mlroseplant

7 hours ago, chesterx said:

Got in a quick heel opportunity tonight after work as I needed to pick up a prescription at Walmart. Wore my nude Nine West pumps for the 1st time to see how I would handle them. They are the highest heel I have at just over 4 1/2" high.

Nice looking shoes! My good friend and shoe buddy has been wearing this model of Nine West for a couple of years now as her go-to shoes for work. Only in her size (5 1/2), the heel is only 3 3/4" high. She sometimes complains that they're just a little too high for all day, every day.

9 hours ago, RonC said:

Thank you, good points all around. I do not think I would care either way, but am just curious. My wife is supportive, but I am sure she would also be super happy if this "feature" of me went away. At certain points, I also think I would be happy myself.

 

I'm with you on that one, friend.  At times my desire for heels consumes way too much of my time and energy.  There are certainly other things I could do that would be more productive or charitable.

I can get behind you on that sentiment. I do spend a fair amount of my life worrying about shoes, and sometimes one thinks that one could be doing something else instead. But on the other hand, what are those other productive things we could be doing? For example, I should be doing yoga right now, instead of replying to this thread. However, if I weren't on here, would I actually be doing yoga? Probably not. I need to get re-motivated by the activity itself.

To use another example, I spend a tremendous amount of time and energy practicing music. Why do I do this? I don't make a living playing music. I am not good enough at any instrument that I bring some great contribution to culture and society. I have a tremendous amount of money tied up in musical instruments and accessories. I'm looking to buy a cornet, and I don't really play the cornet very well. So why bother? There is no real practical justification for it. Same for people who collect cars or postage stamps. Is there any real practical value to it? Taken from some perspectives, the answer is obviously no. However, there must be some personal value to us, or we wouldn't do it. You shouldn't be so hard on yourself.

On 12/7/2019 at 11:22 AM, Cali said:

Some of my friends call me "Imelda" and I only have around 60 pairs.

I just counted, and I now have 62 pairs of heels, 32 of which are sandals. 10 of them are closed-toed mules or clogs. The rest are either pumps, oxfords, or boots.

As promised, here is the second installment of my new shoes. These are probably the most interesting pair that I got recently. They are giant wedges, made of wood or a wood-like material, from a maker called Mark & James by Badgley Mischka. A quick Google search reveals that these guys, Mark Badgley and James Mischka formed a designing partnership some time ago. I've never heard of them, and don't care, I just like these shoes.

I have never been a big wedge guy, but these look a lot cuter on than they do sitting on top of my washing machine. I think I've come around on wedges because they're more practical in many cases, such as walking on grass, and the fact that modern wedges are a lot sleeker than the monstrosities I remember from the 1970s. The whole outline is narrower, particularly in the heel area, than the giant clunky things I remember girls wearing as a kid. At any rate, the heel is 5 1/2", platform is 1 1/2". Again, I wish the platform were about 1/2" less, but whatever. I haven't worn them out of the house, but they fit well enough, and are easy to walk in. They may turn out to be treacherous on uneven ground, however, because of the high platform. Only time will tell. They were listed on ebay and caught my eye some time ago. They also made a cream and tan colored version which I couldn't find in my size, which is U.S. women's 8 1/2. I paid 49 USD for them, plus shipping. They are brand new, but without box. The upper straps are canvas, which gives them a more casual look than leather would. The only thing I have to complain about is that they have leather soles, which is supposedly a sign of a higher end shoe, but I have never understood why you'd ever put a leather sole on a platform shoe of any type. There are no pluses to this, only minuses. Single sole, yes of course, but a platform? If I wind up wearing these very much, I'll have to replace the sole.

14 hours ago, AlexC94 said:

Lasted half a mile there and back. Could only go a far as a stone statue before I sat down to rest my legs. Next time I'll try going further towards the end of the pathway where there's an actual bench to sit on.

That's not bad at all. My walks outside are in much lower heels. My limit for outside use is about 4 1/2" difference between heel and toe, and the usual is around 4" difference. This usually means a 5" heel with 1" platform.  And I have basically quit wearing stilettos on walks, just because they wear out so fast. I save the stilettos for incidental wearing, like going to church and going shopping.

