mlroseplant

For a website that has become a home for men who like to wear high heels, we sure spend a lot of time talking about "they, they, they." I'm guilty myself, but I don't tend to do it in a negative fashion. I'm happy, at least in a small way, when I do see a woman in the wild who actually still wears heels. As far as the attitudes about fashion and identity among the younger generation--I have a 15 year old son, I am around his friends, I can tell you for sure that my life is much easier and happier than it was 10 years ago as far as being accepted at face value. Let's look forward, not backward. The good old days weren't always good.

Hi all, I'm posting a day or two early because I took some extra pictures this week. They are really all the same picture, but I'm not very creative about posing. Yesterday, I did a 5 mile (8 km) walk for only the sixth time since I started heeling. As I've probably said before, I have a 1 mile, a 2 mile, and a 3 mile loop that I walk regularly, choosing one on whim or available time. On weekend mornings, it has been my habit as of late to walk the 3 mile loop. On this particular morning, I chose my BCBGirls Bonny mules, iteration No. 4. No. 4 is pretty unused, as No. 3 yielded up the ghost sometime last fall. These Bonnys are not a shoe that feels good out of the box. Every one of them has been very stiff and rather uncomfortable until having been worn for several hours. Then they become pliable and all-day comfortable. I have never done a 5 miler in Bonnys before, even though I've tried on a couple of occasions. Both of the previous attempts ended in shoe failure of some sort, one of them catastrophic. The fact that these Bonnys only had two miles on them to begin with made them a suspect choice for a 3 mile walk. I had worn them around the house for a couple of hours, but they were still a bit on the stiff side. I took Bandaids with me, just in case. After the first mile, it was obvious that they are going to be just fine, same as the other 3 pair were. After two miles, I began thinking, "Yeah, I remember why I like these so much." At about 2 1/2 miles, I thought, "Hmmm, I've got time, why don't I do a 5-miler today?" So I did. During the 4th mile, the right shoe started rubbing my instep. Luckily, I had those Bandaids with me, so nothing bad happened. A little tender when I got back, but no blister. The rest of me, however, was very tired. You wouldn't think 5 miles would be that big of a deal when you do 3 miles regularly, but those last 2 really took it out of me. When I got back, I made a list and went grocery shopping, changing my shoes to another pair I haven't worn in a while, blue FSJ stiletto mules. Like last week, I couldn't remember if there was a comfort reason why I haven't worn them. Apparently not. They were just fine, and easier to walk in than I remembered. It is really hard to tell the color in this picture, but they pretty much match the color of my jeans. Note: Photos are in reverse order of the story, if you haven't already figured that out.

I don't think there is a bright line regarding classy vs. trashy. There are so many factors that go into that equation, and a lot of it has nothing to do with the clothes, but the carriage and the demeanor of the wearer. I agree with you that you certainly can't quantify it scientifically. One inch difference on heel height by itself is not going to do it. Not being able to walk easily in your heels, on the other hand, no matter their height, counts for way more "trashy" points.

I haven't been to a thrift store in years, and that's probably because I've never had any luck finding shoes there. I'm not nearly committed enough to making the rounds on a regular basis to find treasure. I prefer to do my shopping on Poshmark or Ebay. The bad part about that is you can't try stuff on, but I still have an 80% success rate that way.

This is. . . most disturbing, on so many levels.

Having another look at this topic, I can see where the leopard print pumps would be unsuitable for work, but the loafers? They look like they were MADE for work. I don't see what's wrong with those.

I thought I had been such a good boy and gotten rid of 2 pair last week. One because they flat-out don't fit, and the other because they are flat-out ugly. And they stink. However, I've gotten 2 more pairs in the meantime. So I'm not such a good boy. Hopefully, this will at least slightly lower the percentage of shoes that I don't wear. I think I'm down into the single digits of shoes that I don't wear out of 106.

I've always liked that single strap with the closed heel style. I've thought about getting a similar pair many times.

