robbiehhw

13 minutes ago, Gudulitooo said:

Robbiehhw,

if I understand well, the present men who wear heels are mostly into a gender fluid move. Yet the designers I have seen proposing unisex clothing totally ignore this. They only propose "converse" like shoes, as you previously stated, which are too limited for gender fluid people. Only Hourani had something, but it was fluid only within his own collection. Gender fluid is also blending in, which Rad had not.

Very decent point. A certainly level of gender fluidity and dressing that way is hard to recognize because it blends in pretty well.

Cool Jamie! 

For some reason, i have a non-attraction to bright red polish and lipstick. Which is sort of funny because i have lots of colors all around that palette; pinks, bright pinks, berry color, red purples, fig color etc.

Perhaps some bad lady was mean to me as a kid wearing red polish.  

19 hours ago, 5150PLB1 said:

In Silicon Valley that's how you can spot East Coast salesmen and religion recruiters- they wear suits and ties.

Pretty true in Oregon too - Government workers, salesmen from some place else and young guys in white shirts and ties, showing you the way to heaven.

When i purchased a certain type of sports car, i started to see them all over. So certainly being aware of it, understanding it and identifying with it, provides some sort of bias. On the other hand so does having a more traditional mind set as it relates to gender roles. 

I live in a college town of about 50K people more or less, there are at least 20K of those that are students that live here for 1-8 yrs. I have seen 5-6 transgender women, dressed appropriately in town. I have seen perhaps 10-12 others that are likely gender fluid/ non-binary. I have not gone to the local transgender support group here but I likely will sometime in the future. They meet monthly.

I saw two people in the last week alone, that i had never seen before. One a 20ish young feminine person, dressed awesomely at Starbucks wearing ankle boots, and the other a 30ish more fluid person with facial hair, a skirt and wedged heels. It is hard to categorize people without really knowing them but those are just the people i have seen. Usually very masculine women or feminine leaning men, in the gender fluid crowd. Men that have been in heels only with everything else presenting as masculine? I may have seen 1 here and a few more in my travels. My office is really close to campus, so i see more young people than older. This is a very socially liberal town. 

Social media is likely an indicator of real life. Without a doubt the acceptance of trans people in the human rights, the military, schools and entertainment will get more people to come out. In that group will be more men that are gender fluid, some of those will wear heels. It will be interesting to see if the amount of men that don't really see themselves as gender variant, will adopt more heels, with more of that coming out in fashion. Certainly designers are pushing gender fluid wear for an economic reason. Skirts, culottes, flowery tops, makeup etc. On the flip side butch and fluid men are getting a lot more masculine choices in suits etc,

3 hours ago, kneehighs said:

 

You might be aware Jeffrey Campbell did/does? this.  

http://www.solestruck.com/the-damned-lita-man-glitter-multi/index.html   (the comments section makes for interesting reading)

 

 

 

Totally had forgotten about them! Yes indeed and the comments are pretty interesting.

I love sandals in warm weather (women's sandals of course). Flats and ballet flats for me get more wear in the spring and fall. 

You are likely right. The key might be to take the existing women's lines and market them as unisex. Converse already sort of does this for their shoes. They have a women's line, but their classic line has both women's and men's sizes on the box:

http://www.converse.com/us

Their web site does not really show that, but in stores you see it. Steve, thanks for sharing your insightful experience.

4 hours ago, Thighbootguy said:

The boots are Ok, but somebody sure needs to learn how to cut a suit.

Ha! It's retro to the massive shoulder pads and big suit look of the 1980s. Remember the talking heads stage costume?:

Yeah a lot of male skirts i have seen are like that. Like you, I buy from the other side. Another thing i have seen is a guy wearing a shirt dress over leggings/skinny jeans like a long long shirt. That looks pretty nice. The one guy i saw recently in that outfit was wearing doc martin type boots, but i am 80% sure they were these in the very dark red:

http://www.drmartens.com/us/p/originals-boots-arcadia-emmeline

On a tall guy a shirt dress like this would work pretty well for that sort of outfit:

http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/product.do?vid=3&pid=712009022

2 hours ago, Chorlini said:

You probably misunderstood me, in which case let me clarify. I think 99% of all men who buy heels are fetishists. But that the remaining 1% is way over represented here at hhplace, which probably makes them think there are more like them then there actually are. Because it creates a sort of echo chamber that reinforces that kind of thinking. The internet does this all the time. The vast majority of men buying heels however have little to no interest in changing fashion and/or buying heels aimed towards men.

