want to know? In theory, and in general, you are quite correct. However, in actual practice in December of 2022, I would not purchase that particular pair, even at 5 quid. Though it is not too squared off, I find the square-ish toe objectionable. Also, as I hope to document soon and share with the group, I have way too many shoes already. Five years ago, I might have actually paid money for such a thing, but not today.

On edit: I just noticed that I did not actually answer the question. Sure, I'd wear them, though I'm still not sure about that square toe. Also, from experience, I think they would be rather better if they had a piece that went between the first two toes.

I'd be in Krenzer's camp, except for one thing. You said this was your gig? If you're anything like me, you won't even notice your heels until the performance is over. After that, you won't be able to walk properly.  If you really want to wear your heels for the gig, bring flatter shoes for the teardown and loadout afterwards. If attending someone else's concert, yeah, I'd be very careful about what shoes you wear. Standing is way more challenging than walking.

13 hours ago, bambam said:

New 'house slippers', just clogs with a heel for lounging and stuff around the house.

I pretty much do the same thing, lower heels for home, higher heels for outside.

I really need to take some pictures, but I haven't really felt like it lately. So I have to tell you the story in words only.

Our church sanctuary remodel is finished, and we had a rededication ceremony yesterday. It was a bit of a special deal, being both right after Thanksgiving holiday, and also being the first Sunday in Advent. To make a long story short, I had to wear a few more hats yesterday than what I normally do in a church service. I showed up about two hours early to set up my rig and get my bearings in my new environment. I decided to wear some new Steve Madden black patent leather pumps because I thought they looked really sharp. After a short sound check/rehearsal with both bands and the choir, I had to run home real quick to pick up my son before the service actually started.

I actually wimped out and changed my shoes. I shouldn't have been wearing those shoes in the first place, as they had not been properly vetted, but I have that model in other colors, and normally it's no problem. But I decided that I had a lot of running around to do, a lot of things to worry about that I don't normally worry about, AND, maybe most importantly, I am much more visible in the livestream than I used to be, and I didn't particularly want to look like an idiot. Finally, I said to myself, you've got enough things to worry about today without thinking about your stupid shoes.

I changed into some Via Spiga suede and patent leather below-the-ankle booties which had a steepness factor one whole inch lower than the Steve Madden pumps, and I did not regret it. I did not even think about my shoes until the service was over and we were all having coffee and doughnuts.

I actually have the opposite reaction. I am on the short side, at 5' 5", and my tallest shoes make me 5' 9". Most of the time, I'm effectively around 5' 8". Not a seemingly big difference. Nevertheless, it took me years to get used to being that height around other people. After 45 years of interacting with people from one perspective, it was very disconcerting to suddenly see the world, quite literally, from a different perspective. I think I've gotten used to it now.

I suppose one could write a doctoral thesis on the relationship between the fashion designers and the fashion that one actually witnesses on the street. Maybe somebody already has. I'm not seeing a big relationship between the two. I think what our pop stars and our movie stars present has a lot more influence, and even then, it might take, or it might not.

I personally do not know what influence TikTok has on young people, and to a lesser extent Instagram. My 13 year old does neither of those. He's a Youtube/Facebook guy. Then again, he thinks he's 40 years old. He does get occasional questions from his classmates as to  why his dad wears "booty shorts." Not at this time of year, obviously.

What do we count as acceptance, or peak acceptance? I think I'm about there. I haven't been harassed in ages, and cars full of teenagers no longer follow me around, trying to snap pictures. Does TikTok have anything to do with it? Does high fashion have anything to do with it?

Puleeeeeze. You Californians don't even truly know the meaning of the word "cold."😂😂😂

Wore the Dansko clogs last night to another church meeting. They are FAR superior in every way except looks. 100% leather does make a big difference.

I will not deny the appeal of minimalism, both personally and for the planet. However, my musical instrument collection alone would prevent me from living in something the size of a conex. And I can't really feel bad about having all that, because between my son and me, all of the instruments get played fairly regularly. Ironically, the instruments that are never or rarely played also are very small, such as the flute. There is no one in this house that doesn't suck at the flute, and we don't care that we suck at the flute. We are low pitch instrument people in general.

Having blabbed on too far about that, I was once in a spot where I felt I could justify my shoe collection. I could justify it because I could say, "Yeah, 50 pair is a lot, but I actually wear all of them. Well, except for three." Now I'm hovering around 90 at last count, and I can't really say that anymore. There is a point at which it becomes excessive, and that point for me personally is somewhere between 50 and 90 pairs of shoes.

And now, for something completely different, I was attempting to choose a pair of shoes last night to attend church choir rehearsal. I knew I was going to have to move quite a bit of heavy equipment around, so I didn't want to wear something super tall. It was at that point I realized that I don't have any enclosed shoes that are not super tall, except for a couple of pairs of clogs that are mid heels. One of them is my original pair of Söfft clogs I bought as my first pair of real heels for myself. The other is a pair of Dansko wedge heeled clogs, which are probably almost the same height as the Söffft, but a wedge instead of a block heel.

