mlroseplant

Luckily, it's not for another two months, which gives you time to figure your shoe stuff out. Hopefully by that time, we'll figure how this Covid 19 thing is going to play out, and they'll quit cancelling stuff. If not, you probably won't have to worry about your shoes.

18 hours ago, Cali said:

In another thread there has been talk about wearing bodysuits. I wanted to show a problem you may encounter with bodysuits.  Some don’t cover your hip.  If you wear high waisted pants this may not be a problem, but with these mid-rise leggings I needed to be careful to keep my shirt from rising too far up.

Coincidentally, only yesterday I received my first ever bodysuit in the mail. I haven't had the time to try it on yet.

6 hours ago, Cali said:

Right now I need to replace maybe 5 wedges that have delaminated. They are 4 and 5 years old and have seen a lot of use.  Can find high enough wedges, max so far are 3.25 inch and I want 4+.

Too bad.

I have the same problem, on both accounts. It seems like most of the wedges I'm attracted to have jute or jute-like material on the sides, like a high heeled espadrille. This never lasts more than a couple years. I recently tricked myself into buying what I'd call mid-heels. Most would call them high. The heel is 4", but the total rise is slightly less than 3". I don't dislike them, but they're too low!

2 hours ago, Cali said:

Careful, that's date night in some places.

I always prefer reading the phone book with my honeys. Trouble is, it's getting hard to FIND a phone book anymore.

I don't have a lot of ruminating to share this week, but I can share that I think I have found something that has shifted my style ever so slightly. As you know, I had the opportunity recently to buy whatever I want without question from the wife, just so I could try it out to see what works, and what doesn't. One thing that has come out of this is that I bought several pairs of pants that are not jeans, but are casual enough to wear every day. I also bought quite a few shorts that are dressier, if that is a thing. What I mean by that is they are not essentially cut-off jeans, they are actually somewhat tailored, with dressier-type internal back pockets, nicer fabric, that sort of thing. I have been stuck on jeans and t-shirt, especially in the summer for the past several years. They may be very colorful t-shirts, but it's the same thing over and over nevertheless. Another change is that my new pants are a couple of notches skinnier than what I have been wearing up to now. I see this out and about on women in general. If they even wear jeans at all, and many don't, opting for just leggings or baggy track pants, the jeans are not even really all that jean-like. They're very tight, but soft and stretchy. Now I really do have to stay rail thin.

A good friend of mine and I have one matching pair of sandals. We have never worn them together, other than for this picture, and we never will. It would cause way more trouble than it's worth. Too bad.

22 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

I appreciate the look god by dressing better, but for me heels are simply everyday wear. I have no problem wearing heels even dressed down. Admittedly I'm normally in some more worn heels in those cases.

You are the exception to every high heeled fashion rule I've ever formulated in my mind. How you get by with it, I don't know, but it works for you. I can't do it, that's for sure!

16 hours ago, pebblesf said:

I agree, only mentioned it because there has been resistance/concerns about directing insecure partners to this site in the past....

Oh hell no, you don't want an insecure partner to even know about the existence of this site. That could easily ruin everything! I am imagining a scenario in which a guy is trying to get his partner to accept his wearing otherwise very masculine boots with a 2 1/2" or 3" blocky heel, and then the partner clicks on my thread. Not that I'm anywhere near the most radical departure from "usual" men's style, but just seeing a picture of me on a website wearing shorts with very high heels, having never met me or talked to me in real life, having never met my wife and family, would probably be a huge shock to someone who is already thinking that boots with slightly elevated heels is pushing it too far. They're just not used to seeing it, and it's almost certain that the reaction would be almost violently negative.

14 hours ago, RonC said:

Just curious, are you wearing any type of legwear with the skirts, or bare legs.  If bare, are your legs shaved or perhaps you have minimal leg hair?  Personally, I'd have to wear some type of hosiery to feel comfortable at all with my legs showing in a skirt, or have hair free legs at least.

That's kind of a touchy subject with some people. The OP said somewhere back a couple of weeks ago that he didn't want to shave his legs. For me personally, that's simply not an option. Well, anything's an option I suppose, but it's certainly not an aesthetically pleasing option. It's all a matter of opinion, of course, but I personally would never show my legs in any sort of feminine-leaning garment without shaving them. Even before I started shaving my legs, I shaved the tops of my feet and a bit around my ankles so that I could wear sandals without bits of fur sticking out around the straps. I guess I feel that having hairy legs when wearing shorts (or for other people, a skirt) doesn't present the sleek, polished appearance that I am going for. Others will have a different opinion, I am sure.

