mlroseplant

What an old thread that lives again!

I never thought I'd say this, but I actually prefer a platform of 1/2 - 1". Some of my favorite shoes have about a 5 1/2" heel with a 1" platform. I like the look of the super tall heel, but there is no way I could negotiate everyday life in 5 1/2" heels and a single sole. On the other hand, I hate "flatforms." That is, shoes with a very thick platform and not very much steepness. In my opinion, the thicker the platform, the steeper the angle has to be in order to keep it from looking funny. Most "stripper" shoes do not pass my personal aesthetics test because their heel to platform ratio is not high enough.

13 hours ago, fashionablefun said:

I was anticipating responses about the footwear or clothes, but not that. Specifically. what peaks your interest in the piano? 

I am interested in any musical instrument, as I have a house full of them! What make is your piano, and do you personally play? Piano is not really my forte (ha ha), but I've got one anyway. Mine's an ancient Kimball 6' 3" grand that's in bad need of a rebuild.

On 2/5/2020 at 4:41 PM, Bubba136 said:

Was it you wearing your high heel boots that was responsible for the mass confusion in counting candidates votes ?

I'm sure that was it! There IS power in high heels, after all!

I would like to submit a couple more selfies of some stuff I've bought while my wife has been gone. I got this mint green sweater by Leith. Don't know who "Leith" is, but that's what it says on the tag. Again, the purpose of buying this was to experiment with wearing leggings as pants. I bought this sweater on Poshmark, and I think it was brand new, there were still tags and stickers on it. It is labeled "small," but it's not terribly small, feels more like a medium. Oddly enough, I got another sweater labeled "small" that I basically couldn't even get on, so you just never know--that's the breaks when shopping online.

So two things I didn't realize about this sweater is that number one, it's purposefully longer in the back than it is in the front. Number two, it's quite loose around the bottom. It's OK, but in a perfect world I would have the whole bottom edge be the length of the back half, and have it be considerably tighter. It's almost as if this were made for a petite woman with an enormous ass. Maybe it was. At any rate, my misgivings about the garment did not prevent me from wearing it to choir rehearsal, where one of the members immediately complimented me on the color and wanted to touch it.

With it I wore my longer Jockey leggings and my new Miu Miu shearling mules, which are quite noisy on hard floors, by the way. I also wore my new shortish gray peacoat and my new mauve stylized stocking cap. Kind of a mishmash of colors, but I didn't have a great deal of time to think this all out. It was hard to miss me, anyway. I didn't get out in the general public like a grocery store, so I can't really gauge reaction of people who don't actually know me.

6 hours ago, fashionablefun said:

Here's my latest purchase. Aldo, size 11. I've worn these shopping for new glasses (where I got a "I like your boots" comment) to the class I teach at the university, to restaurants and just about everywhere. I think, despite their pattern, that they are not terribly unusual looking. They remind me of snake skin cowboy boots.

Although there's a lot to like about that outfit, including the boots, I'm way more interested in that piano.

6 hours ago, Shyheels said:

I doubt if wearing heels, or anything else, makes anyone a better person, but being open, at ease, expressive and comfortable in yourself will certainly allow for a greater generosity of spirit, and a fuller expression of those good qualities that are already there

You understand, of course, that the title of this thread is a bit of hyperbole for the sake of.  .  . fun, I guess. I do tend to spin a yarn every now and then.

11 hours ago, Shyheels said:

High heels would seem to be the least of things that were flustering the caucus in Iowa last night....

Actually the suspect "app" you might have heard about worked just fine for us, but that may have been due to the fact that we are a small precinct, and we finished our proceedings early.

I suddenly had a memory from long ago, when I was in my early 20s, a male friend and I were taking one of those magazine surveys that was something to the effect of "What kind of girl is right for you?" I don't know why I just thought of this after all these years, but one of the questions was, "Do you prefer a girl in high heels or sneakers?" Of course I said "high heels" without even thinking about it, but then my friend argued with me.

