Shyheels

I'm certainly wearing my base layer tights today - big stormy blowing across the north of England! So nice to be out of that wind!

That’s a good point and means you can come up with more interesting hues than are available on the market. I should imagine Keds or Converse would dye quite nicely.

Her first husband sounds insecure and controlling. Nice that she feels comfortable indulging her passion for heels.

Like saying my knee high stilettos are riding boots, but with stilettos

Are Chelsea boots with stiletto heels actually Chelsea boots?

Back on the subject of feminising the male wardrobe, I have been giving thought to my taste in boots. While I like the racy elegance of stilettos, my personal style preference is for block or chunky heel knee or ankle boots. But at the same time, I dislike cowboy boots or Chelsea boots - which also have chunky, albeit not quite as high as I like. it’s not purely a matter of height but of design and lines. It’s the fitted feminine styling and elegance - as a matter of aesthetics not because I feel feminine myself.

The snow and ice are gone from the towpaths, but the mud remains. Heels worn only indoors …

Thank you. I’d forgotten about him - we corresponded occasionally quite a few years ago. Nice guy.

Gosh, I remember Steve. He and I communicated for a while. I wonder whatever happened to him

I shall certainly be buying more. They would be handy for boat life in any event.

There are plenty of base layers that would serve the same purpose. I have a couple of pair from cycling - thin wool - which work well. And base layers come in all sizes and heights. Easily obtainable, although really nice ones out of fine wool are pricey.

Yes, sitting in a deep settee in heels can feel a bit awkward. Not easy to know where and how to place your feet so you’re not looking like a seated preying mantis

I do have base layer thermal tights from cycling which are proving quite handy living on the canal in winter

Great idea! I’ll do that. I’m such a newbie in the world of skirts it never occurred to me

Good idea - although over here they seem to consider 5’8” tall (for women) im really surprised by how much I like wearing my midi pencil skirt. It feels very natural.

I’ve been trying to find good tights to wear with my skirt - an important winter consideration (although I’d wear tights whenever I wore a skirt) Waist size is easy to find, but the length is tricky. At most they seem to be for people 5’8” or 5’9”

Yes, suede and slush. The nightmare scenario. I have some lovely suede boots that do not get nearly enough wear because of my fear of ruining them. Over here a blue sky doesn’t mean much if you’re going out for more than a couple of hours .

Did she know you wore heels too?

Yes, and there are ways of putting these things honestly without using loaded or derogatory language. Happily all of use here seem to be quite adept and diplomatic at expressing an opinion.

And there are so many of them out there!

I agree. I’ve no doubt at all you would do an excellent one, but the satisfaction of making it, and the gratitude of the relatively few who would make use of it, would not be worth the backlash. We just don’t live in that kind of world. I did a personal photography project a few years back that received a lot of press. And while the comments sections were overwhelmingly favourable, some of the negative ones were truly mind-boggling in their nuttiness and eagerness for confrontation. And that for a photo project that was totally benign and uncontroversial

I take a similar view. If I can’t say something positive I say nothing at all. Everyone’s tastes are different and the fact that we all wear heels, of whatever style, a.ready puts all of us well out of the bell curve. Obviously if a member announces in a post that they’re planning to wear their pink patent thigh high stilettos on their golfing holiday in Dubai one would be doing them no favours by staying silent

Not at all anti high heels - in these things the story is king and the characters do as they will. Thats just good writing.

Indeed with rare exception I think more of the sleek posing on Instagram is fake. I do know and follow a couple of style influencers who are quite genuine, but they are not pretending to be millionaires either. One of them is always in heels, but there is no question that is her genuine style. She writes quite long and thoughtful posts. Bit most of the others are just painful to see - trying hard to fake it until they make it

Hollywood loves high heels. They are a visual shorthand for establishing a female character - stilettos are perfect for the worldly sophisticate, the empowered corporate high-flyer, the villainess, the bitch, the super-girly chick. Likewise they are perfect for delineating the ingenue - the sweet young thing who totters in heels as a way of establishing her unfamiliarity such big-city empowerment. Think of the Devi Wears Prade where innocent down-home Andie takes a job at that fashion magazine and finds herself overwhelmed and surrounded by "the clackers", her derisive term for her stiletto-wearing colleagues and formidable boss. She's nice girl who shows up in flats and a jumper. In a narrative arc that bears more than a passing resemblance to a morality play she becomes one of the clackers herself, her character changes and she's no longer so nice. This being Hollywood of course, she has a Damascene moment and redeems herself,. She quits her glamorous job at the fashion magazine, returned to her old true friends, gets a 'real' journalism job at a downbeat newspaper and in a final act of renunciation gives away all those freebie fashions she was given while at the fashion magazine. All but one, that is. In the last scene we see her walking confidently through the city , on her way to her new job, the old Andie but now wiser for experience - and wearing a pair of stiletto boots. One aspect of her old jazzy life she decided to keep. Some kind of interesting message there ...