Today's feature has a bit of a strange story. I bought these BCBGirls mules (model name unknown) to replace some Jessica Simpson mules which had catastrophically failed. I wore the JS mules just about everywhere that summer of 2017, including on a road trip throughout the Midwest and into the Deep South. I was very sad when they broke, and I could not find a suitable replacement pair. What I did find is this BCBG pair, and I was very high on that brand at the time. I still like it, and the shoes tend to fit me well, but as it turns out the shoes are not as bulletproof as I made them out to be at the time. As this point, you're probably asking yourself, "Where is this rather long-winded setup going?" It is going nowhere. That's it. That's the end of the story. I got my BCBG mules in the mail, looked at them, tried them on, and put them away. For nearly seven years. I'm not sure why. I decided to pull them out last Saturday and wear them to go grocery shopping, just to see if there was some reason why I'd never worn them. There wasn't. I then wore them to church the next day. The question is, why did I never wear these even one time in seven years? I'm not 100% sure. It may be that they are slightly dressier than the shoes they were intended to replace, and they are mainly ivory instead of tan, which may have made a difference to me back then. It may be because they are snakeskin print, which I still don't like as well as smooth leather. I will never really know, but I am now presenting these as New Sandals. The numbers: 4 5/8" heel, 7/16" wide, putting it toward the bigger end of the stiletto range, and a 3/4" platform, for an effective heel height of 3 7/8", which is well within my heel wearing capabilities. The heel and platform are molded as one unit, and I fully expect that to break one of these days. I noticed a little bit of a hot spot forming behind my right big toenail, but that spot has been somewhat of a problem for me since I was in my early 20s. I think it's me, and not the shoe. Typically I can put a Bandaid around that toe so that it doesn't really show, and I'm good to go. In fact, I now have a list that reminds me what comfort or fitting aids I need to wear with which shoes. It's come to that, I guess.

This week's church outfit continues on the same theme of button down shirt with a tie, but with different colors. Specifically this time, the whole outfit was based around the shoes, which I wanted to try out because although I bought them at least five years ago, I've never worn them until now. I'm not entirely sure why that is, there appears to be no fault with them. I'll have to post them in the New Sandals thread when I get a chance. They're BCBGirls, by the way. When I thought about what to wear with these shoes, I could have sworn I had some cream colored pants at one time. Evidently not, or I got rid of them at some point. So I just held a sandal against each of my pants, to see which was the most suitable with the color. The pale pink ones got the nod. I decided to go with a darker, contrasting color for the shirt and tie. No comments, but that's pretty usual.

Everybody is different in his wants and needs. I have never bought a pair of shoes thinking that I couldn't wear them out at some point. Besides, have you seen my house? There's no room in there to feel pretty! 😆

Nope, nope, nope, nope. You gotta let it go. Do not approach either man or woman in heels and expect to talk. Women are allowed to do this and get by with it. We are not. It's just the way of the world. MAYBE if you're actually wearing heels yourself, and discernible heels (in other words, you'd better be wearing something 3 inch or higher), you get to compliment and walk away. Otherwise, you're just a creep. I've been on the giving and receiving end of that situation. Sorry if I seem a little harsh, but this is a hard and fast rule.

A couple of days ago, I was preparing to make some bangers and potatoes with Guinness stout as an ingredient in the recipe. As the last minute, it became evident that earlier in the week, I must have drunk all of the Guinness. Oops. A quick run to the grocery store was necessary. While I was there, in my Bebe wooden heeled sandals, I spied a woman wearing some giant wedges. And by giant, I mean probably 5 1/2" heel, 2" platform. They were cork, and the single wide strap was made of clear PVC. She wore them with ripped skinny jeans and a denim jacket. I was in a hell of a hurry, so more than that I cannot tell. Even though I never saw her face, I did not guess her to be a very young woman.

Yeah, I'm kind of with you. I pretty much stop at 4 1/2". It's not that I can't physically walk in 5", but not up to my own standards. I always say that I'm going to master 5s one of these days, but I'm not really serious about it. I have way too many other things to worry about that are way more important than getting another 1/2" on my heels.

Yes, I still go to an actual physical bank. My particular bank is small and locally owned. I have not interviewed anybody from the bank, but it seems that even though any restrictions we had due our Public Health Issue are long over, people still prefer to be served in the drive though, so much so that on Saturdays, you can only use the drive through. There are people still working inside the building, but if you want to see somebody on Saturday, you have to call and make an appointment. I wonder if The High Heeled One works on Saturdays, and if so, does she wear heels when no customers can see her?