He said, "Yeah, yeah, but the problem with that is, all the chicks I know who wear high heels always complain about how much their feet hurt. Would you really want to put up with that for the rest of your life?"

At the time, I couldn't really argue with that logic, but it tends to dispute my assertion that high heels improve one's personality. Even then I figured there must be a way to wear heels all the time without it making you miserable, especially when heels at the time just simply weren't all that high. Piece of cake! However, it does seem that 95% of the women do bitch about their heels, so my assertion might only apply to some very special people--like us.

21 hours ago, p1ng74 said:

Well, I don’t have any boobs to show lol.  I don’t have any hair on my chest, but yes I agree I don’t feel right wearing it out unless I wear a shirt underneath.  

Haha, I guess I meant "you" in the collective sense, not "you" specifically. Language is an imperfect vehicle.

I attended my precinct caucus last night. I wore basically what you see up there with the Morton Salt Girl, only with jeans instead of leggings, and lace up heeled oxfords instead of knee-high boots. And oh yeah, a cherry red cap instead of a black one. I am 100% sure there are now pictures of me out there somewhere on the internet, though I doubt that any of them were taken for the purpose of photographing me personally. The whole process took about two hours, and I was standing the whole time. Luckily, I chose well and didn't wear anything too crazy, I barely noticed my feet.

20 hours ago, pebblesf said:

It's nice to have some time to yourself every once in awhile....Hope all goes well when the wife gets home....

It looks like the weather might actually cooperate (knock on wood). They come back on Saturday. And thank goodness they are not flying in from China.

7 hours ago, Shyheels said:

You both look nice! If it were me, I’d combine the styles and wear my boots outside my jeans.

4 hours ago, maninboots said:

Same here 

Me three! Outside the pants would be great!

Did anybody at church comment upon your matching boots?

15 hours ago, p1ng74 said:

Glad to hear that your family is safe and well in their travels!  

It’s funny how experimentation works.  I also had the idea to try some shirt dresses and wear them as a top layer, and wound up trying something longer and liking it enough to keep it too:

 

Same thing happened Friday when I was out looking for an overall-looking layer... I’ll take some proper pictures of them later.  
 

Man bags are in.  They can really complete an outfit.  Just for fun, I grabbed a camo bag to use in this photo to match the jacket, and I think it makes a statement!  
 

 

 

 

 

I'm spending a rather long time looking at the first picture (with the dress), trying to decide whether I like it or not. I mean, for myself. You look just fine! I think my objection, and this is a difficult one to overcome because of what's generally available, is that the neck opening is way bigger than I would wear. In this particular case, you would be showing boobies if you weren't wearing a shirt underneath it. Many of the women's tops I like have this same problem--I can't wear them unless I put something underneath like you have, and that's not so great in the summer. In my case, it's because I'm too hairy, and I don't really care to add YET ANOTHER thing to shave. That's why you will always find me in crew neck shirts, even in the summer.

As far as the bag goes, I'm kind of with @Cali on this one at this point--I don't want to carry something else with me if I don't have to. Sounds like something I would accidentally leave laying someplace.

I don't have much ruminating this week, but I do have news, and that is that my wife and younger son will return home from Vietnam in just a few days. I kind of went a little nuts while they were gone, buying a lot of stuff on Poshmark that I'd wanted to experiment with, but hadn't really wanted to deal with all the static from my wife about why was I wasting all this money on silly stuff. So I feel somewhat guilty about that, but you know, it's really small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, and I have discovered some interesting things.

No. 1: I have been looking for winter hat ideas for years. It seems there is nothing so utilitarian for keeping one's head and ears warm as a stocking cap, but it's a very casual style that doesn't go well with nicer coats and heels. I managed to find a couple of alternatives that are acceptable. I bought a wool beret that can be pulled over the tops of one's ears, and that's ok for short periods. But more significantly, I found a lined sort of stocking cap with a hard bill/visor in front that pretty much serves the same function as a stocking cap, but with a much more polished appearance. I have gotten several compliments on it, as pictured several posts above. I now have the same cap in bright red and mauve as well as black.

