Chorlini

Stylish, as usual from you, Pata.

Opaques are a hairy man's best friends. And they look damn sexy to on a woman as well

Then you can feel lucky. I won't get my La Piazza order. The manufacturer of that design is gone and the owner of La Piazza has changed (old one's gone insolvent in January). No big chance to see anything again.

Some weeks ago I sent a price inquiry to the 'new' La Piazza shop - without any response. Not sure if they'll ever really come back

I guess I was lucky after all. I didn't really expect anything anymore at that point. Sorry to hear of your bad luck though.

Yeah, an inner sole with some grip would be very useful. Already experimented with different padding materials to make them fit tighter (and its working) but it doesnt add the needed grip. I'll have to think about some alternatives.

It really boggles the mind why they persist in using those slippery inner soles. There are so many beautiful sandals out there and I just know I don't have to even bother. If you do happen to find anything that works though, please be so kind as to let me know. I'd love to be able to wear some of those sandals.

I think it's great that you decided to wear your 5.5 inch heels to close up at your work! Even though you think your skills aren't quite there, the more you do it, the easier it will be. Let us know how your future closings of the store go, and also if you increased you heel height. Like you said "once you go up, anything lower loses it's thrill"

Thanks for your kind words of encouragement. Unfortunately not a whole lot opportunity to practice like that at the moment, we're closed for holidays. There's also little chance for me to go higher at the moment, my ankles aren't that flexible, so whenever I try 7 inch heels I can't straighten my knees. 6 inch is already pushing it.

Time to show new photos. I was hoping to be able to show pics of a very certain pair I ordered from la Piazza Highheels about a year ago, but by now I dont think I'll ever see my money again.

However there's still my beloved pair of silver sandal-pumps (bought cheap at ebay) which has the best sole/arch form I have worn so far.

And I bought two new pairs which I'll show in the next post.

The same thing happened to me once with La Piazza. I waited for months, asking them questions when I could expect delivery, excuses, bla bla. After half a year I more or less gave up. After more then a year I remembered that it had been more then a year, so I sent them a reminder and suddenly I got my shoes a few weeks later. Go figure!

Oh, and nice shoes by they way, thanks for sharing!

Well the big problem wearing them is your feet slips to far into the toe box, and as a result of that, the ankle straps are too long and cannot hold your heel in position. but that's something I'm going to fix too.

I never understood that with high heel shoe makers. They always use these smooth insoles that make you slip into the toe box. Isn't that bad design? Shouldn't they use an insole that doesn't make you slip? Especially if your feet start to sweat? Like those platformed stripper heels?

I mostly prefer 14cm/5.5 inches as I can wear them having large feet. Unfortunately . I can walk in them around the house easily and that made me think I could walk in them outside as well. Well, not quite. I often have to close up the place I work in and that recently gave me the idea to do so while wearing a pair of Leatherworks 5.5 inch heels. At home I usually lounge about, and just go to the bathroom or kitchen. Walking around for half an hour closing things off made me realize my skills aren't there yet by fare. I wouldn't say I was walking around like a whale, but I don't think it was elegant either. Plus I'm way slower in heels then I imagined I would. Overall a very interesting experience that I will probably repeat. Again in 5.5inch heels, because once you go up, anything lower loses its thrill.

Hello, fellow Dutchie, . Have a nice time here.

Hi Chorlini,

Out of interest, what shoes do you like?

More the classic fetish high heels. With no platforms. And although these should be right up my alley, being ballet heels, they do very little.

I don't see how you can NOT like Louboutins.....

Because I think they're over-priced, over-hyped and in general nothing special to look at? They just don't do nothing for me and I just can't understand why people are so obsessed with the damn things.

I'm a musician and right now the market is awash with boutique guitars, boutique amps and boutique effect pedals. These are in general two to three times more expensive then the regular Fender/Gibson/Marshall/Boss gear and many musicians crave them because they sound so much better and because it gives them a sense of owning more exclusive gear. But when you open them up you find its the same stuff, the same circuits, with just a little twist in a fancier box.

To me designer heels are like that. You take a high heel shoe, the basic design of which never really changes, you add a little twist, stick on some red soles, add some fancy marketing spin and then rake in the money. Add in a waiting list for increased exclusivity. And to be honest, it wouldn't mind it that much if this Louboutin wasn't spawning so many copy cats. Red soled shoes seem to be everywhere these days.

