Shyheels

I wonder if maybe the initial cramps I suffered were because my calves were strong as @higherheels originally suggested - I’ve always done a lot of sports that require strong calves, to the point where if I was going to the gym I would actually have a hard time finding an exercise that would really work my calves - until I tried wearing 12cm stilettos! The 10cm would do it a bit but the 12cm heels were the killers. I suspect it was the combination of strong calf muscles and the unaccustomed isometric exercise of wearing lofty stiletto heels that was the cause. i seldom wear my 12cm heels much as i like the appearance. I’ve never developed the skill to wear them gracefully and so I always opt for other boots. I should make a concerted effort - although I expect at the start I’d experience those savage cramps again

There are definitely benefits to wearing stilettos - balance, muscle tone, posture, strong ankles It ought to be better known!

Yes they are extremely good value - especially for a full custom boot maker! Plus their styles are really classy and the leathers and workmanship are first rate.

I’ve done lots of running, cycling and fencing in my time - so my calves are strong and flexible. I think the difference is that wearing heels is an isometric exercise instead of an isotonic one like, say, doing toe raises at the gym. My calves were not used to being flexed and then held in this one tippy-toe position for extended periods of time. And when they were asked to do so they cramped up after a few minutes until I gradually got used to it. i know what you mean though about how wearing heels can help with strength and flexibility for hiking, and vice versa. I sometimes think that if more guys knew how good a workout you can get from an hour in stilettos, there would be a rack of them at the gym!

Nope! It startled me how intensely my calf muscles cramped up in 12cm stilettos! It seemed almost unfair! I'm a cyclist. I ride hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometres every year. If anyone had fit calves surely it was me! But wearing stilettos, as I quickly discovered, is a lot different than cycling! Because you can do one doesn't mean you can do the other ...

Sounds like a great place for a nighttime stroll in 12cm stilettos! My university was very much east coast preppy/boho/hippy vibe depending on your social set - and none of these demographics were particularly likely to be seen in heels, especially not in the mid-Seventies. And yes, my university was also located on a hill. No mountain lions though …

I think it depends too on where in the 1980s you’re talking about. The early eighties was still in the shadows of the seventies, but by the end of the decade fashions had changed considerably. When I was in college I don’t remember anyone wearing heels - clogs were a big thing, but not heels

I woukdn’t fancy wearing them on the towpath

They are quite soulless - pardon the pun. My first heels were altogether more memorable - a very elegant pair of chocolate brown stiletto knee boots with 12cm heels. I’d always fancied a pair of boots like that. Trying them on was exhilarating - until my calves seized up in knots! Welcome to the world of high heels!

Yes indeed. Living along a towpath as I do, going for a stroll in stilettos is just not sensible. Even chunky heels are at risk and in the rain ..,

Seven inch heels are well into fetish territory - if that’s the message your character is meant to convey, by all means but it would be decidedly creepy. He sounds a bit creepy anyway but if he’s hoping to disguise it then definitely lower the heels to no more than 12cm or just under five inches. Even so in real life such a guy would make women uneasy - and understandably so

If they were red they could be emoji heels 👠

Jean Gaborit boots are lovely - well worth the expense

What are those called? Cat heels? Very dowdy, nothing like the dangerous glamour of true stilettos

They are an offence. One of our former prime ministers used to wear them - no, not Boris Johnson, but Theresa May. It was not a great look.

Totally agree! An abomination!

Yes! Tried but failed! Exactly the feelings these stubby stilettos conjure up.

I agree with you - 8cm is a nice height for chunky heels but too low for the aesthetic of a stiletto.

For me platforms spoil the lines of a stiletto - not so much with block heels, but stilettos have a slender elegance that seem so much at odds, aesthetically, with a platform. It seems like fitting a bull-bar to a Ferrari.

I have a hard enough time giving my seven pair of heels a regular enough rotation!

I can understand why walking or trying to walk in something extreme would then make 12cm seem relatively easy, but I’ll never try them. I really dislike the extreme heel heights. To me they just look ugly, obsessive, raunchy - not at all the sort of thing that attracts me to high heels. To me it’s all about the aesthetics with the heel forming apart of the overall look. I love the lines of 12cm heels with 10cm seeming to be a nice compromise between the imperious elegance of 12cm and real world walkability if it were possible I’d be interested in trying the 13cm Louboutins, just to see what it was like, but the extreme 14cm and up heels have no appeal to me at all. Same with platforms

I tried 10cm heels. Worked a treat! 😀

I’m impressed that you can walk well in 12cm. A friend of mine can also walk well in 12cm - in fact they are her favourite height. She too bought a pair of Louboutin Hot Chick 13cm and while she loved them, aesthetically, she said she rarely wears them. She said she can walk in them but not to the standard she sets herself. As for me my calf muscles go into intense cramps when I try on my 12cm knee boots

Yes a friend of mine who is quite expert in heels says she’s never seen anybody who can walk gracefully in 12cm heels. In her words there’s always some little hitch, some kind of concession And with the point of heels being being grace and style and an easy imperiousness you can’t have it looking like the heel is wearing you instead of the other way around.

They look sturdy enough, and high enough!