mlroseplant

19 hours ago, p1ng74 said:

Came across this news article today:

https://news.yahoo.com/super-high-heels-free-women-says-shoe-king-145018895.html

CL talks within the context of women, but could the same apply to men too?  

 

Oh, absolutely I think it applies, and probably moreso than for women. Those few of us men who wear heels do not do so because we feel we are obligated to, but rather quite the opposite. I can't think of a thing about wearing heels that isn't "freeing" in some way. Mentally and spiritually, of course, not physically.

17 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

I'd agree with your sentiment as far as the comment could apply to men too, except considering the source. 

Loubitine is on record of being anti males in heels.

Still can't figure out why, a guy designing sexy heels only does so because he's attracted to them in a deeper way. Expect he has a fetish for shoes, just saying. Can't see why that should preclude who wears them.

I can't be bothered to look this up, but wasn't that quote or quotes from quite a number of years ago? I'm not saying that he isn't still to this day against men wearing heels because I don't know, but I know that I have changed my mind about many things as I have aged, maybe he has too.

I don't know how I feel about skirts and such, these 8 years later, now that I wear heels all the time without too much self consciousness. I think I could probably look good in a skirt, maybe rather better than some others, but I just don't really have any desire to, and creating one sort of artificially by going out and buying a skirt at a thrift store just so's I could try it out seems to me to be .  .  . rather foolish. It would create way more complication in my life than there is already. I get enough of a thrill with wearing shorter shorts, and for some reason this is more acceptable to the wife than wearing any kind of a skirt would ever be.

Perhaps one of the reasons why the whole boot thing is a nonstarter with me is because I am so used to seeing boots worn on the outside of pants at work. Although not in the majority, it is not at all uncommon to see a worker wearing his work boots on the outside of his pants. Add mud to the equation, and that figure goes up to nearly 100%.

10 hours ago, KneeBooted said:

I haven't posted in a while but I’ve been present just reading through other threads when I have a moment here and there.

Work has been and will continue to be busy for the next few months. Combine that with family life and unfortunately this forum is getting crumbs at the moment.

I apologize for that but wanted to provide an update. I finally got a pair of boots and wore them over jeans, albeit they have only about an inch heel.

I have been on the quest for an engineer style boot. I wanted something mid calf and with a zipper, as I prefer that to the combat boot look. I originally found some Frye boots on Poshmark, but they were listed for $200, and I just couldn’t bring myself to make a reasonable offer, as nice as they looked.

Fortunately, patience paid off and I found a pair of J. Crew boots that I was able to get for $75. I wore them under jeans to work on Friday, but wore them over jeans today for church. For once, I thought this look was more feminine than my wife thought it was.

Either way, as usual, there were no negative comments, although I did get some noticeable looks. None of those looks however were of a negative nature from what I could tell.

Feel free to let me know what you think.

I think it looks all right. Not something I would ever wear to church, but you know, the world has largely passed me by in that regard, I understand that. You just look like a guy who wears jeans to church, and I don't mean that flippantly. There is absolutely nothing about this outfit that distinguishes you from the million other guys who wore jeans to church yesterday. So the question is, what are you going to do to mix it up a little next time?

I know it doesn't sound like it, but I'm trying to be supportive--I think you can definitely push your envelope a little further with good results.

I think the basic problem with these shoes is that they look cheap. It seems to me that if you're going to attempt a shoe like this, it had better be very well made. Just looking at how the toes kind of curve upward at a pretty good angle, these would be very disappointing to see in person, and practically impossible to wear, even for the person with the most flexible ankles.

That looks like something you'd find me in on Sunday mornings. Definitely well done! I know how to do that look, mixing men's more dressy/formal clothes with feminine aspects. What I have a lot more trouble with is more casual outfits, particularly in the summertime.

16 hours ago, kneehighs said:

Speaking of Vietnam, this video popped up in my recommended videos in YouTube.    Reminded me of you and your wife.