Remember the collaboration between Louboutin and filmmaker David Lynch? Louboutin's "ballet" heels are like that, but with sparkles and fairy dust and Swan Lake-y vibes.

*Facepalms himself*

I just can't understand what people see in this guy and his red soled shoes. A: I don't even like red soles. B: I don't even like his shoes, or 99.99% of all designer heels. It kinda makes me feel on the outside looking in and wondering what the fuss is all about. Like the emperor's new clothes.

On the bright side, it finally looks like there's some new competition on the ballet heels market. Should Devious be worried?

Ooh, a webstore I didn't know of. I might order there myself once others can vouch for their reliability.

I tried doing it as I love sleeping in heels, but I always wake up after a few hours in pain. I only once made it through the night without being forced to take them off. It's not that they're to small, they're in the same size I normally order for heels. And I can sleep all bight wearing regular heels. I suspect its the unnatural shape that my feet are being forced in to. As i sleep my feet want to return to a more normal position, causing the upper part of my feet to press against the boot and to start to ache after a while. I have a pair of ballet heel shoes and unlike the boots they don't force my feet to stay in the en pointe position and thus I can keep them all night.

Nice! So, where did you get them?

Considering that I can get a Kassiopeya ballet heel for between 50 and 70 euros and considering that the Italian made Punitive brand ballet heels cost multiple times that it would seem that either Kassiopeya imports them from China, or they use illegal Chinese slave laborers in their German sweatshops.

I still wouldn't be surprised if there are just two manufacturers. One mass producing for Devious, and the other one producing to whoever wants to order and to different specs. Since Imelda holds the Devious brand in low regard, it stands to reason she went to the other factory. Also I find hard to believe that there are three to maybe four manufacturers of ballet heels in the China. It's not like the market for this niche fetish item is huge.

As for Imelda's ballet heels being specifically manufactured with heels closer to the soles, look at this picture from corsetmaker Fran

http://www.staylace.com/pinups/fran/s2.jpg

Imelda has stated that she sold these and a few other pairs to Fran and heel wise they seem quite like all the other ballet heels being sold. Unless we mean different things of course, a distinct possibility, those special ballet heels seem more likely to have been modified by Imelda and her partner.

Of course since Imelda never told me about this she remains the ultimate source of information. Maybe we should ask her?

3) Imelda de Cirque (a nickname) came out of nowhere and burst onto YouTube circa 2008 as a single middle-aged (about 45 years old) dark-haired woman in Australia, who was able to walk outdoors in ballet heels and 6 and 7-inch heels without platforms as though they were 2 inch heels. She also wears corsets.

Imelda has her own secret manufacturer that makes ballet heels with the stiletto heel closer to the sole of the shoe. If you are trained in ballet en pointe or skilled in walking on tip-toes, this style can make it significantly easier to walk in. Some high heel shoe designers, like the one for the WIld Pair back in the 1980's, who knew about this fact also made some high heel style of shoes with a very high heel closer to the sole of shoe.

Again, Imelda has her own secret manufacturer for this unique style of ballet heels. At one time, Imelda tried to stock, sell and ship the ballet heels herself, but gave up for no apparent reason.

NOTE: Imelda no longer uses the userid imeldadecirque on YouTube because it was banned, (probably because some jealous person reported her videos as porn). This has happened to her several times on YouTube. So, she is now using the userid SuzanziBalletHeels. You can usually contact her via her information on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/user/SuzanziBalletHeels#p/u/14/9mitOJ5K3uw

I don't think she has her own manufacturer, more that she and her partner modify existing shoes. As they have this fetish for the heel being as close to the sole of the shoe as possible. Personally it doesn't do much for me, but if it makes them happy, more power to them, right?

As for the shoes that she sold they probably came from same factory that makes the unbranded/Kasiopeya ballet heels, which she seems to prefer over the Devious brand. But they were produced to her specifications. She has stated that with the exception of the Punitive brand ballet heels, all ballet heels basically come from two factories in China anyway. At the time when she opened her shop she said she had stocked some 50 pairs of shoes, which if true doesn't seem like a whole lot for a secret manufacturer to make a living of. But perfectly normal for a factory already producing them.

