Shyheels

I’ve been a writer and photographer for some fairly well known magazines - the guy they send to the really weird and offbeat places, not the guy they have covering business or politics!

Yes the Hot Chicks are very chic! I would love to try a pair out of curiosity’s sake, but they don’t come in my size and even if they did it’s too expensive for idle curiosity! I'm glad to hear that even you give thought to a day in 12cm heels - i feel a bit better about my own struggles with them! I’ve a pair of very nice suede Jean Gaborit OTK boots with 9cm slender - not quite stiletto - heels that would be great for Christmas markets. Warm and with slightly thicker 9cm heels perfect for a long day. I need to find some Christmas markets to wear them too!

Yes, I’d agree with your definition. I don’t think there is an official definition, but the huge platforms and absurdly long heels (although not when you deduct the platform height) just scream “stripper” to me. aesthetically I always thought that 12cm stilettos are the ideal - they project just the right sort of stilettos imperiousness without going over the top. To me that always seemed the limit. I must say though your Hot Chicks and the new boots you’ve bought have shown me that heels of 13cm and even slightly higher can look really smart. it would be fun to go out to the Christmas markets in 12cm heels. I can see where your new boots could be a bit too much of a challenge for that just yet, but that fact that you feel nearly ready to try them in a real world setting is hugely impressive. I’m wearing 10 or 12cm stilettos all day, every day in my home office, and have really grown used to the idea of high heels being the norm. This challenge has been so beneficial

I must say, practicing in higher heels really does improve one’s ease and ability in lower heights. I’ve been really surprised how much easier I find walking in my 10cm boots now that I’m putting in time in my 12cm ones.

Happy Thanksgiving to all you in the other side of the pond. It is one of the traditions I most miss about my childhood in America all those decades ago - the great turkey feast and those once a year recipes that would be trotted out. I hope you are all enjoying yours! As for me I’m sitting by the fire, listening to the wind howl outside and enjoying a tot of rum while my curry simmers in the stove - and giving thanks in my own way, and not least for the comradeship found here in this forum!

I would agree with your assessments - 7.5cm for mid heel and 10cm as a minimum for high heels, with 12cm - or in the case of @higherheels Hot Chicks or the new boots she bought, both unusually nice exceptions - being the upper limit of classy (not stripper) heels. i just use the heel height chart on the Italian Heels website to reckon my actual heel height as opposed to the nominative height

You didn’t miss much if you were going to be staying at McMurdo. Pole is pretty cool though. I got booted out of Palmer once. A few of us were whooping it up with a few of their guys and the base commander broke it up at 3am and ordered us back to our ship. There’s not exactly a great sense of joie de vivre amongst the NSF and military types that run the American bases

Yes but your job doesn’t take you to Antarctica, Papua New Guinea, Chad or the Darien Gap - mine does and heels are not useful in those places, but otherwise I’m in heels at work, and since I’ve largely stopped travelling, in heels full time!

I have the luxury of being self employed so when I am not travelling on assignment I am working from my kitchen table and can wear whatever I please. Theoretically I can wear whatever I please on assignments, but most of my assignments are in wild remote areas where hiking boots or engineering boots are the only sensible option. Even then, though, I do have some knee boots with the right soles

I’m so looking forward to being able to say the same about 12cm heels!

One thing I have been so pleased about as a result of this high heel challenge is the ease with which I now get about in my 10cm stilettos. While I am slowly getting better in my 12cm ones, the improvement at the 10cm height is really gratifying and noticeable - so much so that I find myself tempted simply to wear my 10cm boots for the sheer joy of it, at the expense of practicing with my 12cm ones. The past two days I’ve been wearing them 12 hours a day - admittedly not walking much, just puttering about, making meals and coffee and writing at my desk, but being in 10cm stilettos is starting to feel natural and intuitive. I like it

The only way I’d ever manage 20cm is if I added together the heels on my 10cm boots …

Nah, I’ve just gotten incredibly gifted at high heels! 😂 That’s what I like about heels! They are always fun, never boring and there are so many interesting styles and heights - even if you just wear boots like I do!

I did the same, in my 19cm stiletto knee boots, but I wasn’t walking around much, just puttering around - writing, cleaning, making meals. It was really quite nice. I felt very much at ease in them

Yes four inch heels does have a ring to it. Here in Britain we use both measurements regularly. Our speed limit signs are in mph, but we guy our food in grams and kilos. We measure our height in feet and inches and talk about our weight in pounds and stone. Screws and bolts are metric, as are most tools. We buy petrol in litres but talk of miles per gallon. It can be weird. a mile walk in 10cm heels - to continue our mixed use if measurements - is impressive. The weather was vile out today so I went nowhere but wore my 10cm heels indoors all day. I should have worn my 12cm but I was lazy and the 10cm are so easy to walk in. It felt really odd, deflating, to take them off at the end of the day.

I understand what you mean. I used to do a lot of long distance running and heel strike there is very much that - a hard strike. Whereas when you’re wearing heels, as you say, the heel acts more like a guide than point of impact. Subtle bit important difference. i think that is one of the mistakes I make with my 12cm heels - because of their extra length they strike that bit earlier than I am expecting.

We’ve had light flurries and a hard frost - enough for the towpath to harden even if the puddles are now iced over. There’s no way anyone would risk their heels or their ankles trying to walk on that surface in stilettos, but it was nice to be able to go for a stroll in my blocky heeled knee boots! @higherheels I’m impressed that you’re making progress in those lofty new boots of yours. I can see how the progression in heights - normal heels, Hot Chicks and then the new boots would help. Because if my time practicing in my 12cm boots my 10cm feel wonderfully easy. I’m really pleased by that.

You have certainly acquired a lot of practical knowledge and skills in the course of your research!

I’m hoping those temperatures you’re citing are in °C because if 6-8°F and windy is still fine for you in sandals you are truly heroic

I had a similar experience with a pair of boots I’d not worn in ages. The fit felt awkward for no obvious reason.

Very impressive to walk in those! I think I’d be lucky to stand upright! im back to my block heeled OTK boots as the cold weather has settled in here. Down to -4°C at night. Getting up in the morning it’s very nice to be able to put on heavy suede OTK boots. My stilettos are thinner and not so warm!

Interesting review. I’m even more impressed with @higherheels efforts to master these.

I much prefer almond toes, but they are so hard to find with stilettos. Italian Heels makes a very nice pump with rounded/almond toes and 12cm stiletto heels that I like the look of. I’ve never worn pumps, only boots. I’m curious and a bit tempted

I’m a continuous cruiser, although the 14 day rule was suspended because of the long term closures this summer and into the autumn. I’m on a mooring now though. It just made sense. Winter is nearly upon us. There are more closures planned for winter repairs and the reservoirs are still low. Here I’ve ready access to coal, wood, diesel, gas etc - just no good place to practice in 12cm stiletto boots!

That’s my plan come spring. The nearest spot for that is a town about 15 locks east of here. At the moment that would be too chancy a journey. The canal I’m on has been closed to navigation for much of the year because of a water shortage and reopened only about a month ago - mainly to allow people who were stranded in awkward places for months to move somewhere better for the winter. Nobody expects the canal to remain open for long, despite our rainy weather lately. I’m in a really good spot at the moment. I’d be nuts to move