mlroseplant

53 minutes ago, at9 said:

I am UK9/EU43. I ordered my boots from Asos in UK9 and UK9.5. I kept the 9.5 and used them with a contoured insole. The UK9 would have fitted well without but were less comfortable.

I know that conversion is an inexact science. I've often seen UK9 equated to EU42, at least for women's footwear.

At the smaller end of the spectrum, that's what I'm used to seeing, is UK9 = EU42, or in my case, UK7 = EU40 = USW9. What drives me crazy is when it goes even further the other way, and they say UK7 = EU39 = USW9. 39 is just plain too small for me with an enclosed shoe. I've never personally run into a situation where a 39 was OK. Extrapolating up a few sizes, I would absolutely expect that UK9 would approximate EU42, but perhaps that is not the case. I seem to be unable to determine with certainty whether EU sizes increase incrementally at the same rate as US/UK sizes.

In any case, it's just a thought exercise for me personally.  In the real world, I know that I need a 40 for enclosed shoes, and a 39 or 39.5 for open shoes. Those numbers will work for me 98% of the time, with the exception of any direct marketed Chinese stuff, but that's a whole nuther world.

There is another problem with this style of shoe, one that doesn't affect everybody, but it does affect some. Specifically, they are sort of so.  .  . visually dense (not to mention that it cuts you off right at the ankle) that one must be careful about proportions.

21 hours ago, SF said:

Mr Blueparrot.....  Hey, if you like 'em, go for it and have fun....   

Personally, I am a sandal guy....   Happy Thanksgiving...   sf

Evidently, we are in the minority, and a very small minority at that.

13 hours ago, alphax said:

@ShyheelsLouboutins are not known for their comfort and ease of walking in.

I'd still love to try out a pair though they run one size too small for me, from what Nordstroms advises.

 

Yeah,  sure, we'd all love to give it a go, what high heel lover wouldn't, given the chance? But that misses the point, which is that there is a practical maximum heel height, both aesthetically and physically, where shoes leave the land of the classic stiletto and travel into fetish territory. This border varies from person to person, but seems to happen somewhere around 5 inches, give or take (on say, size 38). As Shyheels says, even the lady who can wear So Kates every day can't do Hot Chicks. I haven't seen anybody, even on Youtube or Instagram, who can do Hot Chicks really, really well. I think part of it is that they're just a bad design for walking.

On edit: "Bad design for walking.  .  . " I have to laugh at myself. In any other context than the present conversation, that would sound like a complete idiot talking.

In any case, to my eye, the Hot Chicks don't look particularly fetishy, but ain't nobody can walk in them, so who cares? There may be other shoes of that height that are easier to walk in, I'm fairly sure of it.

Along those lines, I think the photo below is about as high as you can go and still not be sort of fetishy looking. There are certain makers who seem to be able to add a centimeter or two to this and get by with it, but it doesn't much matter, because hardly anybody can walk in them anyway. I wonder how many Christian Louboutin Hot Chicks et al. actually get worn, versus how many are simply admired in the display case.

I don't know if this boot subject has reached a point where one could compare it to beating a dead horse, but I'm going to change it anyhow. I just realized that within a few days, I will have been a member here for 9 years. In another few months, I will be celebrating my 10th anniversary of public heeling. It seems impossible that that much time has passed.

Here is a picture of my wife and me, actually participating in a leisure activity together (eating at a restaurant) for the first time in a very long time. One might have called it a date, but in truth it was piggybacked onto other, less appealing activities, like shopping at Costco.

23 hours ago, Chorlini said:

I've said it before and I'll say it again, most men that put on heels do so because its a fetish to them. Only a very tiny minority is like the men here who, on average are more interested in the fashion aspect. And there is also the drag queens of course. Who are also not part of this community. Part by admin design it would seem. Like all internet communities this is an echo chamber of like minded people and we should do well to always keep that in mind.

Yes, it may be an echo chamber, but I think we're smart enough to realize that. We know we're a tiny number, and I think we will always be a tiny number, at least in my lifetime. The question is, will we be largely accepted by the larger community? I think the answer to that might actually be 'yes,' sooner or later. In some cases, it already is.