5 hours ago, DProud2700 said:

 I don't know what it is, but I feel better if I am wearing heels out to do certain errands and such.

I can certainly appreciate that. It's always a struggle for me between convenience and desire. It's certainly much more convenient and efficient if I stopped at the grocery store on the way home from work, wearing my construction clothes, but I rarely do it unless very pressed for time. I would rather go home, clean up, put on some halfway nice clothes (with heels, of course), and then go to the grocery store or wherever. Going somewhere in heels is almost always better than going somewhere in flats, but I won't just throw on some heels without first making myself otherwise presentable. Not only do I feel better in heels, I look better, too!

I was going to guess a) They are not pumps, and b) they are not stilettos. I was pretty close!

15 hours ago, hiddenheels said:

Have been trying to wear one of the skirts out in daylight, but even when I had the chance, I didn't have the courage. Feelings of being a failure come back... Not just a failure to wear what I want, but thoughts of "why am I doing this to myself"... If life were a rollercoaster, at the moment I'm headed down...

Eh, don't be too hard on yourself. It takes a lot of mental energy to present oneself in a different way. Sometimes that mental energy just isn't there. It's not a failure, it's simply another day in the life.

12 hours ago, fashionablefun said:

 I can wear them around my wife, which is a plus.

What is it about these boots that make them acceptable to your wife? Or is it more what they are not? They are clearly beyond the height range of anything close to average.

9 hours ago, pebblesf said:

True, but he just rejoined us after being away, so just wanted to encourage him....

Ahh, that's right. Didn't catch that the first time.

On 3/1/2020 at 7:33 PM, Jkrenzer said:

Thin heels don't mean hard to walk in. The rise is shallow, you'll go through tips quickly though.

I have found this to be true also. It seems that other design factors in the shoes determine how hard they are to walk in, moreso than just the thickness of the heel.

10 hours ago, pebblesf said:

 Hope to see some pictures of your boots...Don

That seems rather unlikely after over two years, and a total of two posts.

5 hours ago, chesterx said:

Happy Birthday to me ....

 

 

Yeah, you could use a fill, but isn't that a bit of an extreme measure to disguise that fact?

Sorry. Is it too soon? Hope everything's all right.

9 hours ago, p1ng74 said:

I like wearing pink too.   I wonder if a lighter colored belt would look better with the totally pink-toned outfit.  

I thought the very same thing, but alas, I don't own such a thing at the moment, so I figured black and pink weren't a bad combination, especially with my wristwatch.

__________________

Later on that day, as the temperature was unseasonably warm, I decided to break out my new shorts, which are Banana Republic (size 4P), and are in a dressier style than that which I am wont to wear. I needed to purchase comestibles for the coming week, so I headed to my usual grocery store with a list. On such a warm day, I figured that there would we a number of people dressed in shorts, but much to my surprise, I was the only one. I ran into an old family friend whom I hadn't seen in quite some time, a lady of about 70, and I chatted with her for about 10 minutes. No one said anything about my attire or seemed to stare any more than normal.

After I finished my shopping, I was in the parking lot, loading my groceries into the trunk of my car, and a 30-something woman and her husband passed by me. The woman, who happened to be wearing high heeled sandals (with skinny jeans), said "I like your shoes!" I replied, "I like your shoes, too. Thank you so much!" They kept on walking, I returned my shopping cart to the appropriate pen and departed. Today, the weather is a bit cold for shorts, but the time is soon coming.

Our church has three services every Sunday. They are basically the same service with three different styles of music. Oftentimes, for one reason or another, I have to attend more than one of the services. Usually this has something to do with musical performance, but one constant is that I pretty much have to show up to the traditional service at 11:00 every Sunday no matter what else I've had going on the rest of the morning. When it so happens that I need to go to the 8:30 service, do my thing, leave, and come back at 11:00, I often do what I laughingly refer to as a "costume change." Just like any rock star would do.

On this particular Sunday morning, it just so happened to be about 45º (7º C) and sunny by about 7:30, so I decided I was wearing sandals, and I wound up wearing this totally pink-toned outfit (except for my belt and my watch). I started out without the necktie, but decided it looked better with the tie, even for "rock-n-roll" church. As I gave myself one final look-over in the mirror on the way out the door, I thought, "Wow, this is pushing my look a little bit further than I thought, both in terms of color palette and silhouette." But by then it was too late, because I was on the verge of running late. And wouldn't you know, despite my concerns, I got like 4 compliments on my outfit that morning, which is unusual. On a usual Sunday morning, I sometimes get 1 comment, sometimes not.