 

 

 

 

Like the disclaimer says, a strong sense of humor is suggested! Believe it or not, my wife and I met on one of these types of dating sites (not this particular one), and I still think it's absolutely amazing that we actually found each other. I don't know about THIS particular website, but others I had experience with in the past were cesspools of humanity as far as I'm concerned. I have no idea how legitimately sincere people actually met each other.

The part about taking her to Vietnamese karaoke was accurate, except for one important detail: Every single sound setup in Vietnam or elsewhere in the world designed for Vietnamese karaoke has the echo turned up to the max. They think this makes a bad singer sound acceptable, and a mediocre singer sound good. I can assure you, IT DOES NOT. What it does do is make a good singer sound bad. And when I say the clip about the karaoke was accurate, I mean it. Yeah, that's what the young man is feeling right now. In 5 or 10 years, he will be listening to the same people sing the same songs on the same bad sound system, and it will turn from exciting fun into something cringeworthy. But then, I'm looking at this from my personal perspective as a musician.

And yeah, they do care what other people think, that's why no heels for me in Vietnam, and she doesn't really like me to wear heels when we visit other Vietnamese people here. I couldn't give two craps about what the labels on my clothes say (although if it has the union label, that's a plus), I drive an 18 year old Buick by choice, and I live in kind of a dumpy, old house (but in a nicer neighborhood than I deserve). That is not true of most Vietnamese. They like to show off their designer labels, etc. Again, a generalization, but largely true. I don't know exactly why this is.

If, heaven forbid, something happened to my wife and I was trying to find another woman from Vietnam, I would NEVER, repeat NEVER use one of these dating sites. EVER. I now have enough of a social network, I wouldn't need to anyway. It makes me shudder a little bit thinking about it. Long live my wife!

All joking aside, these are a fetish item. Would you really wear these things on a regular basis? I doubt it. Treat the investment accordingly.

I originally answered this about two years ago, and amazingly enough, my answer remains the same--I have two pairs of men's sized shoes, 1 pair of Church's formal black oxfords, which I have had for over 20 years (yes, they are THAT good, or at least they used to be that good), and the same pair of Adidas tennis shoes. The Church's have not been worn in over a year, and that is because I didn't go to Vietnam this year with my wife (where I am not allowed to wear heels), and nothing else of such importance has come up where I needed to wear them. Believe it or not, I actually really like those shoes, and used to wear them a lot. The only thing I've got against them is that they're flats, and I ain't got time for flats anymore. The tennis shoes are yard work beaters now. I haven't actually played tennis in several years, though I aspire to return to the sport someday. Any other athletic endeavor I participate in, I do in my bare feet. Well, except for bicycling, but at my level, it doesn't really much matter which shoes you wear to ride a bicycle in, so typically I either wear flat sandals (more about those in a minute) or my beater tennis shoes. Occasionally, very occasionally I will wear wedge sandals to ride a bike, depending upon.  .  . things. I do not make it a habit, though I think I care less and less each year how odd it looks. I have said before that you have to go to Asia, or possibly Europe, to see even women riding a bicycle in heels, so I won't do it here. I might change my tune on that, we'll see.

Beyond those two pair, I still own about the same number of flats that I did two years ago--2 pairs of work boots, one pair of casual full coverage shoes, two pairs of thong-type sandals, both fake leather, no rubber ones. I quit buying real leather flat sandals a few years ago because I don't wear them often, and in any case, they just don't last very long before they are getting raggedy looking, so I don't want to spend the money on despised flats. And, as I mentioned two years ago, none of these shoes except for the Church's and the Adidas tennis shoes are technically sized as "men's" shoes. With narrow, short feet, I just buy women's sized shoes for everything anymore. Should have thought of that years ago. I guess I did think of it years ago (about 8 years ago, to put a number on it). I should have thought of it 30 years ago, it would have made my life incrementally better.

9 hours ago, chesterx said:

 & 1 pair of rubber boots for when its too wet for even my beaters to endure, although they can be  worn by both sexes i suppose...

