Shyheels

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!

Yes. I think you’re right. The cutoff is 12 cm, with a few rare exceptions at 13cm. It’s fairly easy to see why in terms of aesthetics. A 12cm stiletto has very elegant and imperious lines - at 14 or 15cms it’s all about obsession with the heel and nothing else.

I'd use my Jean Gaborit suede OTK boots...

I have never even tried on a pair of pumps but I can readily imagine stepping out of them!

Too high for me - visually and certainly physically. My calf muscles start cramping up pretty quickly in 12cm heels. The better shoe and boot makers scale up (or down) their stated heel heights according to size to keep the same proportions and lines throughout the range. So it’s no easier having big feet - or harder having small feet