When I got home, my wife didn't even comment on my clothing, which is also unusual. I had a cup of coffee, practiced my cornet (which I used at the 11:00 service), and changed out the pink pants and shoes for a charcoal gray suit and heeled loafers, and the wife and I went to the 11:00 service, where nobody said anything about my outfit at all. And why would they? This is what I typically look like pretty much every Sunday.

20 hours ago, p1ng74 said:

I can still get around in Mandarin, which is the only one I know.  
 

East Asians seem to have adopted certain western ways, and where it conflicts the old association has been thrown out relatively quickly.  Weddings come to mind - I only see the western use of white for purity now (both for the bride’s dress and flowers) whereas in traditional Chinese custom the bride wears red.  For anyone else to wear red would be a faux pas, and also there would be no black/white attire or white flowers, as those colours are associated with death.  Wearing red I think is still dangerous in modern times, as I have seen the bride changing from white to traditional red garments for the reception/dinner.  

Looking back at my own wedding in Vietnam, my wife wore white, à la Western style, our "bridesmaids," which were not really bridesmaids at all, but the closest equivalent to a Western wedding, wore bright red áo dài, the Vietnamese traditional dress.

For our American wedding, which was a small ceremony necessary for the type of visa we chose to apply for, my wife wore a shockingly neon fuschia áo dài. Oddly enough, at the end of our Vietnamese wedding, we were driven away in a fancy car, but at the end of our American wedding, we escaped on a motorbike. That's completely backwards!

On 2/26/2020 at 5:28 PM, p1ng74 said:

The video ends with giving the girl white flowers.  In Chinese culture this could be a dangerous insult, as white flowers are reserved for funerals.  Is it the same for Vietnamese?

I finally remembered to ask, and my wife looked at me and said, "What the heck?" It's one of those examples of American vernacular that she doesn't get quite right intonation-wise, but it's super cute. Anyway, I guess there is no prohibition on white flowers in Hanoi. She thought it was a strange question. I'm not even going to say that this applies to all of modern Vietnam, because they could well have other customs in the South, and I'd have to ask other people about that.

Just out of curiosity, which Chinese language/dialect is your Mother Tongue, and do you speak more than one Chinese language/dialect?

10 hours ago, chesterx said:

This was one of the longest outings I have had, at nearly 11 hours. Every time one of my outings has come to an end I felt sad that I was done, but not today. My pinky toes were beet red, but no blisters, so I'm calling that a win.

Oh, do be careful of those little toes! They can only take so much abuse, and then they turn on you. It's taken me a few years to undo the damage I did wearing shoes that pinched my little toes, particularly my right one. This was after I got rid of the offending shoes.

At least he didn't give her a knife! That is the one gift I know that will get you into some serious trouble in Vietnam. I really don't know about the white flowers, I shall have to ask my wife when I get a chance. I am happy to report that I will be going back to a normal 40 hour week next week, so I might actually get a chance to see my wife for more than just a few minutes here and there. I hope she likes the new shorts I bought better than she liked my new coat and hat.

9 hours ago, fashionablefun said:

I feel like Asian women are more enthsiatic about high heels than Caucasians. 

I think it makes a good deal of difference where you are in the country, and whether the Asian is an import or a domestic. I can tell you that Asians born and raised in Asia, or at least Southeast Asia, are way more likely to wear high heels on a regular basis than are people of Asian descent who were born in the West. Of course, that's a very broad statement and can be disputed quite easily on an individual basis, but that's the general feeling I've gotten being married to a Vietnamese and having visited Vietnam 12 times. I think the same largely applies to other Asians, too. I know the Koreans love their heels as well. And very short skirts.

The three people who are the most truly enthusiastic about me wearing heels are all Vietnamese, ranging in age from 24 to 44, none of them were born in the U.S, but all of them actually wear heels, like, all the time. Also, none of them are my wife, who is less than enthusiastic about my heel wearing. There are a couple of white ladies who are a close second in their enthusiasm, they are both in their mid-50s, and neither of them have ever worn heels to any real extent at all. Go figure.

10 hours ago, p1ng74 said:

It’s way too much too fast.  I’m suspending most of my shopping activity for a while and give her a chance to breathe and let her have a voice in all this.  She’s a bit shocked that I have interest in fashion and doesn’t quite know what to make of it.  

Haha, I came in from choir rehearsal the other night wearing my newly purchased coat and hat (with boots over my pants, too!), and my wife, who was still at work when I'd left the house, said, "I need to start saving up money to send you to Thailand, so you can finish the job." I think she was joking.  .  .