Shyheels

Those do indeed look big. I’d hate to imagine them in my size. One of the things I like about my stiletto knee boots is that they minimise rather than exaggerate my big feet - unlike my heavy Vibram soled hiking boots!

Those do look like great heels for walking distances in - sturdy and stable. And nice looking too!

I love boot season - although to be honest boot season for me extends year round. I’ve always preferred boots to shoes, ever since my childhood, growing up in the mountains. I much preferred the solitude of the mountains to my classmates in school and my hiking boots were a way of distinguishing myself from them and their natty street and town shoes. I’ve kept this bias all through adult life and have been fortunate enough to have a career that has allowed me to pretty much live in hiking boots or engineering boots. I’m the guy magazine editors send to the South Pole or Papua New Guinea, not the one they send to cover finance or politics! I’ve always envied the really cool selection of boot styles open to women and so when I finally decided to try wearing heels, it was always going to be boots. Aside from my stiletto knee boots, I’ve several pair of chunky heeled boots and a few pair of sturdy soled low heeled knee boots which I can and do wear daily along the towpath. I’ve become known for it. Hearing you describe your 12cm stiletto knee boots as easy and comfortable (compared to your Hot Chicks, admittedly) is both inspiring and dispiriting. I am so far from finding my 12cm boots easy and comfortable. On the bright side though, practicing in them has made my 10cm stilettos feel easy and comfortable! Thanks for the encouragement on walking in stilettos. I shall get myself a supply of heel tips and be a little more daring

I’m assuming this is AI. In any case it’s hideous

Wear quietly elegant heels with a quietly presentable top and they don’t notice you at all

They certainly don’t owe you anything! I’ve not logged the miles on any of my boots, but I certainly have pairs whose heels have worn very well and comfortably. My Jean Gaborit boots are especially good in this regard

Wow @mlroseplant that is truly impressive! I’m impressed with the durability of the heels too! That’s one of the things I worry about in terms of “real world” walking in stilettos. I’m acutely conscious of the slenderness and possible fragility of my stiletto heels and worry about breaking them. I have no reason to suspect the quality of my heels, none at all, but nevertheless I look at their needle thin slenderness and I worry. walking three kilometres in them is a serious accomplishment! Well done. With you going on such long strolls, and @higherheels walking hundreds of metres in 13cm Hot Chicks, I feel like I’m very much bringing up the rear.

Yes, heels are part of an overall look, which is one of the reasons I don’t care for exaggerated or extreme styles. It creates an unbalance, overemphasising the heels. They are a style element, and a fun one, that should suit the rest of your look and add to the whole.

The woman who founded Leviticus Fashions - a boot making company specialising in thigh high boots - is apparently quite a committed Christian ( which is why the Biblical name for her company) To be sure, Julie Roberts famously wore PVC thigh highs in her role as Vivian, the call girl with the heart of gold in Pretty Woman, and apparently bootmakers did notice what they called The Vivian Effect on the sales of thigh and OTK boots for some years afterwards - same as the makers of cowboy boots saw sales plunge after Brokeback Mountain. And yes, there are plenty of raunchy and suggestive styles of thigh highs and OTK boots, just as there are many chic and sophisticated styles of these same boots. But to all but the most mediaeval minds it’s a matter of using your brain and not making sweeping generalisations

It's not sent out speculatively. The food or drink is not sent for approval. There is no time period by which you must return it or pay. It has already been purchased - your coffee of the month or wine of the month or whatever. Totally different from a transaction where items arrive unpaid for in the post and the onus is placed on the buyer to purchase or return by a certain date. And in any event I do not enter into any of these agreements.

Nope. Nothing that was sent to me automatically and on spec, for me to keep or send back. They could not do that with foodstuffs anyway. Buying a subscription - receiving a coffee or selection of chocolates each month is not the same thing anyway. In that case you have purchased something from the start - twelve deliveries of coffee, say, over the span on a year. There is no speculative element to it. Unless the goods are faulty or spoiled you won’t be sending them back. They are not being sent to you on approval.

For me a platform adds an element of clunkiness that I’ll suits the elegance of a stiletto. They don’t go together. It’s like adding a snow plough to a Lamborghini

I agree. I’d never belong to such a “club” no matter what they were selling

I’m still plugging away in my challenge heels, although only in the boat - I’ve counted the steps. I can do about 20 each way - steps being somewhat shorter in 12cm stilettos than in hiking boots! It’s good practice. The towpath is a quagmire - definitely not suitable for heels! That said it’s quite cosy inside, listening to the fierce autumn storm raging outside, torrential rain lashing the windows and 50mph gusts. Snug in here, in my heels and jeans and jumper …

Welcome to the forum! And greetings from England! How wonderful that you have found your nerve and are wearing your heels. were quite a friendly welcoming community here - and I’m sure we’ll all look forward to hearing more about you and your life and styles.

Wear then with a clip-on polyester trout necktie to complete the look

I’d say they passed away and you’re holding a seance

As an aside, as an Australian who started his journalism career in Sydney, when I saw the SMH on your post title I thought it was about something you’d read in the Sydney Morning Herald!

I suspect it all ties in. Accepting, indeed celebrating, yourself as you are is a big deal and very improving. And of course age helps too - you acquire the experience to understand what matters and what does not, and you cease to take yourself quite so seriously as you did when you were young.

For me getting dressed presentably for work also serves a very practical purpose even though my office is just my kitchen table and an open laptop. Since I work from home it is easy and tempting to slip into lazy habits and be distracted but by making the effort to change into office clothes - nothing fancy, mind you - I send a subliminal message to myself that I am no longer at home but at my office, a place of work, where things get done. One of the benefits of wearing heels is that they underscore this message. Nobody wears stilettos just to laze about at home! I put them on and not only do I feel as though I have come to the office, but they set up a jaunty creative vibe that carries me along and makes the writing go well.

Taking politics with anyone these days is a fraught business. I tend to avoid it altogether and stick to discussing the weather and the day to day minutiae of life. And if that minutiae includes wearing heels so be it.

Maybe it was just the FBI ... 😀

Balance I’ve always been good at. Never a problem - well, except for when the boat is on a slight, almost imperceptible list which you don’t notice until you start walking. Otherwise, balancing in heels was fairly easy for me. It reminded me of being in ice skates. It was the calf muscles that got me, having them quiver and cramp up fairly quickly, almost immediately in fact the first time I stood up in 12cm heels. i would love to experiment with a 300 to 400 metre walk in my 12cm boots to see how I’d turn up - something I definitely must do!

That's an astonishing remark and presumption by that waitress, but kind of fits in with my impression of the sort of town and region you describe. Somehow, although you say she didn't, I can readily imagine her using the term 'relations' - that too would be wholly fitting with my perceptions of the kind of prim folk who'd have those points of view.

Yes, it is funny how our paths are so similar despite our differences in lives and countries and jobs. You too have a good story. You certainly had some amazing dedication to have continued after that first painful night out. Like you, I found redemption in chunky heeled ankle boots. I'd always wanted a pair of boots such as you describe - I viewed them as racier, edgier versions of the hiking boots I wear as a matter of course (Im the guy editors send off to wild and remote places, not the one they have covering finance or politics) I found a pair of very nice black leather ankle boost with 8cm chunky heels and almond-shaped toes (my favourite style) and loved them. Like you I could them amazingly comfortable and easy to walk in, yet they still gave me the sense of being in heels and the satisfaction that came with that. I now have a couple pairs pf 8cm block heeled boots, including knee boors and an OTK pair and love them. Aside from liking the style they helped build up my abilities and now I'm taking up the challenge of 12cm stilettos!