Oh yeah, forgot about those, I have 1 pair of rubber boots somewhere, and snow boots (which are women's sized, but totally unisex). I have not had need for the rubber boots at work for several years, thank goodness. I have another pair of rubber "rain" boots that I use occasionally around the house or for setting up at a farmers' market (wife's business, and it's often heavily dewed grass that we set up on) that have a slight wedge heel. Don't know that I would wear them to work, though. They are simply not heavy duty enough for construction.

17 hours ago, RonC said:

I think #3 is probably a very big issue.  I can't compare it to women wearing men's clothing, because they do that every day without question (there was an ad on this site that I looked at the other day that was selling direct copies of men's shoes for women.  Wing tips, brogues, etc.  Sad IMHO.) 

You mean this one? I saw that too, and thought more or less the same thing, but was still interested until I saw the the shoes pictured are the highest heels they seem to make (way too low for me to even bother), and that the average price of a pair was about 500 bucks. No thanks!

Referencing the last paragraph in the above post, I went to my barber this week. Through circumstance, the barbershop where I've been going for more years than I care to remember has been bought out by a woman, and I've continued to go there just because I like the place. The proprietor wears high heels to cut hair in nearly 100% of the time. Nothing too outrageous in height, usually 2 or 3 inches difference, often she'll wear a 4 inch heel with a 1 inch platform, and that's almost always a wedge.

However, I thought these boots she was wearing on this particular day were worth a post. I did not post all of her out of privacy concerns. She got these boots for Christmas from  her husband, and I won't get into the complicated story, but she had a request to wear them and wound up wearing them right to work. Some other customer asked her if she was going to wear them all day, or whether they were just for show, and she said definitely she would wear them all day.

Usually, we sort of struggle to have a conversation, as we really have nothing in common, but that was not a problem on this particular day. I only wish I had worn something nicer than my plain Coach Rana clogs.

On 2/19/2020 at 12:16 AM, Cali said:

The driveby compliments works both ways. I give many of my compliments this way, mainly because we are walking in different directions.  I get many of my compliments from men in this fashion. Today I guy pass me on his bike and by the time I hear "I like your jacket" he was already far way.

We won't talk about the antithesis to this, the driveby insults. Haven't had that happen for quite a while, thankfully.

14 hours ago, K2inheels said:

Sounds like you have been burned when giving a woman a compliment. I've had my share that just give me that, "Okay, now leave me alone" look. But most times they respond well to what I say. Maybe I come off as less threatening than you do. I have a tendency to be friendly and warm when I am out in public. I smile, say hello to strangers. I am at ease speaking to a woman and I have no ulterior motive than to brighten their day with my compliment. We all appreciate a kind word.

So I will still encourage people in general to be encouraging to people you meet, maybe say, "Love your Shoes!" Can't hurt, but it could just brighten up somebody's day.

Ciao!

I personally probably wouldn't say anything to a woman about her shoes if I weren't actually wearing heels myself, because if I'm not wearing heels, I'm probably wearing bib overalls and work boots, and that might come off as a little odd! Even if I am wearing heels, I tend to follow the "compliment, then walk away" method. Hasn't failed me yet.

I work with a lot of guys who claim to be terrible spellers, and they're not lying.  The difference between those guys and me is that I look shit up when I'm not sure. They just roll with whatever comes out of auto-correct.

I went to a mini high school class reunion last night on the spur of the moment. There were only about a half dozen of us there, but there was one fellow I wanted to see in particular, whom I hadn't seen in over 30 years. Once upon a time, we used to be pretty good friends, but you know how life goes. We ate at a restaurant, then went to a bar afterwards. I was wearing my new-to-me American Eagle Outfitters striped sweater, skinny jeans, and my DVF olive green wedge clogs. Nobody commented on my shoes at all, I'm not sure anybody even noticed, given the lighting of the venue(s), but about half of the group already knew about my unusual footwear already. The reason why I'm even writing anything is because I got an unexpected compliment on my sweater by one of the female bartenders. She was in her early 20s by my estimate, and she was very insistent that she was sincere about her compliment, and wanted to know where I got it. I told her I got it on Poshmark, and that a guy my size had to be very creative to buy clothes that fit. I told her it was a women's sweater, and she thought that was cool. She couldn't see my shoes from behind the bar, so that didn't even enter into the equation.

