Shyheels

Nice styling! And good to see them offered as menswear 

It’s been very wet here - and continues to be so - and I do not wear my suede boots outside for that reason but in my home office where they stay dry and I stay warm! And my feet and calves especially so

Chilly and raw in Yorkshire - for me at work it was heavy suede OTK boots with 4” heels

Why not?

I see noticeably more heels in the north of England that I ever saw in London 

34 minutes ago, Cali said:

Great about the green stilettos, but the man in the skirt could just be a lost Scotlander.  😁

It was no kilt. It was a skirt. Nobody wears tights with their kilt! 😊

I was travelling around northern England today and for the first time saw a man wearing a skirt. No heel, just tights and low-heeled ankle boots. A grey and black skirt and a leather jacket. This was at Leeds. Quite a modest ensemble and nobody gave him a second glance.

Also at Leeds a middle aged woman wearing some bright green stiletto ankle boots with what looked to be 4” heels. Quite striking. Not seen such flamboyant stilettos in quite a while.

3 minutes ago, Jkrenzer said:

I wear stilettos almost 100% of the time. I admit I occasionally get stompy too, but that usually only happens when I'm tired.

I’m relieved to hear that because you are obviously an expert 

Well put! I know exactly what you mean, although I'm no gait geek myself. 

That said, I am conscious of the fact that in stilettos I am too stompy and would like to lose that stompiness.  Likewise I was aware of the moment when walking in my 3.5 inch heeled ankle boots suddenly 'clicked' and I could feel my gait shifting into something fluid and which I knew instinctively to be right. 

Me, on the other hand - all of my heels are boots, and very much on the casual side of things. I've never been one for the corporate look, no suits or ties or even men's dress shoes for me. I've always been the outdoorsy writer/photographer editors sent to remote places - not the one they wanted covering politics or the billionaires' gabfest at Davos. When it came to buying my first pair of heels I veered well away from the iconic stiletto pumps. That corporate look was more alien and unsettling to me than the heels.

I have a couple pair of stilettos but they are knee boots and by definition smart casual, especially with skinny jeans. All my others are chunky or slender heels, from about 2 inches to about 3.5 inches. I like owning a couple of pairs of stilettos, but it's the chunky heels that get worn the vast majority of the time. they are more me.       

Men are still living in the era of the Great Male Renunciation as some psychologist in the 1920s termed it. That was the period in the 18th century when men forswore any form if theatre, colour or ornamentation in dress in favour of some vague ideal of the thinking man. And here we are two hundred and fifty years down the track still uptight about breaking ranks, having painted ourselves into an ever smaller style corner.

I’ve never really taken the trouble to analyse my walk, although I know I could be better, smoother and more fluid. I guess I think if it more like ice skating - so many things needs to come together for you to do it well. I tend to go for overall movement, the whole of the motion, rather than try to break it down into parts. To me that complicates thinks too much.

I like them too. I like chunky heels in the 3 to 3.5 inch range. They suit my aesthetic 

Funnily enough I saw an ad for a new TV show in our side of the ping and the name of the lead character us … Kitty Wells 

Sounds interesting. I shall look forward to reading 

That’s quite a lot of pairs! I’ve about a dozen pair of boots and feel rather extravagant for having so many. Mind, I gave much more limited living space than you and a dozen pair of tall boots takes up a lot if room.

I do try to make certain they all get worn regularly though.

I can’t imagine trying to wear regularly 106 pairs of heels 

I’ve bought a couple if things from Asos - not shoes or boots - and thought they were just ok. Not great but cheap.

5 hours ago, Bubba136 said:

I think I would tread lightly here because if these women are as unattractive as described, any suggestion of improving their appearance could be taken as insulting and might be considered inappropriate by your company’s anti discrimination policies. 