As to the fetish aspect of it, I have no idea whether you are factually correct in your assertions, and it doesn't really matter anyway for the purposes of this website. This website is unique in that it caters to the man wearing high heels without going down so many other rabbit holes, and although some of the rules seem overly strict, I understand why they're there. The fact is, if we were looser with the rules, we wouldn't be unique anymore, and we'd be gone. Just like that.

So where is the place for fetish, as it pertains to this website? I certainly don't think it should be banned, I think we should talk about it. But I don't think it should be the focus, that content is available elsewhere. Preserving our niche on the internet is important. Having said that, would I like to be able to wear the shoes pictured several posts above? Well hell yeah, maybe minus the locks and witch toes. But in the real world, that ain't never gonna happen. Like those who can twist their bodies into pretzels and balance on one arm for 7 minutes, there are precious few who can actually wear these shoes in the real world. Do I fault you guys who buy shoes like these for whatever purpose? No, not at all, I waste plenty of money on many things. Just not that.

6 minutes ago, Pierre1961 said:

Agreed! But not as pointy,without these locks. And adapted to where you have to go. It means boots,Oxford,lower heels have more chance to be wearable. 

If it comes to fetish purposes then  things are different. 

It makes me think that that  fetish side deserve the ‘’ normal ‘’ men in heels cause. 

Pierre 

Pierre, you have once again hit upon a topic which is sometimes controversial for us here at HHP, and that is, how much of our feelings are fetish, and how much are fashion? I won't deny having a bit of fetish, but I certainly don't care for things like the above photo, because how can you wear that out in the real world, even if walking in them were not a problem?

Let me recount an interesting conversation I had with a friend last night. A non-high-heel wearing friend. I asked him the question, "What do you think about wearing your pants tucked into tall boots?" He said that sometimes there's a practical reason to do it, and then he went on to say he supposed if you had paid big bucks for a pair of Tony Lamas with fancy stitching on them, that perhaps.  .  . and then he suddenly remembered that cattlemen (as distinct from cowboys) in southeastern Iowa always wore one boot with the pants tucked in, and the other out. I asked him why that was, and he said he didn't really know if there was a practical reason for it, but that was the standard in his little pocket of rural Iowa (he currently lives in Texas).

I woke up this morning and a memory hit me--my parents' neighbor of many years, who was a plumber, but he was a cattleman on the side, often wore his boots that way. I always thought it was part of his sort of disheveled appearance, but now that I think about it, maybe it was on purpose. I have not seen this in modern times, as these are all people who are now in their 80s to 100s, or would be, if they had survived.

So much going on here. It is impossible to comment on everything. I don't know where to begin! I think p1ng74 kind of hit on something that applies to me personally, and that is perhaps the feeling of exclusivity. I suppose it goes without saying that a man in high heels enjoys almost total exclusivity anywhere he is likely to go, but perhaps that is not enough for me. I have to be the guy who wears sandals even when it's cold outside. The funny thing is, I tend to be colder blooded than most guys. I cannot wear just a t-shirt outside for any length of time when it's below 60º (or 15º). But for some reason, my feet don't get cold very easily, it's quite the opposite.

Even I have my limits. I'm not going to wear sandals when there's a foot of snow on the ground, though there is some fascination with the thought of being able to do that. Bringing it back to the instant topic, does this have anything to do with power or empowerment? I am not sure. I just like it. I don't even really understand my own motivation(s), and I don't expect anybody else to. If there is one group of people who might come close to the edges of understanding it, it would be you folks. And I mean understanding it in the same way that almost nobody understands that I actually like to wear high heels, and by actually like, I mean that I actually like the way they feel completely independent from the way they look, and prefer them over flats in almost all circumstances. There are very, very few people who get that.

Having said that, I rather like these new boots I just purchased, and I suppose I should wear them more than just a couple of times a year. And then there's all of the enclosed shoes that I own that literally have dust all over them. I know this because I went through the collection the other day, and purged 11 pairs. Some of them were even sandals I never wear anymore. Again, is it about power or empowerment? For me, I don't think so. There may be an element of that in there, but it's a small percentage.