No. 2: I now own a couple of what you might call dresses. They don't seem like dresses in the usual sense, they're basically really long sweaters. My intent was to get a couple of sweaters long enough to reliably and consistently cover my private area so that I could wear leggings as pants out in public without creating an image I don't care to create. 'Nuff said. However, what I wound up getting in a couple of cases is something considerably longer than necessary to satisfy the aforementioned requirements. And you know what? They don't look bad! As long as I pay attention, stand up straight and engage my core, that is. I'm not saying I'm fat, because I'm not, but my abs aren't what they once were, and it's very easy for me to look 4 months pregnant. Maybe I'm just nitpicking myself in the mirror, I don't know.

No. 3: I now need to figure out whether I'm going to become a handbag guy. My latest purchases have no pockets, and although my pocket requirements are very minimal, zero pockets ain't gonna work. It may be that I will decide to dial back everything because of this pocket problem. I am not at all sure that I really want to go where I'm heading, 'specially once the wife gets back. There is always that to consider in the grand scheme of things.

No 4: I'm going to have to figure out where to put all my new shoes. I don't have enough room presently. And my new sweaters. And my new coats. And my new hats. And my old hats. Right now, they're sitting on the basement floor. That is not a great place to keep them, especially once the spring rains come. Looks like I will be building more shelves soon.

Have a great week, everyone! Thanks for tuning in.

21 hours ago, Cali said:

I broke the bearer of wearing visible high heels at work over 5 years ago when that was the only type of shoes I could walk in. Since then it has be normalized for me to be in heels to the point I get asked why I'm NOT in heels on the few occasions . I go everywhere in heels.

Technically, it doesn't actually say anywhere in my company's handbook that you are not allowed to wear heels to work, but I am quite sure I would end up on the losing side of that battle, were it to occur. It's not worth it, especially since every once in a while I have to do something where it would be a really bad idea to be wearing heels. Nah, not happening.

I have more shoes to show you! Since the wife is gone for three weeks, I have gone kind of nuts, and it's a good thing we're going to overtime at work starting tomorrow. There will be more to show in the near future, and then it will kind of taper off after that.

This is my third pair of BCBGeneration "Sarong" thong wedges. Unlike the previous pair of shoes I showed you, the Vera Wang loafers, I have bought three pairs of these for a completely different reason: The other two pairs didn't last very long, and I really don't expect to have much better luck with these. To be fair, the first pair I had I wore so much that they just got trashed after a while, to the point where they really weren't presentable out in public. Eventually the sole split completely in half transversely, and I binned them. I found a second, identical pair I believe on ebay, and I was thrilled. Unfortunately, since this model is quite a number of years out of date, the material that they are made of kind of self-destructed rather quickly. I've heard that certain kinds of fake leather deteriorate simply by being exposed to the air, and surely that was what happened to the second pair. Within a couple of short months, they too were not presentable in public. They were also binned.

Enter the Poshmark era. In general, I think they have nicer stuff on there, and it hasn't done my bank account any good. I've gotten into some other stuff besides shoes as a result, but that's another story. Anyway, I found yet another pair of these beloved yet despised shoes, only this time in white. And also I took a chance on buying size 8, rather than 8 1/2 because they seem to run a little big. That turned out to be a good gamble, because these actually fit better than the 8 1/2s. But really, how much of a gamble was it for a mere $15? I have never owned a pair of white shoes (other than tennis shoes, and I do mean tennis shoes) before, and I don't know how that's going to look in the real world. It feels more girly than what I've done in the past, but we'll see.

Specs on these shoes are 4.0" heel, 0.5" platform, all man-made materials. I am now down to only two pairs of "thong" style high heels. They're getting harder and harder to find in the style and heel height I require. Maybe someday I'll have to go the Peter Chu route.