1 hour ago, JeffB said:

That's pretty cool! I might have to try ankle chains myself!

HA! I was just thinking the same thing myself.

7 hours ago, chesterx said:

I got it from a lady I follow on YouTube. She has as big a heel fetish as we do, except she focuses on the high end stuff. She also knew the frustration of wearing skinny anklets that were not long enough or broke rather easily. She started making her own. She uses a heavy duty herring bone stainless steel chain & spot welds the fasteners on. I could probably pull a truck out of a ditch with this thing. It has a nice heavy feel to it, its super easy to put on, & she made it to a custom length for me. A bit pricey but this thing will last me a lifetime...

I'm pretty sure I know who that is!

9 hours ago, p1ng74 said:

My wife tells me I get stared at a lot.  While we were in the UK she thinks there were a lot of stares at my cowboy boots with 3" heels, but she doesn't always attribute the stares to my footwear.  I must be used to the stares, as I am never bothered by it.  I am Chinese, 6 feet tall, (6'4" with heels) and grew up and live in the rural USA - many people take notice of me.  It would be hard even for someone else, I think, to isolate the source of people's stares to my footwear.  They could be staring at me for many other reasons, such as ethnicity, height, clothes, or thick glasses lenses lol.  

I think in your particular case, you're probably right. It may be the boots, but they are likely just a small part of the equation. You're just an interesting person to look at, and I mean that in a good way. Striking in many ways, and that's before you pull out your violin. I, on the other hand, am practically invisible where I live, with the one exception of my heels (and possibly shorts in the summertime).

I have made kind of a big deal about still wearing sandals even though it's December. However, up to now, I haven't worn sandals unless it's warm enough to ditch my coat at least from the car to whatever heated building I'm going into. I'm thinking about this because 1) I like wearing sandals, and 2) I see that a lot of women, particularly younger women, wear sandals all winter if they're just going somewhere like the grocery store or whatever. However, it seems like this look is limited to rubber flip flops or those awful rubber "sport" slides, worn with something sloppy, like sweat pants. I've yet to observe a woman wearing heeled sandals in the winter, with the possible exception of at a very formal event. So what do you think? Would it look too damn goofy to wear heeled sandals with an overcoat? Would it make a difference about the style of the sandal? Obviously, my Candies style mules present a way different look than a sandal with more coverage.

On 12/7/2019 at 5:48 AM, Jkrenzer said:

Careful Tina, i have 300, he could end up like me.

On 12/7/2019 at 11:22 AM, Cali said:

Some of my friends call me "Imelda" and I only have around 60 pairs.

I haven't taken an inventory lately, but I must be getting up around 60. I say that because I have run out of shelf space, and more shoes are winding up on the floor, and I don't like it. I may have to make some hard decisions soon!

The reason that I have run out of shelf space is because for the first time in quite a while, I've gotten multiple new pairs at once. I'm going to dole them out here one pair at a time, because I don't really want to size the pictures down to thumbnails in order to fit them all in one post.

I have always liked oxfords. I know some of you out there don't, but I do. Maybe it's because it's a masculine style, but then I like to add a tall heel to that style. I would probably have a dozen pairs of oxfords if they made more of them in the style that I like. It seems there are two extremes with high heeled oxfords--either super pointy-toed, bordering on fetishy, or classically styled, but with a short, chunky heel. I don't want the Pleaser fetishy stuff, and I'll leave the short chunky stuff to the likes of Harry Styles. I don't think I could stand all that attention, anyway. Gotta be the shoes, right?

