Shyheels

They are really gung ho on health and require all sorts of physical checks - especially if you are going to winter. I’ve not been to Antarctica in many years now - I used to go there often - but I suspect things have become even more strict since my day. Salisbury Plain and St Andrews Bay are the two really big king penguin colonies on South Georgia, they’re spectacular. youre very luck indeed to have made it to Elephant Island, that’s a very rare landing

It's a thought, but I reckon that would have been mentioned.

The idea is to enjoy yourself. Looking good or elegant may be a part of that but if you’re in pain then that too is going to affect your look. I can see being stuck in heels if you’ve no back but, but if you’ve options use them. Enjoyment should be the overriding factor in fashion. If the pain of wearing heels is overcoming that enjoyment then give it a rest. My most miserable experience in being stuck in painful footwear was going on a hike in a pair of poorly designed trail running shoes, whose poor design didn’t manifest itself in short walks around town but certainly did about five mikes into a 15 mile hike. Turned my right foot into hamburger. I’d have happily changed into anything. As it was I was able to limp to a rural railway platform, wait two hours for a train and from the station back in town limp to a cab and home. A horrible experience of bad footwear.

That’s an interesting result! Who would have guessed. I find wearing 3-4” heels can ease back problems - muscle spasms etc so I knew they had their practical uses, but that’s a new one

I watched the video too. I think if I was going to climb a mountain in heels I’d be in chunky heeled ankle boots for at least a bit of support - why anyone would choose sandals and especially a pair like those is beyond me. But she made it and evidently had a good time so more power to her

Bookbinding is a fabulous craft. I always envy people who can create with their hands. I write and take photos - creating abstract things, really, images and words rather than physical objects. I think it must be lovely to create an object, something tangible. I never imagined I would actually wear heels one day or own several pairs of feminine style boots - both with and without heels. I’d always fancied the women’s boots since childhood but could never summon the nerve to buy or wear them, or even imagine doing such a thing until a few years ago. My tastes are still quite conservative by the standards of most of the people here - not because I don’t dare push the envelope but because those are genuinely my tastes - knee boots with low to medium heels. I suspect there are far more men out there who fancy wearing heels than we can know, most of them keeping it under their hat - as I did for many years. I’ve no interest in manicures or pedicures or shaving or any of that, just a predilection for feminine e style boots it’s a very friendly forum with quite diverse characters and tastes, but all very tolerant and good natured.

I'd not noticed your post before. I'd wondered about your username. Mine is more self explanatory - and suited me better when I first joined here nearly 11 years ago (next month) I am much less shy now about wearing heels. It sounds like an interesting ambition to fashion a pair of heels for your wife. A friend of mine is a bookmaker and I am in awe of his skills both in terms of design and abilities to create with his hands. Shoe 0r boot making is a real art.

That’s certainly not something you see every day

It would depend on the heel and the style - pumps would never last more than a bare few miles. But chunky heel ankle boots if well made might be theoretically possible. Not for the whole journey in one pair. Not even Vibram soled hiking boots would do the entire journey from what I hear. But if you had a big enough budget for quite a few pairs of really well made chunky heeled ankle or knee boots, I should think it would be possible. In theory. Of course the truth is than many would be through hikers never make it, for loads of reasons. It is not an easy hike. Adding to the degree of difficulty by insisting on doing it in heels might be pushing your luck. I wore my chunky heeled ankle boot up the towpath the other day. It was noticeably slower going and I felt less sure footed - and that was without a sixty pound backpack.

Well done! Looks like a nice outing, and a well put together outfit. I liked the colour of those mauve pumps. It would be interesting in a pair of boots

I thought I'd start this thread as a bit of a finger on the pulse of what is being worn. I was thinking of this the other night when I was in a busy pub having dinner and noticing the boots and heels being worn by my fellow patrons. I was wearing low-heeled OTK boots myself - bluish-grey suede over skinny jeans. I was not the only one in OTK boots. There was a young lady in black shorts (this in winter) with some very tall black leather boors - actually more like thigh boots than OTK. I'd never seen anything quite like them. The shafts looked to be made of very nice leather and fit her well; that part was elegant. The boot part though was like a pair of exceptionally heavy Doc Martens with very thick clod-hopper soles. I don't know if contrast and aesthetic tension was the point of this, but it looked like hell. My other outing this week was to go to Leeds, an old city in the north of England. I saw a lot of people (all women) wearing heels - typically chunky heeled knee and and ankle boots with 3" heels. It was almost the norm. I was wearing black leather knee boots myself, again with low heels (my circumstances at the moment do not lend themselves to wearing heels - not because of the fear of censure but risky footing and the ruination of nice suede high-heeled boots) Again, my black leather knee bots, for over skinny jeans, passed without notice.