Shyheels

2 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

I am at odds with most people on this, at least most Westerners, but I do not like how Doc Martens feel at all, saying nothing about how they look. They are far too squidgy for me. I don't want to feel like I'm walking on air. I want to feel like I'm walking on the ground. Running a shovel or bending electrical conduit (by hand) is very unsatisfactory in Docs. As a final note, it seems like within the first few days of the temperature dipping below zero, and by zero I mean -18º to most of the world, the sole splits transversely in half underneath the ball of the foot. I've had this happen to two different pairs.

Continuing along the same line of thought, people tell me that Crocs, though ugly, are like walking on pillows. Seems like that would take a great deal of effort for no fashion gain, wouldn't it? Again, I'd rather just walk on the ground. It's much easier.

I’ve never worn Doc Martens myself. Not that much of a fan. My taste in boots just doesn’t run that way. My daughter must have 6 or 8 pairs of them and loves the way they fit and feel. We don’t gave to worry about 0°F temperatures here so she’ll never know how the soles hold up in those temperatures.

I do have a pair of crocs which I wear when I am gardening or mowing the lawn - and only then. They are comfortable, I guess. I don’t really notice them so they must be! When I’m done with the lawn I just kick them off and go inside. 

They look nice and a pleasant shade of orange. I wouldn’t say they had a platform - the wooden sole would necessarily be thicker than a single leather sole. They’re quite nice sandals 

Very nice ankle boots! A pity they don’t make them in a broader range of sizes

My daughter does the Doc Martens and dresses look - although she can carry it off. She doesn’t do floaty dresses but heavy Victorian ones and with floral Doc Martens. It works - I think because it is her natural style and unaffected 

13 minutes ago, p1ng74 said:

Things come and go.  There are now entire businesses riding the Yellowstone wave:

Americans go ‘westerncore’ as Yellowstone fans adopt cowboy look | US television | The Guardian

'Yellowstone' inspires Western fashion trend among fans embracing 'cowboy couture' | Fox Business

That's nice to hear - even if I'm not particularly a fan of cowboy boots. 

4 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

Since this site seems to be hanging by two threads, I'll try to do my part to keep it going. So, as the several replies above show, it is a fact that pop culture can and does affect fashion, including footwear. Two negative examples are given above, but a positive example must certainly be the TV series "Sex and the City," which helped bring us out of a dark decade filled with Grunge bands, Spice Girls and Bratz. I do not see why some combination of circumstances could not allow it to happen again. Despite what some may say, there are definitely still girly-girl things happening out in the Real World, just not stiletto heels so much.

So true. Fashion is fickle. Something can come out of nowhere and change the landscape - stilettos in the Fifties and go-go boots in the Sixties are examples. Obviously it can go the other way too, as it has done in recent years, but influencers and designers make their fortunes by challenging  the status quo - even if it is one they instigated - and being the next big thing. It’s only a matter of time until somebody “remembers “ heels and then a new wave will start.

I didn't mind the movie. I saw it when it came out and thought it was well done. As far being sappy, I can think of endless numbers of sappier movies than that. It did kill the cowboy boot market, that's for sure - just like the "Vivian Effect" ruined the market for OTK and thighboots for many years. OTK boots have come back but thighboots seem to have tajken a lethal hit.

Yup that’s the one. It did for cowboy boots what Pretty Woman did for thigh boots. Weird, isn’t it?

I’ve seen guys in ankle boots with 2.5 to 3-inch chunky heels. Not often. In fact quite rarely. But I have seen it. Never say a guy in heels any higher than that, let alone stilettos

Let’s put it this way, you’re never likely to see platforms worn in a formal setting.

We’d only be taking the heels back - they were originally masculine!

I spent a day in London earlier this week, walking quite a bit in the heart of the West End, Covent Garden, the Strand, Seven Dials and with this thread in mind had a look at the footwear in display. I didn’t see any stilettos, but quite a few chunky heels in the 3” range - mostly boots. They were not as common as trainers (sneakers to Americans) but 3” heels were by no means uncommon.

Had I been a bit further east - nearer St Paul’s, where the banks, brokers and law firms tend to be, I’m sure I would have seen more and higher heels, but given the precincts where I was, there was certainly no shortage of heels.

Same here. I don’t even own a tie. I borrowed one when I had tea at the Ritz - strictly no admittance to men without a tie - but I think that’s the only time I’ve worn one since the late 80s or early 90s

Most people would assume “casual” in terms of dress referred to the situation or circumstance in which the item of clothing or footwear is being worn - as opposed to “formal”

A hiking or mountaineering boot is also chunky, deliberately so, but unless you are wearing them while mountaineering or hiking along a trail, they would be considered casual wear and unsuitable for the office or dressy “formal” occasions.

Yes you really do put in a lot of effort to create a look that goes a long way to making heels for men seen credible and stylish. Well done. 

Possessive

Mine

Rock

Stones

Shelter

I have done the same - I find lower chunkier heels more appealing, not only for ease and convenience, but aesthetically too.

Thats an interesting point - changes can also come from within. When I first joined I quite fancied thigh boots - they seemed to me to the Ultima Thule in this forbidden word of high heels, the most extravagant and theatrical. And I suppose they are. But as I evolved into this, became more comfortable with the idea of wearing heels, more accepting and open to exploring my tastes, I found that my tastes evolved too. Or perpahs I discovered what they really were instead of being distracted by the most theatrical version of them.  I've settled quite comfortably into knee and OTK boots, as well as embraced a fondness (that I see now was always there) for chunky-heels and ankle boots. 

At the start I liked the racy lines and proportions of 12cm stiletto heels, and while I can still see the appeal, nowadays I prefer the look of 10cm in stilettos and 8cm chunky heels - not so much for ease of walking, although thsat plays a part, but because my aesthetic has evolved. I'm quite settled in that, know my mind and buy accordingly. And happily.  

Lots has changed in that time, and very little of it has been good

It’s a very friendly and accommodating forum - so different from some other forums I have encountered! Lots of different viewpoints and styles, but always expressed with tolerance and goodwill

I think with all these things it depends on where you live, the circles in which you move and your own perceptions on society’s drift and the swing of whatever pendulum you’re talking about.

If heels really are that universally disliked and scorned, and are so widely regarded as unwearable then perhaps they should go extinct.

I don’t think they will though. There is a powerful feminist lobby today, true, but these movements, by their intolerance, often create their own backlash. There was quite a powerful anti communist movement in the US during the fifties - and to the actors etc who were black listed it must have seemed that this would stretch on forever. It passed eventually. People got sick of it.

Humanity is easily distracted and bored, always on the look out for the next big thing - and nobody knows that better than fashion designers. 

Nobody walked in stilettos until the 1950s when they suddenly became the fashion, and women very swiftly learned how to do it. The same will happened again - all it would take is some K-Pop band on Tik-Tok to make heels their thing and it would be a craze.