One of the reasons I think this  is because almost ALL the webstores that sell fetish heels offer large sizes. So apparently they know and recognize who's also buying them. Whereas all the stores and webstores that sell more normal heeled shoes barely offer anything beyond size US10/UK8/EU42.

I'd love to see a survey. I think you may have been more right in the past. Today you have more and more gender fluid and gender questioning folks than in the past. Most did not know it was even a thing until recently. They are mainly young people (ok not David Bowie, Prince and Boy George but in general). There is also a whole category of gender questioning folks that are dressing in heels at times, and will eventually decide they are women. This is what I did, i wore heels about 20 yrs before i decided to transition. I think my first pair were around age 21. So, in these categories you have a lot of non-fetishist wearers. Except possibly as a teen, i don't ever recall having a fetish like thrill from wearing shoes or any women's wear. It was and is more a calming and "makes me feel good about myself" feeling.

What i see on Tumblr, instagram, and Twitter is possibly representative of those groups of people.  

That could certainly work. H&M put a male targeted skirt out for a while i believe.  I see guys shopping on the women's side of H&M and vice versa all the time. The trend for  males to wear women's jeans seems to be on the rise. Obviously the same thing exists for women as a lot of clothing get's marketed as "boyfriend jeans" or "boyfriend shirt" etc.

Potentially a chain that simply advertised itself as Unisex fashion could garner a lot of attention in progressive urban areas. Perhaps a boutique with something like 20 models and a lot of other clothes and accessories.

Part of the challenge is pricing. Boutiques have boutique suppliers available to them, and in general. DSW, H&M, Forever 21, Etc. all have incredibly efficient supply chains that deliver fashionable (albeit perhaps more cheaply made) choices, following fashion trends closely. The prices gap is huge between the two. 

Stores that have brand recognition with premier labels can command big prices, but of course the barrier to entry there is big.

Vogue was possibly guilty of making a mistake that many do in society: Confusing what people wear with whom they like.

Now this may be understandable if the designers were using their fashion as statement for pride etc. and it seems they were from the rainbow scarves. In addition to instagram, i would add Tumblr as a good place to see the shift in culture. The audience is younger and a lot more accepting of diversity, this is why brands jump on those networks, because their buying power is growing. Look at some of the other platforms out there frequented Youtube, gamer sites, whatsapp, weChat, Vine etc. The list is mind boggling at times.

Look the younger folks in western cultures (add to that China and Japan also) are becoming way more accepting of diversity and non-binary sexual preference. Pride festivals worldwide are getting more and more crowded every year.

So yes the world is changing and we have likely reached the tipping point and beyond, where more and more men and women smile when they see the rainbow. This makes it exploitable my marketing ( whether that is a good or bad thing, i will leave to your perspective). You will see a higher and higher percentage of the population gay or not identifying as a binary sexual preference, gender or identifying as transgender. This can be confusing to some because they are distinct and often unrelated, but there you have it. Is there an upper limit to this trend? Who knows but it has been a trend that has increased and picked up momentum over my entire lifetime.

So yes, that sort of instagram post will likely bring in more fashion changes. More so with the younger demographic. Finally our understanding of what is "mainstream" and what mainstream will accept may be somewhat biased as we age. I've often heard it said men often get stuck into whatever ideas about the world were around their circle of influence at about age 35, this includes fashion, and the mainstream is likely shifting out from under that understanding.

I'm definitely getting french tips this summer 

I feel fortunate to wear a size 10. As a trans woman, i feel very blessed by that. I have no idea what the average size is on this forum but i am guessing it is 11 or more.  I think you are exactly right that interchangeable tops would have a wide appeal for larger sizes, where shoes are often harder to come by or more expensive. 

On the question as to wear to post a poll, i would ask more veteran members of this forum. 

Also i would suggest a Tumblr blog - Things can spread pretty quick there. I have already posted you over there.

Even stylish fast fashion success stories like Old Navy, H&M etc. Tend to market fairly casual but trendy clothing. Still, i see a lot of heels on women and of course boots and ankle boots are very common now. The uptick in boots is a trend that i like a lot.