I found these Aldo oxfords on ebay, where I find many of my shoes. I paid 20 bucks for them, plus shipping. Model name unknown. I have never run across this particular model before, and I search regularly for Aldo. I hoped that they were not too old, because they are size 39, and if they're more than about 10 years old, that would have been too small. Those of you who have dealt with Aldo at all over the years know what I'm talking about. However, they actually fit pretty well, and I cooked dinner in them the day they came, just to sort of size them up before wearing them out. They're a little tight across the toes, but I can tell that will remedy itself in time. It may be that this slight discomfort will be alleviated if I wore trouser socks with them. For the trial, I just wore regular thinnish dress socks. I think I'm going to like these a lot, but I can tell you one thing already--they need to be reheeled. The stock tips have some life left in them, but they are super slippery. I might try and wear them to church tomorrow, but there's no way I'm wearing them to any business with a polished tile floor until I get some rubber heels on them. This ain't my first rodeo.

Here are the numbers, for those of you who are interested: 5 1/2+ inch heel (I think it may be a full 5 5/8 once I get them reheeled), 1 1/4 inch platform. Again, they are size 39, which does translate to my U.S. women's size 9, though it's on the smallish side. In a perfect world, I wish the platform were a little thinner while maintaining the same heel height, but these are way closer to what I'm looking for than anything I've seen in a long time. I'll keep you posted on my thread of how they work out in the real world.

I am curious as to just how far your walk was. A mile? Two miles? Half a mile in those boots would be pretty impressive! What I have found is that if I don't walk fairly regularly, I experience what you did in that my ankles or calves get tired. I used to walk an awful lot in heels, but nowadays I've gotten pretty lazy. I usually walk a one mile loop around my neighborhood (down from two miles once upon a time), and I'd be happy if I would do that every other day, but I hate to admit it's become more like once a week, and incidental wearing (like to the supermarket) is just not enough to maintain endurance for the long haul, should it arise.

14 hours ago, fashionablefun said:

I note also his slightly flared slacks, which seem to be coming back again. 

Slightly? Those are gonna get caught in your bicycle chain for sure!

9 hours ago, chesterx said:

.  .  .trying to sell me some serum or other that smelled like aardvark piss.

 

I wore a pair of strappy taupe wedges because of the nice weather. These are by INC of Macys. They are one of the 1st pair of heels I bought once I started heeling in public. I like these not only because the cork soles feel good but also becuase I can slip them off & on with out having to undo the ankle buckle (modern buckle styles tend to anger me with how difficult the are to fasten).

I'm kind of curious now. What, exactly, does aardvark piss smell like? I doubt I will ever get the chance to find out.

All joking aside, those are some nice looking sandals, something I might well wear myself. I really like the beige, neutral color in sandals. Not as much in shoes (I mean, for myself). Where are you at where the weather is nice? Here in Iowa, the weather forecasters keep threatening that it will warm up, but I think we're down for the count until spring. It was supposed to be pretty nice this weekend, but what we've actually got at the moment is 28º F and very windy. I might post some thoughts about wearing sandals in the winter on my own thread later.

I have sometimes wondered about this myself from time to time. According to my wife, people think I'm a total freak, but you've got to take that with a grain of salt, because I am sure she exaggerates people's reactions as she would really like it if I suddenly decided I didn't like heels anymore. Don't get me wrong, she's very tolerant, but she really doesn't like it. Over the years, I guess I've decided that I really don't want to know if people are staring at me or not. I have yet to find myself on the internet, but I'm sure I'm out there somewhere, being made fun of. So be it.

I think there is something to what @nzfreestyler said--the heels make a difference. In my case, they're pretty much everything, since I don't really wear anything else that would be considered super femme, like a skirt or dress. The closest thing would be my shorts in the summer with my shaved legs, and it's absolutely true that people don't react much on the rare occasions when I'm wearing flats. It's kind of nice to be anonymous sometimes, but that rarely enters into my decision about what to wear on my feet. What does influence my occasional decision to wear flats is that I don't feel like I can go out in heels if I don't look at least halfway presentable otherwise. For example, if I've just come home from work and I look grubby, but for some reason have to go to the supermarket to pick up something right away, I won't wear heels. If I've at least got time to comb my hair and put on a decent looking shirt, I'll always wear heels. And why wouldn't you wear heels to the supermarket? What's wrong with people?