11 hours ago, chesterx said:

 As I was driving home I thought about how kind of odd it was that she asked if I was breaking them in, as I had never been asked that before. It lead me to ponder women's remarks in general. I'm of the mind that women are not so much in "love" with my heels, as I tend to wear classic styles. I don't recall ever hearing women compliment each others heels so much when they are wearing simple classic pumps, but I get that a lot. I think they are just fascinated by a guy wearing heels. If I ever get a chance to hold a descent conversation with these women then I intend to ask them about that...

That is an odd question. I wonder what prompted it? I cannot speak to the classic pumps thing, as I don't really own a pair of classic pumps, but I think many women are, in fact, fascinated by a guy in heels, and it's not necessarily just younger ones. I know the old ladies at my church are always checking to see what I'm wearing on any given Sunday. I try not to repeat too often for this very reason!

I was in the grocery store the other day, in my work clothes. Normally, if I have to visit the grocery store, I will go home, shower, change my clothes to something halfway decent, put on some cute heels, and then go to the store. However, on this particular day, I was in a big hurry and didn't have time to do all that.

At this particular store, they always ask you if you managed to find everything you wished to purchase. It drives me slightly crazy, but I know they're instructed to ask that, so I gave up giving a smart answer years ago, and in any case, the smart answers were usually completely lost on the mostly kids who work there. Anyway, on that day, standing there in my work clothes, the cashier asked me, and I just grunted something in reply. As I was walking away, I realized that when I come there in heels, or anywhere really, I'm a much more pleasant person. I smile more, have a nicer tone to my voice, and little things bother me less.

Does anybody else experience this as well? I'd like to hear about your experiences.

This is my third pair of Vera Wang Talli pump/loafers. I got these formerly 300 dollar shoes on Poshmark for 50 bucks, and I am pretty sure they've never been worn. I have two other pairs in black and crocodile print dark brown. These are plain brown, and are actually darker than the picture in the ad showed. My pictures here, depending on your monitor, are pretty accurate on the color. I remarked elsewhere on how inconsistent these shoes are on the heel height. The fit is exactly the same on all three pairs, but the heel heights are all different. My black pair has exactly 5" heels. The croc brown pair has 5 3/8" heels, a significant difference. This plain brown pair has 5 1/8" heels, a slight but discernible difference. What the heck? These are not cheap shoes, I don't understand why the inconsistency. They are all the same size, same model, same fit on my feet. The only difference is the color. A mystery of life!

I was kind of mad at the seller, because she threw both shoes bare into a single canvas bag, put that bag into a mailing box, no packing peanuts, no bubble wrap, no paper, no foam, no nothing, and shipped them that way. They arrived rather scuffed from rattling around inside that box. Nothing I can't fix with a little bit of shoe polish, but come on, could she have been any more careless in the packaging of good quality heels? I accepted the package and gave her a high rating, but sent her a stern note, telling her not to do that shit again. No response, and that's OK with me. I just won't ever buy anything from her in the future.

19 hours ago, KneeBooted said:

Yeah that’s a good insight. This kind of experience is so new to me that it definitely sticks out and seems to be a rare occurrence.

If the frequency at which these kinds of encounters occur increases, I too would likely not post every encounter.

Although, I do hope that people reading these positive encounters provides encouragement to those who wish to heel freely without worry of judgement, etc

That's really the only reason that I do report on my experiences--mostly good, but occasionally bad or awkward. It's to encourage those who do not yet have the confidence that I have slowly gained over the years. @KneeBooted, your work situation is quite a bit different than mine. Even if I were a woman, I would not be allowed to wear heels to work. I have sometimes contemplated changing careers so that I could. That notion usually only lasts a few seconds, because that would be flat-out stupid. Not only do I make a pretty decent living as an industrial electrician, I really don't want to do anything else, and work is plentiful these days, thanks to all these data centers they keep building in my area.

This sort of thing seems to be happening more and more often. I probably report at most 10% of the encounters I have where people compliment me. It has to be something special before I'll put it on here. Back when I first started, you better believe that if somebody even smiled at me after noticing my shoes, the story was told in great detail!