She stopped selling them because she claimed the same jealous person that caused her youtube accounts to be banned was badmouthing the quality of her shoes, stating that she was just reselling Devious or Kasiopeyas.

www.kassiopeya.de don't sell the pleaser brand. But some say they're not known for being the best quality. Still, if it's bedroom wear you want they also sell other colors then just pleaser's black.

http://www.punitiveshoes.com/database/ballets/catalogue.shtml sell Italian made ballet heels. More expensive, and probably of good quality. But not very attractive IMHO.

http://www.fuss-schuhe.de/high-heels-shop.html also sell these Italian made ballet heels.

I've got two pairs of pink ballet boots from Ruby Fashion for €25 and €30 respectively. And they sell kassiopeyas (I think). By comparison 100 pounds seems almost criminal.

well many ppl may love the mary jane style but personally I don't like it. I think I will give Elite Heels a try, they might be able to find someone who can build them.

At the moment I will not buy any new ones; currently I'm just very angry. After half a year of waiting, a manufacturer became insolvent and so became the old La Piazza HH team. And thanks to that I also have lost almost 200€

And it's even worse as these heels where the last normal available heels (at least in my size) that fit into my idea of a super high heel

Bad times.

If I may ask, which manufacturer became insolvent?

@Webhawk: I don't think milanoo offers any heels in US13/14. At least no heels other than the standard pleaser collection. The greater designs are all just up to size ~11/12

Same problem here I'm also US13. But I can't recommend 6ihf for larger sizes:

All metal heels have the SAME height on each size. So while the product photos look fantastic and pata too, they will be just boring in US13. It's about the same with normal 6ihf heels - they are matched to smaller sizes but all heels from ~US10 and above use the same heel height. I would do everything to get a high heel that looks as great as the smaller sized 6ihf heels. I already mailed with them some times but they won't do anything like matching heels to larger sizes with the explanation that the heels had to be thicker (of course they have to be a BIT thicker) and that would make them look ugly.

So I think I will have to find another manufacturer.

Well, to be honest the same heel height would suit me just right. I can barely stand straight in a 7 inch heel so 16 cm is probably pushing it already. I have no illusion of being able to walk in heels with the same proportions as Pata. On the other hand I do love the look of gold shoes with steel heels. So I wouldn't mind having a pair of gold SP16's in size 13 with a size 14 in width. The last part is really crucial though and why I always tend to go size 14 instead. It sucks having wide feet. But 6ihf doesn't seem to make SP16 in size 13, let alone size 14. And that's excluding their lousy payment options.

Dammit, Pata, now I'm in love with those beautiful golden heels again! I'd love to own a pair like that but I don't think 6ihf can help me. Size wise I'm a size US13 in length but a US14 in width, and since they don't accept paypal it's kinda hard for me to even pay for them.

well I just remembered another uk heel manufacturer that isn't in the list by now - http://www.sky-scrapers.com/

Probably because they aren't manufacturers but sell Leatherworks.

No, all of the Domina heels are 6".

Are you sure? I know they are advertised that way but they are the exact same height as my 5 1/2 inch leatherworks heels and a centimeter shorter then my 6 inch leatherworks heels.

The Domina series has served me well as far as courts and knee high boots are concerned, fitting generally well. Not so much luck with the Domina series sandals. Normally I take a size 14 US but for their sandals I have to go down to a size 12 US. That being said I love their knee high boots, for size and comfort they're the best I've ever had. Question: aren't the Domina series 5 1/2 inch high, not 6 1/2?

hmm.

well

um

Not so graceful walk....

it would have been better that way... she wobbles to the half of the catwalk then pick up the walking sticks and playing with them walks back gracefully.

[i would have done that way]

I was kinda hoping for something like that. That at least would have made sense.

they should have hired somebody who can walk in them. This is just painful to watch. And not painful as in lots of pain, but plain embarrassment.

For me size is almost the only deciding factor as a shop or brand needs to have a size 46EU/14US/12UK. Otherwise its end of story from the start. So that leaves almost all designer heels out. But that's okay, as I don't care much for them anyway. I'm more into classic heels, nothing under 14 cm.