It is very difficult for me to weigh in on this subject since I haven't bought any boots in probably three years, but I cannot recall a pair of boots I've ever owned that I would call "tight," so there may be something to your hypothesis. It used to be that Aldo ran about a size smaller than everybody else, both in shoes and boots, but I bet that's been 10 years ago when that was true. They finally saw the error of their ways.

3 hours ago, kneehighs said:

Glad someone appreciates the progress.

Funny how there's a few people here who will quickly complain of public images of men in heels as being too gay or too fringe...

and then when an image that is more conservative on a celeb comes forth, not even a positive statement of gratitude.

Wouldn’t expect anything else either 

I completely forgot about that dude until I saw your post. I remember when all the Vietnamese girls I knew were all about Harry, back when he was in One Dimension. I shall make it a point to ask those same girls, should I get the chance (they have all grown up now), if they still like him, and what they think about his shoes.

I expect that people's reactions, at least as reported by the Guardian, are exactly what the artist intended. I'm not sure there is any larger message there, and frankly I don't care. This reminds me of another "art project" I heard about quite a while ago, where a guy had taken a crucifix and placed it into a bottle of urine, and that was his "sculpture." People came completely unglued about it. I just kind of shrugged my shoulders. It doesn't affect my faith one way or the other. I think this Zapata painting is about on that level, although to be fair, it obviously required more talent to create than the crucifix sculpture.

On 12/9/2019 at 5:47 PM, RonC said:

for sure.  A sad reinforcement of current footwear habits.  Personally, I'm not counting on heels making a big resurgence this time.  Way too much negative info out there about heels and the supposed damage they do.  

It might not affect our lives directly, but heels never went away in Asia, and I don't see them going away any time soon. They have gotten a little lower over the past few years, but that's because platforms aren't all the rage any more. I don't think you'd object to that.

On 12/10/2019 at 2:06 AM, jeremy1986 said:

Yup, agreed - thanks!! My toes often get cold, wonder if wearing boots like this more often would help. 

Hope all's well by you?

They certainly are several steps up from Uggs! I can't help you about the cold feet. It is quite strange, but I find as I get older, my feet don't get cold like they used to, which is the opposite of what everybody said would happen. Don't get me wrong, I can still manage to freeze my feet right off if it's really, really cold and I have to stand in one spot for an extended period of time, but it's not like it used to be. If only the rest of me would stay relatively warm, maybe I wouldn't dislike winter so much.

11 hours ago, RonC said:

I agree, those pants look absurd. Mom looks quite nice though!

 

Mom is a honey! Actually, Daughter is a honey, too, she just doesn't know how to dress.

Speaking of not knowing how to dress, this may be one of those times in my case. Here is another early church service outfit. The pants and the shirt just happened to match exactly. I had never noticed it before. I managed to fit sandals into the outfit yet one more time, on December 8th!

13 hours ago, Bubba136 said:

I don't really like that style of sandals precisely because of that type of scrap across the toes.  While they're especially feminine looking, the narrow toe straps become painful after walking in them for any distance.  

I do not have a problem with that particular style of strap. The kind where there are many narrow parallel straps is when I seem to run into the most difficulty--my little toes seem to poke out where they ought not to.

9 hours ago, chesterx said:

These are by Dominique Nicole style "Samantha", bought online from Shoe Shoe Mega for $14. I bought some Hot Tomato brand shoes from them as well & am pleased so far. My sister probably knows about my shoe fetish due to some incidents from our childhood but she nor I have never brought it up so ignorance is bliss, so to speak. I dont think she would care but I want to wait until the situation with my mom resolves itself before any big reveal takes place. Any of you guys have experience  informing close family members of your choice in shoes / clothing?

My sister (who regularly wears heels herself, but it's confined to "dress-up" days), actually bought me some heels for Christmas a few years ago. I still have them and still wear them sometimes.

I am fairly used to seeing women in construction garb--the one place in the world where men and women dress pretty much the same. Sometimes, the women can put their own twist on the required clothing--there is one female engineer at our job who doesn't actually turn wrenches, but is required to wear all the safety stuff. She tends to wear skinny jeans tucked into logging boots, to good effect.