My point is that both are leather shoes, and both have aged well, looks wise. The difference is, the Danskos are all leather, except for the sole, and the Söfft are leather uppers with a plastic sock liner. I was reminded last night why I don't wear the Söfft clogs much any more, despite them being a great looking and practical shoe. They make my feet sweat. Finding a leather pair of shoes that are actually all leather has definitely become harder, and has gotten considerably more expensive in the last 10 years. I would guess it's even worse for something that uses a lot of leather, like a knee high boot.

I think that part of the problem is also that people just want more stuff now, and I cannot claim innocence in going along with this trend. It is difficult for me to imagine going back to having a couple of pairs of shoes that I wear every day. I must also admit to softening my standards about buying only leather shoes. I can get by with it for many of my shoes, like sandals, as long as the structure is sturdy. I wouldn't necessarily want to put my feet into plastic boots for several hours, but in certain cases, going with all man made material is acceptable.

When it comes to stuff actually falling apart and/or failing catastrophically, I've dealt with my fair share of that, and frankly, I have not tended to favor more expensive shoes in terms of durability. In general, it has been my experience that the designer shoes tend to fail suddenly, though they look wonderful when you have to throw them out, whereas the cheap shoes don't break on you, but eventually they get so worn and ratty looking in some way that you have to get rid of them.

I seriously doubt whether the author even knows what a 4 inch or 10cm heel actually is. Few women actually know what heel height they are wearing. Or maybe she's measuring up the side, so that 10cm would actually be closer to 12, which is the height that most couture pumps seem to be clustered around. At any rate, I can attest to the fact that endurance falls off rather quickly without regular training. It's not so much the walking, it's the walking more than 100 meters at a time that becomes difficult. This whole everybody's falling down business, I have no idea what that's all about. Probably exaggerated for a good story.

Evidently, I know how to get youse guys riled up, and I'm not saying that was my intention, but it was a thought when I hit the "Submit Reply" button. Unfortunately, the discussion that developed is not really very productive, even if it is entertaining.

When I made that comment, several replies above, I assumed that there are quite a number of straight people who are irritated when the general public assumes they are gay. I arrived at this (possibly false) assumption from reading comments people have made over the years, and particularly on this thread.

What I have gotten out of this whole incident is that Mark Bryan made some comment to some interviewer that the gay community has made it somehow harder for him. And the response is that, "Well.  .  . WE paved the way for you to be able to do your thing, and now you have shat upon us." I'm calling hogwash on both of these assertions.

WE, meaning those of us here on this forum, know from vast and shared experience that the number of male heel wearers is very low in any demographic. We need to keep that in mind before we go about dividing ourselves up into little tribes. I think and hope that I'm preaching to the choir on this one, because let's face it, none of US have high heel based Instragram accounts with a significant number of followers, none of US have been invited to fashion shows. Mr. Bryan may have a following on social media, but I'll bet you serious money that if I went out and asked 1,000 people in my town who he is, maybe 3 will have even heard of him. The people who will influence society are you and me, one by one. So be nice to folks! We want to make a good impression.

The question that I struggle with is, "Why do I take secret inner offense, if only for a few seconds, when somebody thinks I am gay?" If that problem could be solved, and I don't know how to solve it, none of this so-called controversy would exist.

I went to Walgreen's to get a passport style photo taken. The young lady who helped me seemed not to notice my shoes, or pretended not to, but about 3/4 of the way through our interaction, she said, "I just don't understand how you can wear those shoes. I wish I could." I was wearing some open toed mules that I don't believe I've posted on here yet, but they are basically in the Candies style--single wide band of leather across the toes, wooden platform and heel. They are not super high. My brain thinks of them as mid heels, but with the platform they are high enough that most people would seem them as high heels. 4 1/4" tapered heel, 3/4" platform, if you must know.

The young clerk showed me her shoes, which were a heavy loafer style shoe with about a 2 inch chunky heel. She said that was about as high as she could go without severe pain, and she felt like she needed to wear even that much of a heel because she was five-foot-nothing without them. I never know what to say in situations like that, because it's difficult to discern whether the questioner really wants to know the answer to their so-called question. Since there were no other customers around, I took the time to explain that I started off about 10 years ago in short heels and gradually worked my way up. I pointed out to her that a gymnast does not start off by attempting to do a handstand on the balance beam, you have to work your way up to these things.

She said, "I hadn't really thought about it like that, and you're right!" It was then time for me to leave and go about my business, so I bid her a good night. I do not know whether this was worth reporting, but it was mildly amusing.

I have recently had the pleasure of enduring my company's annually required harassment training. And every year, I say the same thing. I will probably say the same thing next year. The entire two hours or whatever it is could really be boiled down into one pithy statement: "Don't be a jackwagon." Mr. Bryan evidently forgot that rule.