Shyheels

I really do wish women’s boots came in larger sizes - surely they are missing a trick. I understand why they might not think there was much of a market among men, but with so many taller women these days there must be quite a few who wear UK9, 10 and 11.

Nice! But alas I’ll bet they don’t come bigger than a UK8 …

Each to their own, but I'll bet when you do travel in shorts you don't look like you just came off the beach

No, they are talking about bare feet - no shoes, unshod, dirty calloused feet. They are not concerning themselves with sandals. The fact that people need to be told to put something on their feet when they are going to fly is dispiriting. I don’t wear shorts out and about anyway, but I cannot ever imagine flying in shorts. I don’t think smart casual is too much to expect

If they had almond shaped toes I’d be on board

I’ve been living on my boat for over a year and in that time I have seen only one boater in heels and that was only just the other day - a woman in black leather knee boots with chunky 2.5” heels. Not high heels, to be sure, but then high heels really would be dangerous if you’re mooring and operating locks. In her case she was piloting the boat when I saw her while her partner was footing the mooring - although I don’t think that division had anything to do with her wearing heels. More like it was just his turn. i wear black leather knee boots when I'm moving the boat, but low heels. My lowest are about 3.5” which is just that bit too high for doing the locks. Had I boots with the heels she had I would probably wear them

I am no fan of AI either. Or the gaslighting hucksters who relentlessly promote it. As a photographer and writer I am deeply distrustful of it. I have done everything I can - or that I am aware if - to keep my work out if the clutches of these people and their robotic technologies but I don’t trust them not to steal it anyway. As for the technologies on cars etc so much is done simply because they can - not because there is a need. It’s all about the ego of the people who create these things, then telling us we need them and through the force if their market clout forcing us to buy by depriving us of alternatives. its becoming a very ugly world

Narrowboats are different beasts! I've mainly a 12v system, but a 240v washing machine and 240v plugs which I use only for charging the laptop. Ive a 3000w inverter for those.

I’ve a Vetus 42hp diesel engine with two 95 amp alternators, one for the starter and the other to charge the domestic battery, which is a Victron lithium set up. Also 600w of solar. Lithium can easily overwork an alternator which is why there is a separate BMS to control the charge. The original domestic alternator may have been faulty or the BMS may have failed but it burned out. The original electrician who installed it turns out to be the Basil Fawlty of electricians (a character on an old British comedy). the professional I called in has replaced the alternator and the relay - which also burned out.

You’re not kidding about power generation. I’ve been sidelined because of a power issue - actually the big problem was the idiot electrician from the boatbuilder who misdiagnosed a simply matter and turned it into a mess. He was even more idiotic because it was all under warranty so he didn’t make a penny out of the mess. I eventually gave up and got a competent marine engineer and in an hour he figured out the problem - when even a non technical person like me had already guessed: a burned out domestic alternator. And now it’s fixed. The idiot still swears it’s much more complicated and that he was right all along …

Yes it wasn’t meant to be an academic or scientific study just a woman writers take in heels. It sprang from an essay in The Atlantic, I think

Cowboy boots have heels, but those have their own particular following. But they do have heels. Although I like chunky heeled boots, I’m not a fan but very much prefer the more feminine styles

Yes that would not be at all attractive. On the other hand there is a very nice bohemian community of water dwellers on the canals, especially amongst us who are continuous cruisers with no permanent mooring.

My very first day in heels - four inch stiletto knee boots - I thoughtlessly bent over to pick up a flyer somebody had slipped though the mail slot in the front door. I completely forgot to take into account the fact that I was in lofty stilettos and bent over as I usually would and nearly face-planted! Lesson learned!

Interesting. I think it also depends on the design and construction of the shoe or boot. I have a pair of very lovely black suede OTK boots by Jean Gaborit with a slender heel ⅜ inch wide at the base. It is very stable. It is easy to forget that you are walking in a slender heel while wearing them. Of course these are boots not shoes or sandals and therefore offer more ankle support. They are well designed and the nubuck suede is quite thick and luxurious, and that in turn adds to the level of support given to your ankles and lower leg.

Yes! It was WWII metallurgical advances that created slender steel rods of sufficient strength to make stilettos a viable proposition. The idea of stilettos had been around since the 20s but were impractical - the heels couldn’t be made strong enough. Roger Vivier introduced what we know as the stiletto in 1953 and they caught on quickly. Ive no doubt that is the peacocks at the Sun Kings court could fave worn stilettos, they would have!

Well, the right place, wherever it is, will not be a place where one would wear the suits with which they have been paired in the catwalk

If you look at King Charles II’s coronation portrait he’s wearing real heels - they look to be about four inches. And at 6’1” he didn’t need the extra height. And the earlier Persian cavalrymen, while they were not wearing towering heels - about 2 to 2.5” - they looked like what we would say today were very feminine ankle boots. And bear in mind that when heels were in vogue for men, men were also wearing silk stockings, lace and bright colours, They all went together. I think it was real enough by our standards

I'd love to see a return to that too, but once something has become "feminine" it seems to be forever out of bounds to all but a very small percentage of men.

And the beauty of boats is that if your neighbours are noisy, nosy or you take a dislike to them, or even if you just want a different view out of your galley window, you just fire up the engine, let go fore and aft, take the tiller and go. Against, that, of course, is that boats do not appreciate in value ...

Yes, the boots did look sloppy and indeed poorly made. Jean Gaborit makes thigh boots for men and they are far, far nicer I agree too that the boots did not suit the outfits with which they were paired. it just strikes me as a wasted opportunity.

My narrowboat has about 240sq ft of living space. I pay no council tax anywhere. I do have to buy an annual license - presently about £1300 - which entitles me to cruise the 2000-mile network and moor along the towpaths pretty much anywhere as long as I move on every two weeks. License costs are definitely going to by going up in a big way, especially for those of us who live in the canals and have no home mooring.

King George II supposedly described an English summer a “three fine days and a thunderstorm”. Three hundred years later things haven’t really changed

I saw this in the New York Times this morning - Yves Saint Laurent is showing off men’s thigh boots (not heeled) in their latest collection. The review - written by a guy - was what I would have expected: scoffing in tone, with references to “S&M dandies” and Robert Mapplethorp and an assertion that few, if any, people would actually wear them it was hard to tell from the images, but they did look a bit clompy but not absurdly so - not like some of the really weird stuff you see in catwalks. But it was dispiriting to see such a mocking review of what could have potentially opened up the idea of men in tall boots. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/29/style/saint-laurent-mens-wear-boots-paris.html

Your MIL sounds like a real piece of work. She needs to learn, or be told, to mind her own business.