Shyheels

While we don't have those same companies over here, I have had similar experiences. And it never fails to amaze me than when the second company calls up weeks later, and you tell them that you've long since given your business to their competitor, they are always so breezy about it - a though you'd called them to ask a favour and didn't need it after all.  Nobody cares. 

Out and about in York the other day. Despite our warm summer I was surprised by the number of heeled knee boots I saw. To be sure most wearing trainers but that there were anybody in boots was a surprise, and I saw a surprising number of women in block heeled knee boots - 3” heels. No stilettos though - although given York’s ancient streets I doubt stilettos were ever big there

That’s nice when you get positive feedback - and nice too when a sales assistant goes out of her way to be helpful. Definitely a boost for the day

I am reasonably competent in 10cm heels, but I don’t think I’d care to run a race in them! Partly I’d be worried about damaging my heels! But as you say, an interesting discipline!

Hello and welcome to HHP. This is a really friendly and well mannered forum. As @Tech says, we look forward to hearing more from you. Have a great day 

Yes Leviticus is hard going. The boots seem much more inviting 

I didn’t dare take my eyes off the road!!!

I had an old pair of (quite nice) Scarpa mountaineering boots do that - the Vibram sole came loose around the toe area. It was walkable, though irritating, flap-flap-flapping like that, and happily it was also easily fixable with contact cement once I got back to the boat 

I saw this article on the CNN website about a high heels race in Spain as part of the local Pride festival. Apparently it has been going for quite a long time. Minimum heel height is four inches or 10cm - so they are racing in genuinely high heels. 
 

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/05/travel/madrid-pride-high-heel-race

4 minutes ago, pebblesf said:

YIPES!!

Yes! I think I hit even higher speeds but I didn’t dare look at my speedometer - it was a fast and curvy descent on a narrow  mountain road without guardrails. High risk, high consequence. 57mph was the last reading I saw. 

Oh I’ve descended quickly in the past - my record being 57mph down a steep pass in the Vosges. And that on a loaded touring bike. But I’m not a fan of such descents

That would not be much fun at all. One of the reasons I am hesitant about going out in stilettos is the fear of just such a thing happening. The heels look so precarious - so easy to imagine breakage and the aforementioned barefoot walk home. That's one of the drawbacks to being a creative - a vivid imagination. It's why I am not a great downhiller on my bicycle. I can envision all too easily the consequences of missing my line or a loose piece of gravel

I certainly like stiletto boots - I noticed your style preferences in another if your posts. Like you, I dislike platforms, for the same reason as you, and I’m not fond of pointy toes either.

i do like stiletto ankle boots although my preference with ankle boots is chunky heels. I think the long stiletto heels is better balanced visually with a long shaft.

i don’t go for the super high heels. For me the look is too “crunched”. For me, the perfect height, aesthetically, is 12cm or just under five inches. I have a pair of 12 stiletto knee boots and love them, although I find them difficult to walk in (I’ve not practiced nearly enough - my calf muscles just seem to cramp up in 12cm heels. I have 10cm (four inch) stilettos knee boots which I also love, and can walk easily in and enjoy.

i like heels for the aesthetics and 10-12cm is my perfect range for stilettos, although I have several pair if chunky heeled ankle, knee and OTK boots which I wear a great deal!

I would suspect the latter. See and be seen, and change into something manageable 

Sounds like an interesting outing to say the least. I was never interested in skirts in the least, but a woman I know who’s into heels, and knows I like them too, convinced me to give one a try, suggesting I go for a pencil skirt - her own particular favourite. I really don’t care for mini skirts so that was never going to be an option, but I have always liked the look of longer skirts. I bought a midi pencil skirt and loved it. I was really surprised at how natural and comfortable it felt.

i wore it while doing some landscape photography very early one morning a few weeks ago and encountered a woman photographer. She came up and started chatting, very naturally, and never mention the skirt or gave any sort of double take. We chatted for about twenty minutes about photography and the light - it was a great morning to be out there - and she went on her way. Completely natural encounter. There’s no way she couldn’t have noticed I was wearing a skirt. She was clearly open minded about such things, while I felt comfortable wearing the midi skirt and knew - or felt - I didn’t look bad in it.

I know what you mean. I always find it somewhat amusing, yet vaguely disturbing, when I read articles denouncing heels, or where some intrepid male journalist has spent a day in heels and is writing an expose,  and where women - who don’t seem to wear heels themselves - offer up such quotes as “now you see what we put up with for you”.  But none of the women I know who wear actually wear and love heels wear them to impress or attract men - far from it. They wear them for the aesthetics and their own emotional satisfaction. Same as I would, and do.

And yes, 12cm stilettos are indeed elegant but very, very few people can master the art of walking elegantly in them. I’ve yet to see any of that height being worn out and about. Four inches or 10cm seems to be the practical maximum.

Yes it would be nice to have more threads on fashion, topical news, etc I guess that’s up to all of us. Build it and they will come ,,, hopefully

But at least the colours are nicer. It’s not so bad with running shorts and tops - those they make in larger sizes

Yes HHP is unique, I think. Very much a fashion oriented site about high heels, but with mainly male members 

I too avoid the self check out aisles - I don’t see why I should be the store’s unpaid cashier and wish to make my own protest against this march towards a soulless world we we interact only with machines and people are dine out of jobs. As well, I dislike these self check outs for the reasons you name - their tedious inefficiency and time wasting hassles. 

Yes, Italian Heels is very good. I have two pair of their Tina knee boots. Nice quality and classic styling 

Wow! That must have been fun indeed. And very nice boots too. I love the aesthetics of 12cm stilettos. Especially in boots. They are the perfect height for stilettos. Any higher seems to ruins the lines - at least for me - but 12 is truly elegant.

Well done for lasting the day. I can’t. My calf muscles seize up in knots when I wear my 12cm stiletto knee boots. I’m sure it’s a matter of practicing. It’s just that whenever I wear heels I always seem to reach for my 8cm block heel boots first.

Well done on a day in stilettos! And 12cm to boot (so to speak!)

I decided to get myself a new pair of trainers and return to running as a means of getting/staying fit. And so I went shopping, checking out all the online sports shops and running-shoe shops with their vast ranges of styles. Every time I saw a shoe whose colour I liked - soft pastels or some interesting shade of colour - they were invariably women’s, with sizes running inky up to a UK8, far too small for me.

I looked through hundreds of pairs. The mens were always black, dark blue, dark grey or else some hideous neon shade. Nothing subtle, nothing soft, no pastels, no pale blues or violets - not that such shoes were not made, only that they were not made in anything larger than size eight. Such colours or shades are perceived as feminine.

It was infuriating. I’m sure I can’t be the only male who wants an expanded colour palette, just as I am sure there are plenty of women who have feet larger than size eight.  And at least some of those must wish they could buy heels and/or trainers in nicer, more interesting colours. How nice it woukd be for manufacturers to show a bit of initiative and stir out of their ruts.

Nice that the conversation could be so matter of fact, not strained. 

I wouldn’t say you love of high heeled boots is unique - plenty of people like stiletto boots. I’m glad to hear you are giving them another shot and by the sounds of things, enjoying it. I am quite fond of high heeled boots myself, although my collection is fairly modest - about seven pair or so, but very nice ones. 
 

At any rate, welcome to the forum