An excellent point I had been about to make myself. Tread very carefully 

It’s been an interesting challenge. Anybody can photograph a guy in heels and bake it look provocative and confronting. I set myself a challenge of shooting an image, or images, in which one doesn’t at first glance notice the heels although they are in no way hidden. I think I’ve got one that fills the bill.

it’s odd for me because as a photographer I’m more comfortable behind the lens than in front of it - and this has nothing to do with being in heels. I wouldn’t mind sharing it with people on this forum but I’m less keen on general circulation. 

Those are very nice! I love ankle boots and these are very elegant in their simplicity 

Yes, that's quite a presentable style - a welcome break from the usual monstrous offerings for men

21 minutes ago, Bubba136 said:

Thank you for your comment, Shyheels.  The identity slug, beneath my initial symbol above, shows that I have posted 13.3k comments over the time I have been a member here.  I have related this part of my history before.  A long time ago.  It is the way it happened.   I felt that if we were going to become involved to a point where a lifetime commitment was possible, then that commitment should be based upon the absolute truth if it was going to succeed.  Our commitment was complete and successful.  The only problem was that It didn’t last long enough.  My wife passed away after only 36 years together.  We were the same age.  We should still be going strong.  You cannot imagine how much I miss her.  I realize that this is “off subject”.  Please forgive me for reminiscing.

Not at all!!! Entirely understandable. You struck it lucky in finding a life partner - and I don’t mean anything to do with heels but partner in the fullest richest sense of the word. That’s so rare

5 hours ago, Bubba136 said:

Walking in heels.  Something I never thought about until the first time I wore them in front of my wife.  She was just my girlfriend at the time but we had been dating for several months.  

 I met her on our first day at college.  We hit it off from the first moment we met and when it became apparent that we were going to be more than boyfriend and girlfriend, I decided that it was time I told her about my life long love of wearing heels so that if she had a problem with that part of my personality, she could call it quits before we became to involved.  

One evening coming home after nice dinner at a good restaurant, I decided to bring the subject up. I thoroughly explained my situation along with a complete history description.  I even told her that I owned several pairs that I would occasionally wear around my room where I was living.

She told me that she had thought there was something unusual about my choice of footwear because my shoes, even though they could be worn by a man, were of styles that could be found in the women’s section of any shoe store.  After a lengthy discussion, we decided that the following day I would bring a pair of my heels over to her place and show them to her.  

I picked her up the next afternoon and we drove to an excluded place out in the country.  I chose a great pair of black patent pumps with 5” heels that I had owned for a couple of years, that were very comfortable and I could walk for miles while wearing them without discomfort.  

I changed into my pumps and we got out of the car and started walking down the road.  While we were walking along, I explained that I realized that this desire was unusual and that over the years I had tried my best to stop.  But after not wearing them for several weeks, my attitude became troubling and the desire so strong that I couldn’t help but start wearing them.  So I decided since I couldn’t stop l would never try to quit wearing them again.

Her reaction was one of curiosity.  She asked many questions about my parents reaction and my experiences wearing heels in public,  One of her comments was how surprised she was that I could walk so well without difficulty while wearing heels as high as these.  How long did it take me to learn to walk in them?  I replied that I had been wearing heels since before I was two years old while playing in my mother’s clothes closet.  So, wondering about how I learned how to walk in heels was something that I had never thought about.  Walking in heels was as natural to me as going barefoot.

We walked back to the car and drove home.  As she was getting out at her place, she said that I had taken her completely by surprise springing this upon her the way I did and that she would have to think about it before she could decide how it would effect us.  She asked me not to call her for awhile.  She said that she would call me when she sorted things out and had some idea how to deal with it.  
 

 

That's a nice story, candid and well-told  - and, professionally speaking, a very nice piece of writing as well. I know you were a pilot but you clearly have a gift for writing. 

Yes having strong flexible ankles helps - I did lots of fencing in my youth and have retained a lot of that flexibility in my ankles ( probably thanks to many many thousand of miles of cycling since then )

Other than a few broad tips, such as walking heel to toe, it’s mainly a matter of practice which is why so many of the videos seem to say the same thing 

Yes own the look and nobody will care