We seem to have two separate discussions going on at once--the "how much people really notice" discussion, and the "empowering/powerful" discussion. I'm going to drop the "how much people really notice" part for the moment (or at least attempt to, people are gonna write what they gonna write), so that we may concentrate on the empowerment thought.

It had not occurred to me before this discussion that boots ARE in fact depicted as powerful in popular culture. Superheroes wear boots, sometimes high heeled ones, if they are female. Super villains also wear boots. I suppose the opposite would be true of sandals. Or maybe not. Roman soldiers wore what were functionally sandals. Martial arts people fight barefoot. I think those are narrow exceptions, though, and not really part of Western culture.

Perhaps my bias against boots is the fact that they do not fit my personality. I tried that for a while. Wore nothing but boots for many years. Oftentimes big, heavy boots. I'm not a big, heavy guy. It didn't really work for me. Perhaps these new boots will change my mind.

3 hours ago, Shyheels said:

Perhaps noticed by some but most people go around in their own bubbles. I reckon you could trudge down the street in a deep sea diving suit and a good third of passers-by wouldn’t notice a thing

That is certainly my experience, normally, and it sort of depends on where you are. I even noticed this tendency before everyone had their head buried in a phone. I am convinced that the reason that there are as many auto crashes as there are is that people just don't notice stuff in general.

It is just on this one particular occasion that people seemed to notice me, and I just happened to be wearing boots. Is there causation there? I kind of doubt it, but it made for good forum copy.

20 hours ago, Cali said:

Wearing knee high boots over your skinny jeans or leggings is empowering.

This subject has come up before, but I don't remember the resolution, if there is one. What is the deal about wearing boots over your jeans? Why is it empowering? And why would one care if it is? I personally don't wear what I wear to feel powerful, but that seems to be an over-arching theme narrated by many on this forum. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it's a word that gets used a lot, especially when it comes to boots.

Furthermore, why would boots over your jeans get you noticed in particular? Especially since it's a very normal style for women (and, to some extent, men) these days, I would think it would be something which would not really catch people's eyes. In fact, when is the last time you saw a pair of knee high boots NOT being worn on the outside? Cowboy boots in certain instances, that all I can think of, and usually that's a work or livestock type situation.

Shorts and heels, on the other hand, are very unusual to be seen on anybody in normal life (in other words, not Friday night going to the bar or club). Perhaps in southern California, women wear shorts and heels to do their weekly shopping at Ralph's on a Tuesday afternoon, but I kind of doubt it. The chances of you seeing a woman in such outlandish garb here in Iowa are approaching zero. Not absolutely zero, but approaching zero. Therefore, I would think that a man wearing shorts and heels would garner more attention than a man wearing knee high boots on the outside of his pants.

On 11/14/2021 at 10:44 AM, Cali said:

Most of the time I when wear my shorts most people don't notice my heels, except when I wear my lace ups with a 6+ inch wedge. But put your knee highs over your jeans and it is a different story.  People will notice a block away.  Get use to it.😄

Now is it because the women are envious and wish they had worn a pair themselves and the men wish they could do it, secretly want to wear boots like that?

On 11/14/2021 at 11:48 PM, bluejay said:

I wear knee boots over skinny jeans and with leggings. Love the look and yes I do get some looks, but I'm so confident in what I'm wearing. Do get some compliments from both the ladies and yes even men.

Happy Heeling,

bluejay

On 11/15/2021 at 12:35 AM, Shyheels said:

I've only ever had compliments, when I hear anything at all, but by and large no reactions at all - which is just as it should be. 

I shall have to try it again to see if I get the same results. If I were truly interested, I would try it alone, with my son, and with my wife to see if THAT made any difference. I made a quick run to the store last night in nondescript jeans wearing some rather low heeled but patent leather sandals that kind of stand out to those who bother to notice. Four teenaged boys followed us into the store, and they were laughing hysterically. As it turns out, it had nothing to do with me.

So, the weather has turned to crap rather suddenly here. It actually snowed a bit, but it didn't stick. However, there was a high wind that made it feel like it was actually cold.  I needed to go to the grocery store to purchase some comestibles. I decided to use this circumstance to try out my new knee high boots, chronicled somewhere above on this thread, and perhaps elsewhere.