37 minutes ago, SF said:

While painted toenails are not “mandatory” when wearing sandals, your feet and toes should look nice...I am pretty much a 100% sandal guy and try, try, try to keep my feet presentable.  As do you mlrose and the other sandal guys here..

Just two days ago I gotta pedicure that made my feet look wonderful.  Stayed with a clear coat this time, but sometimes a little color can be very nice too....   have fun.   sf

Oh, I don't disagree at all! I evidently forgot to voice that part of the story--while I prefer bare (or at least clear) nails on both men and women, your feet had better be pretty close to perfect regardless of nail enamel choice when wearing sandals. I don't get pedicures anymore for reasons I won't get into right now, but I do keep on top of my feet as a die-hard sandal guy.

I heard about this woman a long time ago. I wonder if this project has gotten any traction? A quick search says "no." At least, not yet. and not at $900 a pop.

I hate to add to the generally melancholy mood, but I just went to a community orchestra concert last night, and out of the entire group, which was probably 60 players, about half of which were women, there were only two wearing heels. One of them was a 30-something Russian immigrant violinist, so of course she always wears heels--never seen her without. The other was a college student percussionist (meaning she is probably around 20 years old), and I saw her after the concert at the reception, where I saw she had changed out of her heels. There were also a couple of women wearing block heels of 2 inches or so, but I don't really count that. The rest were wearing flats. I noticed only one audience member (besides me) who was wearing heels. That just wouldn't have been the case back in the day.

On 11/23/2019 at 2:50 PM, chesterx said:

.  .  .a lady behind me at the Walmart checkout snapped a pic of my heels (I knew I should have painted my nails before wearing sandals!). I consider it doing my part to raise awareness ....

10 hours ago, chesterx said:

Got off work today at noon, swapped shoes in the parking lot and stopped off at a Cheddars restaurant for lunch. This is the one place I can get a comfort style meal since the local Black Eyed Pea shut down. Filled up on meatloaf & mashed potatoes to the point I needed a 3 hour nap when I got home. Afterwards I stopped by a car dealership to buy a part for my car. Though about an afternoon movie but missed the start time, so maybe tomorrow. I wore a new pair of heels, another house brand of Macy's, "Thalia Sodi" Chelsie Platform Dress Pumps. I found these after getting a notification that a pair of INC brand pumps I had set a watch on was back in stock. The Chelsie pump showed up as a recommendation & I loved how cute they looked, plus they were on sale. A fantastic fit assures these will get added  to my regular rotation (I could go on a long winded rant here about how crappy modern shoe buckles have become, (i am not gumby dammit!) but these ones were easy to fasten). I have been pleased with all my purchases from Macys, I just wished I had join their patron club & might have saved even more money. Sadly, the lighting of my closet & the richness of my red wood flooring washed out just how vivid the black velvet really is in this photo. I will try to add a link to these shoes, as there is a short video there that shows off the color & charm dangle much better.

https://www.macys.com/shop/product/thalia-sodi-chelsie-platform-dress-pumps-created-for-macys?ID=5365556&CategoryID=71123&isDlp=true

 

I see you have succumbed to this misguided notion that nails absolutely must be painted with open toed shoes. Not all of us believe that way, you know.  .  .

I'm just giving you a hard time (this has been an ongoing discussion on the forum for years), both the shoes and nails look great.

I'm also risking the ire of Tech for including pictures in my quote, thereby wasting server capacity, but in this case, it wouldn't have made much sense without the pictures, init?

As a construction electrician with extensive higher education, I find that I constantly struggle to find a balance between using proper English and being accepted with the guys I work with. If I'm at a new job site, I will often purposefully dumb down my normal vocabulary, and purposefully use improper grammar until I figure out the group. However, no matter where I've gone over the past 24 years, somehow that nasty rumor that I'm a lawyer eventually comes out. At that point, I am invariably designated spokesman every time there is an issue with management. Ain't none of this seems to have helped me in my electrical career, but it does keep things interesting.