In case you're wondering, I am going to get a haircut tomorrow. It's time. Also, I kind of match the woman next to me, don't I?

If I were going to lower myself to that level (poke!), I would choose the more open cut of the second set of loafers. Long before I started shaving my legs, I shaved the tops of my feet so as not to look so hobbit-like.

9 hours ago, chesterx said:

 Maybe they are getting used to me...

Do you live in a small enough town, as I do, where they might actually be getting used to you? I think part of my success is that people do know me, and I think most people like me, even though I haven't always deserved it. Heels have only improved my personality and social skills, believe it or not.

9 hours ago, RonC said:

I feel for you.  I worked at home for about the last 10-12 years of working life, which meant I could wear heels much of the day while my wife was at her job.  Unfortunately, when I retired and was just starting to enjoy the freedom that afforded me to do things like shop for heels more often, she decided to retire herself.  So now I have basically no time to myself at home save for maybe a couple hours per month.  And I find myself frustrated that I am unable to lounge in heels, etc. any longer.  Heeling is limited to the few times I can go out for a little shopping and change into the heeled ankle boots I keep in the car.  I miss my home alone time greatly.

Which is exactly why I plan on building a shop in my back yard just as soon as I get my house paid off. Which will serve the dual purpose of home alone time, and we might be able to actually park cars in the garage again.

I have been busy lately for a couple of reasons, one of which is that we've gone to 10 hour days at work recently, so I haven't had a lot of time to go out of the house, other than to work. The other reason is that we've been having sewer problems, which is affecting my shoes and clothes, as I keep them in the basement. Don't worry, nothing has gotten ruined, it's just that they are harder to access now, as I've piled other things out of harm's way until we get this problem resolved.

As I have been spending more time at work, and my work is relatively physically easy, other than having to walk a lot, I am toying once again with the idea of getting a work boot with a bit of a heel on it. For several years, I've worn completely flat boots. So I've ordered these Timberland boots, and depending on what they actually seem like when I get them, I may wear them to work. Or I might return them. They are not really work boots, but given my situation right at the moment, it won't matter. It was rather difficult finding a pair of heeled boots without a side zip on them, which is a dead giveaway that it's not a work boot. They are supposed to come on Tuesday, so we'll see.

7 hours ago, p1ng74 said:

Contentment is not really a natural state for me, I’m frequently looking for the next thing lol. 

Boy, can I relate to that! I suppose that's why I have a lot of skills, but I do not truly excel at any one thing.

As far as fashion goes, I can't really say I'm frustrated in the true sense of the word, but I'm not really content, either. I don't really know where I'm going with all of this, or why. After retirement (if I ever retire fully, and I have no definite plans to at age 52), the only limitation will be good taste, and my physical abilities. Hopefully I have the common sense to stay within the limits of both.

Great look, Cali! Although I must say, we all have our weird, individual hangups about things. I don't really see anything in this outfit that I wouldn't have worn three years ago, but on the other hand, I would never wear nail polish, even if I liked it! For me, that would be pushing it too far. But with your permission, I might steal your look, with the exception of the nails. Also, I think I'll skip the "headless" look.

I've got a pair of sandals in the same shade, and I rather like them. Very understated, yet somehow girly. I cannot, however, endorse the combination of track pants with way dressier clothing on top. Something's rather jarring about it, especially with the heels. The jeans to me look much better, although I will never understand the "distressed" style. I suppose I wasn't meant to. Doesn't matter. Overall you present a striking look, whether I like the individual pieces or not.

My wife has an interesting hangup in that if it's labeled "Women's size 9" she doesn't like it. If the same exact thing were labeled "Men's size 7" it would be ok. So when you say, "My wife allows me to wear women's loafers," a year ago I would have said, "Why did you bother to tell her in the first place? She would never know."