There are two things I noticed. I got more looks wearing those boots than I've gotten in a long time. You would think that a 50-some year old guy would get more looks in tiny shorts, but at least on this day, it wasn't true. I was definitely being stared at for pretty much the entire time I was there, which was not as much as 10 minutes.

The other thing I noticed was that there are two snaps on these boots which annoy me, and there's no way to get rid of them without it looking bad. They really don't serve a function, they are decorative, and I guess they're kind of cool, but given the way I walk, they tend to catch on each other, as my ankles pass very close together with each step. I have spent years developing this style, and now I have to change it for these stupid boots. The things you don't notice until later.

20 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

I wonder if the seller knew the heel was bad. Too bad as those are, were, attractive heels. Not stilettos, but I'd wear them. 

20 hours ago, SF said:

I hope you were able to find it......   smile....  sf

As my wife would say, "You silly, silly boys.  .  ." I didn't mean the entire heel broke, I simply meant that I lost the heel tip, or in this case, it broke up into little, itty-bitty pieces as I walked. I have already made the decision to have both these and the other previously mentioned shoes repaired and give them a second chance. More to come later in my thread.

4 hours ago, Shyheels said:

That's what they do at the South Pole base too.

And they work on Christchurch's time zone - having the entire range of timezones they could legitimately use. Christchurch is where the US supply flights come from and so they choose that one.    

 

Being as this has become a rambling thread, I had a niece who was a student in Christchurch when that big earthquake thingy happened. Her image is posted somewhere in the depth of this website.

1 hour ago, Chorlini said:

Germans are weird. When they should have felt guilty over what they did during WW2, like in the first decades after the war, they secretly thought Hitler did nothing wrong. And the generations which actually did nothing wrong, by being born after the war, now go way overboard to compensate. All the more ridiculous because modern day Germany is a nice country that does good things and has a lot to be proud of. Even immediate post war Germany that faked being sorry was still smart enough to publicly admit being sorry and pay reparations to victims. Unlike a certain island nation in the Far East I might add. If you wonder what it is like to live in a country where everyone has to feel guilty for everything that your ancestors did, like some want us to do, look at Germany. No wearing trench coats for you!

The sins of the father should not fall on to the son.

When I was a young man, I got the chance to visit Germany. As a recent university graduate, I was invited to be a chaperone to a high school German language class that was visiting Germany. I won't get into the ins and outs of it, but it was an experience that changed my life, and much of the reason is because I spent a lot of the time talking with our tour bus driver Norbert. I never knew his family name (surname). And yeah, Germans are weird. After all, they gave us Birkenstocks! They also gave us way overly complicated windshield wiping mechanisms, like what you'll find on Mercedes cars. But I will never forget the day that Norbert told me to call him "du" instead of "sie." That is the day I learned that people are just people, no matter what government they live under, or what religion they are, or how much money they have, or what they choose to wear on their feet.

I have purchased another item somewhat unusual for me--a pair of pumps. I was browsing through Poshmark and ran across these. The reason they caught my eye is because they are patent navy (more about that in a second). I figured I could use a pair of less-than-sky-high dress shoes for winter, which is something that I didn't currently own, these were slightly unusual, and they were cheap.

When I got them, I was somewhat underwhelmed. They were quite a bit more used than I had expected, and hadn't really been cleaned up. They were also black. Or at least they look quite black until you get them under very bright light, then you can see the bluishness of them, along with a slight sparkly finish. But most of the time when people will see them, especially in the wintertime, they look black. I cleaned them up a little bit with some Clorox wipes and a cloth diaper, and they looked quite acceptable after that, aside from a couple of small scuffs, which you will have to put up with in this price range.

Then.  .  . that's when I noticed that these were not actual leather. I guess the Steve Madden "Luxe" line must be the cheap one? No matter, this is not an all-day every-day shoe for me anyhow. And THEN.  .  . I wore them outside, and lost a heel.  .  . within one block. ONE. Is anyone else getting deja vu all over again?