4 hours ago, Cali said:

Baby steps , baby steps @hiddenheels.  I have shorter jeans now, they stop at or above my ankle. Had six compliments on my Jessica Simpson stilettos today. I have gone from hidding my heels with long pants to fully displaying them with shorter pants, skinny jeans or leggings.

Yup, I did the same exact thing, I have probably 10 pairs of boot cut jeans that are hemmed really long that I ought to get rid of, since I never wear them anymore. I think they would look rather odd if I simply hemmed them shorter.

15 hours ago, Cali said:

I just visited my doctor's office for a regular appointment. As I was registering, the other receptionist looked over and asked me "What cute heels do you have on today? I saw your nails and heard your voice and I know you always have the best heels?"

Unfortunately , I had old (very old) Steve Madden Mules - wedges on, but I promised I would wear my Jessica Simpson knee high stilettos  next time.

EXPECTATIONS don't you just love it when you have special expectations.

Yeah, I've got the same situation at my dentist. In fact, I have an appointment there in less than a month, and I will have to take off work 2 hours earlier than I absolutely need to in order to have time to come home, shower, change clothes, and drive back up there. If I don't show up in heels, I'm gonna hear about it!

10 hours ago, chesterx said:

The very 1st time I wore heels in public Some guy in a store said quite loudly to his friends "Look at his shoes!" in a mocking mannerism. I was already nervous as hell & his words cut like a knife. I remember going from the exhilaration of wearing heels to burning shame & wanting to hide & find the exit.  It took years for me to try again. I had to come to grips with the fact that there will always be some jerk out there, & I just might run into them some day. I finally chose to not let those few random jerks that I will never see again ruin something that I really wanted to do. Time has proven me right, as just about every interaction I have had has been neutral at worst to very complimentary. I figure I'm going to run across jerks someday whether I'm wearing heels or not, so I choose heels...

Not THE very first time, but fairly early in my heeling career, I was accosted by a group of teenaged boys in the parking lot of a grocery store. I hate to say it, but it did kind of affect me for a while. In fact, the next time I went to get my hair cut my female barber asked me why I wasn't wearing heels on that particular day. I told her what happened, and she basically said I should ignore that kind of behavior and do whatever I want. It was encouraging to me, especially at that time.

23 hours ago, HappyinHeels said:

Nice looking boots mlroseplant. Kitchen looks familiar. The girl is a new addition HinH

Because of the Hanoi Connection, the girl has been around since 2014, but sporadically. What do expect from a sorority girl? She doesn't want to hang around with OLD people all the time! I should add a sorority girl who graduated from college summa cum laude, when English is not her first language.

She has been fully Americanized when it comes to high heels. When she was 18-20, I don't believe I ever saw her in flats, like any Vietnamese girl of a certain social class. Haha, that is FAR from the case now! She won't wear actual heels without a very good reason these days, and remarked when she tried on my boots (which were a full size too big for her) that they are way higher than anything she wears regularly, but she liked being tall!

On 1/28/2020 at 2:34 AM, kneehighs said:

love her hair.

Yeah, she's got nice hair, but it's processed within an inch of its life, and it's not going to be very pretty in a few years if she doesn't quit that! I've seen that happen too many times.

A very cute girl wearing my boots. Which are way cooler than the boots she came in on.

15 minutes ago, Shyheels said:

I wasn't focussing on the colour at all, but the style. The colour's irrelevant. Indeed, I specifically said I had no objection to the colour, or to the colour pink in general but that I had every objection to its style. The coat - in its styling - reminds me of a horse blanket. It doesn't make any difference whether one would or would not make a horse blanket in hot pink. That's irrelevant. The styling of that coat reminds me of one, and is just about as appealing to wear. 

Thank you for clarifying that. And looking back through the thread, yes you did, in fact, say you had no objection to the color. I missed that, and I'm somewhat embarrassed that I did.

I don't know who this "hot woke" crowd is, but they have had no effect on me. I work construction, which one might think of as a "macho" job, but anybody who knows me knows I have no time for a "macho bullscheit" attitude. Yes, we give each other a hard time (constantly), but I will not tolerate true abuse on my crew, and I can tell the difference.