I suppose as long as we keep it out of the boots section, it'll be all right then, init?

There is a distinction in my case between "favorite type of heel" and "most often worn heel." If pragmatism were never a concern, open toe stiletto mules, no platform, between 12 - 14 cm. Ironically, I own almost no shoes that technically fit that description--one, because they are kind of hard to find, and two, because I consider myself barely competent to wear 12 cm, much less 14. What I wind up wearing the majority of the time: Mules, in one form or another, but with thicker, wooden heels, and usually with a small platform <3cm. Closed toed clogs in the winter, and open toed wooden sandals, usually without a backstrap, in the summer.

I'm sure that's a typo. The way I remember it is by the same method I use to transpose Celcius degrees into Fahrenheit. With inches-cm, I just remember that 10cm≈4", and then go in multiples or fractions of that. Also, just by dumb luck, 5 1/2" equals almost exactly 14 cm. 5 1/2 happens to be one of my favorite heights, so I happen to know this. It is also true that 19mm and 3/4" wrenches/sockets are fully interchangeable. 11mm works pretty well 95% of the time as a substitute for 7/16".

It has been a long while since anybody has posted here. I have a few pair to catch up on, so I will try to get those posted soon. Up for inspection today are my Steve Madden Britt single strap sandals in electric blue. Not something that I would normally buy, but I've always wanted to try this style, and I saw these on Poshmark for $25. I actually received them about two months ago, but haven't pressed them into service until this week. They feature 4 1/2" heels which are pretty slim at 5/16" in diameter. You don't get a whole lot more "stiletto" than that. Of course there is no platform, so you get the full steepness afforded by that heel height. In many ways, they are the same to walk in as several other styles of Steve Madden that use the same basic design, but I think if I were actually paying good money for these, I would have gone down half a size. These are 9, and I really could use an 8 1/2. After a time, I get a slight gap behind my heel, causing the ankle strap to work harder than it ought to, which causes my skin underneath the ankle strap to suffer. They are not super uncomfortable, I wore them for a couple of hours with no real issues, but they certainly did not wow me in the comfort department. I'll see how they do next time I wear them. To be fair, I did not vet them at all before I wore them outside, and that can often end badly. I got by with it this time.

I have always wanted a single strap, closed heel sandal. All the girls are wearing them. OK, maybe 10 years ago. I did not envisage that my foray into this style would be electric blue velveteen, but there it is. I seem to have the opposite problem from the rest of youse. The single strap across the toes doesn't bother me, it's the ankle strap that causes me some discomfort. After a time, it starts digging into my skin, but only while actually walking. Part of the problem may be that these are size 9, and I really need an 8 1/2 in this style. Perhaps a ball-of-foot pad might remedy this, but it seems unlikely that I will wear these a whole lot, so it may not be worth messing with. They are actual leather, so it may become necessary to use such a fitment aid in the future if I wish to wear them at all.

If it was red week last week, I guess it is blue week this week. Part of that has to do with what happens to be hanging in my wardrobe that hasn't been worn in a while. I still haven't got things 100% back to the way they were before I was compelled to move everything when we had to have our sewer line replaced. So I figured, "All right, let's do blue this week." Then I realized I've only got one pair of blue shoes left. The other, which I sort of had in mind when I thought I'd do blue, disintegrated within a very short period of time and I had to throw them out. I'm still somewhat disappointed by that. The one remaining pair is ok, but I need to wear a bandaid in a certain spot, or it rubs holes in my foot. While I was trying to remember where that spot was, it occurred to me, "Hey, wait a minute. You've got a brand new pair of blue shoes you ain't even worn yet." And indeed, I did. I bought these Steve Madden Britt sandals a couple of months ago. The only problem was that they were unvetted. I had briefly tried them on when I first got them, but it is risky to wear something like that out into the real world. I threw a couple of bandaids into my pocket, loaded up the car, and headed out. It was fine. Sometimes you get by with stuff.

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. 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.

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. 😛