That is one objection I've never heard--the overly militaristic look. I always figured the objection was that it's a style from a time when men would not dare leave the house without a hat, and I'm not talking about a baseball cap! I guess I've always worn one in the appropriate season because honestly, what else are you going to wear with a suit? A puffer jacket? When I started wearing heels, it seemed like a natural complement to winter footwear. It also kind of disguises my bowed legs--another plus. The example below is perhaps not my most stylish moment ever (i.e., it is not intended to be a submission), but it is a good example of how I don't look like military material. On second thought, maybe if I change my name to Maxwell Klinger I could be.

Indian Summer is over as of today, but I am happy to report that I have everything safely put away in the garage (barely), and am sort of halfway ready for winter. If we can get a couple of projects done over the winter, there should be much more garage space come spring. One of the projects is to figure out why my truck transmission blew up, and to hopefully fix it. And that's one of those things I could actually do in high heels, without it being too impractical.

Pianist Yuja Wang posted this on her Instagram a few weeks ago. She appears to be back to a full time concert schedule nowadays.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CUNqyXNFvSp/

On 11/6/2021 at 10:39 AM, p1ng74 said:

It's trench coat season!  

Which reminds me, I probably need to look into getting a new one soon. I've been wearing the same one for a very long time, and it keeps getting rattier and rattier.

It's "Indian Summer" here in Iowa. Why they call it that, I have no idea, but it is simply a period of days during the autumn season that are comfortably warm, occurring after the first killing frost. I don't know why I mentioned the weather, because in any case, I am not done wearing sandals for the year, regardless of the temperature.

Pictured here are what are possibly my girliest pair of shoes, my D & G mules with the flower, probably previously featured elsewhere on this forum in the "New Shoes" section.  I bought them some time ago because, except for the flower detail, they are just totally me, and I guess I have gotten beyond caring about a little thing like having a flower shape on the front of my shoes. What I can tell you is, these shoes are awesome! They fit me well, they're easy to walk in, they don't tire me out, what can I say? I wore them pretty much all day long yesterday, both to church and for shopping for the week.

One thing I can tell you for sure, is that they are obnoxiously loud. In theory, I kind of like that. In practice, I wish they were a little quieter, but hey, whatever. I did not realize how loud they really were until I went to the grocery store, as the portion of the church where I do most of my standing/walking is carpeted.

I do not at this moment recall the exact stats on them, but they are close to my very usual 5 inch heel with a 1 inch platform. And they're loud. Did I mention that they're loud?

On 7/27/2021 at 2:21 PM, Cali said:

Here's your song while you wait...

 

It's funny that you should reference Carly Simon on this forum, because she was known to often perform barefoot, which is just fine by me.

On 11/2/2021 at 12:44 PM, yoyo said:

My boots are on the way . 😀

 

i got a tracking number, and see the boots are shiped from .... Ukrain  !!!!!!! what a surprise, i didn't notice this brand come from this country.

so i have to pay some custom fees. A total of 27 euros, if you want to know ( i can pay it before delivery with french postal services ) . i dont know what is the declared value, but this is certainly not the total price i paid ...  in normal time i have to pay 20 % vat 

 

I have run into this same situation before, not realizing that my shoes were being sold from some faraway country, and so far it's been Russia, but I haven't been bit yet. It just takes a while to get here. I hope you have the same good luck as me.

Oddly enough, although I wear heels and jeans a lot, I don't have a lot of photos of me in heels and jeans. Perhaps this is because if I bother to take a picture, which is not that often, I am either more dressed up, or I'm in shorts. That could be another subject for later.

1 hour ago, Isolathor said:

That is an iconic Frankfurt building at the airport, the "Squaire". What you are looking at is the side of an entrance. These are shaped like tunnels with the lighting from the side, You see white glas panels illuminated from behind. The grating is only at the outer edges close to the rail.

Squaire

Ahhh. Thanks for the info! I was thinking to myself, "I don't remember THAT, surely I would have remembered THAT!" Then I looked up the date of construction. It's no wonder I don't remember it, because I don't have much of a memory for things I never saw. I was last in Frankfurt in 1990. I hope to return someday.