Part of the reduction in formality in society is part of becoming more egalitarian. When everyone is equal there is a less of need to divide ourselves with dress. I am all for equality. At times though you do miss the elegance of formality.

Again i don't consider flip flops gross, but i would question whether it is a wise fashion choice for travel. My main concern is that women and men be treated equally. One of my largest pet peeves are double standards. 

Recently i boarded a flight with nice new sandals, painted nails that matched my outfit, jeans and a paisley top. And the flight attendant commented "my you look very nice and fancy today " I thanked her but then i thought to myself. If this outfit is fancy, what is the norm she sees? lol. Must have been the paisley.

Welcome! Big fan already.

Nice outfit! I like the all blue vibe.

Good comments, yes. As a trans woman, i wear generally what women my age wear. (sometimes i push the envelope on the age thing) These are the sandals i wore the day i was referencing: http://www.famousfootwear.com/en-US/Product/55005-1035897/B.O.C/Saddle+Brown/Womens+Lauper+Sandal.aspx?partnerid=adwordspla&cvo_adid=1035897-55005-7.0M&cvosrc=cse.GoogleShopping.55005&cvo_campaign=General&KPID=1035897-55005-7.0M&k_clickid=622b07b6-7b36-41b4-ae22-413d8e30ae79&gclid=CNS-w_qK5MwCFUiGfgod2wEIag

Way more comfortable than anything i saw men wearing downtown that day.  Wedge sandals can be just as comfortable and cool.

I agree that the double standards on all dress favor women, the heel brouhaha in the UK notwithstanding. The tie and the suit is something that should be consigned to choice or formal affairs.  Guys don't get to bare their legs in most business situation unless it is a shorts environment or perhaps the few that wear kilts. Guys also run hotter in general than women do, further adding to the issue. Perhaps the gender fluid fashion movement will improve this to some degree

I personally would have no problem sitting next to a guy on a plane comfortably dressed in dainty sandals. As long as he takes care of himself and is clean/smells ok.

This is more directed at guys that wear heels and women's shoes in general, but i was thinking yesterday about one of the double standards that we know exist in many areas.

It was a very warm day here yesterday and i wore sandals to work and actually went barefoot most of the day in the office. (It's my office, i make the dress code or lack thereof). I was noticing men out there both dressed business casual and casual and thinking it really is bad for most men. They do not get to bare their feet very much. Sure men have sandals, but most of them are somewhat chunky or clunky and socially it is only ok for men to wear sandals in quite casual and leisure situations. The common footwear for most men even in very hot weather is loafers and socks or athletic shoes and thick socks. Presumably the latter exist to soak up all the perspiration from having to wear constricting shoes all day.

I seriously have seen maybe a dozen times complaints online about men wearing flip flops on planes etc. Often the line is " I don't want to look at some guys nasty feet" whatever. What a stupid double standard. Men should take care of their feet and make them as presentable and clean as possible yes, but they should also get to bare them just as much as women and particularly in hot weather. Younger guys do bare more than older guys but still not in near the amount of situations that women can.

So wear those sandals - wedged or not. Mankind and a whole lot of sweaty feet will thank you later.

i don't think tall heels are really on the way out. You'd see a lot less of them for sale if they were. The fashion industry is a highly data driven one. I think you tend to see them more in urban areas and for evening/going out wear. 

I saw two young women wearing them today walking past my office.

Very nice outfit. I am going to wear more capris this summer. Wedges are a great compliment to them. Sorry about your technical difficulty.

You do an excellent job and your outfits and style continue to evolve in an inspiring way. Thanks for sharing it all with this community. Technically anyone that puts on a pair of panties or a pair of heels is a crossdressing. Same with a woman that likes men's jeans.  Labels are just labels though and the important thing to do is be true to yourself and enjoy it. You seem to be doing both

If i could nitpick regarding one label - "Transvestite" is no longer a loved term in the Transgender community. (it sort of goes with terms like shemale etc) Now it is just transgender. Many, if not most crossdressers are not transgender although they are thought as of being on the gender variant continuum because you are presenting yourself in a way that that is traditionally associated with one gender. Other folks in that category include genderfluid, agender, non-binary etc. 

Keep up the great work!