In the present day, I think I have answered my own question in that it's the idea she's getting used to. When I bought my young son a very nice pair of dress shoes (low heeled) for a very nice price, she could not really argue with the fact that it was smarter to go the women's shoes route rather than the boys' shoes route. I think a lot of it is simply the perception, rather than the reality. Just because something is labeled "women's" doesn't fundamentally change what it is. A lot of women (and men) ain't figured this out yet.

13 hours ago, MackyHeels said:

Seeing a great looking female wearing knee high 4 inch stiletto heels with grey leggings with shorter winter wool coat at costco the other day.  Wanted to tell her she looked great in them but instead glared upon her passing by with my cart  minding my business. Only because something i like and even want to wear myself i have second thoughts in opening my mouth to give out genuine compliment. Been observing woman in particular for months, never seen any in heels for long period of time going shopping etc.. Did find her very attractive and the heels just raised the bar and other things much more. While i try to stay subtle even jaded upon woman styles i couldn't stop glaring upon her heels and legs. She had the winning combination i adore tight fitting leggings printed in grey scheme in cotton or wool fabric perfect for winter. Added with knee high snakeskin boots but thin stiletto heels which complimented her lean tone legs looking marvelous.  

Suppose the spike heel boots came as pleasant shocking surprise to me. Thinking if i were to compliment her she would take it entirely wrong manner believing i'm perverted or way to interested in her more then just enjoying her great sexy appearance. So i stayed mute, yet knew she glanced upon me knowing i had my eyes on her slim legs, tight bum, and killer heel boots. Could see she knew i was looking and therefore her style was successful in gathering my attention.  Don't know if she just noticed my shiny black Moncler puffy jacket and found it stylish herself.  Feel it would be to awkward for me to make a comment of her heel boots, telling her "loving it" while she was bending over the frozen chicken wings.  Later on, in the store noticed one other lady in heels yet much older and heavier. Felt the winter months kept many woman stopped wearing heels, so they decided to put them on to feel better or sexier than plain flats they often wear. Rarely see woman shopping in heels no matter the time of year guess they find it overdoing it or less comfortable for the surroundings. 

Feel if i did compliment the first attractive  woman i seen at costco it would make her feel good although doubt she needs any encouragement to look sexy or has self doubts about her beauty. Would make me feel better that if i communicated a compliment even though it may of came out awkward or to forward. Either way heels do make people feel better ones who observe others wearing it knowing it makes a statement we care how we look or style ourselves from mundane boring flat bottom shoes styles.

At the time wasn't wearing any heels just flat uggs in skinny jeans. So any compliment given by me, woman wouldn't assume i like there heels for myself which would come as a shock or joke to them if i mentioned it.  Regretting not wearing heel booties myself who knew i would encounter few woman in the store wearing heels.  It may have changed my persona slightly observing the woman maybe smiling at her noticing both our stylish outfits

 

I'm going to project my own thoughts on to this little story, to kind of tighten 'er up. The way I see it is this: If you had been actually wearing heels yourself, you could probably have gotten away with complimenting the attractive woman, and the less attractive woman if you'd been so inclined. If you had been wearing heels, you would not experienced feelings of jealousy at what the woman was wearing. If you had been wearing heels, both you and the the two women you encountered would have had better days, if incrementally. Conclusion: Wear heels! It makes the world a better place.

11 hours ago, maninpumps said:

WOW , this is an old post topic . 

Funny about that. Usually, when somebody does that, you sort of groan (and maybe out loud at the computer), but in this case, it has actually worked out rather well.

I can remember back in the Jenny days (before HHP existed, circa 2000) that if you admitted you liked platforms it was like admitting you were tacky. People were vehemently against platforms at that time. Of course, that's probably because what was available before the height explosion of the 2000s wasn't particularly attractive in any way. Ten years later, in 2010, platforms were everywhere, and many of them became lighter and trimmer, though many did not. My point is that we got used to them somewhat, and they didn't seem nearly as evil as they did before. I suppose it's like anything else that's trendy. It will eventually fade, and probably come back a few decades later. Kind of like this post.