p1ng74

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Design

52 minutes ago, Puffer said:

Those of you familiar with the UK television quiz show 'The Chase' (an excellent source of both education and entertainment), might well consider Shyheels to be eligible for appointment as one of the Chasers (who are all high-ranking founts of all wisdom).   But he might have to leave the OTK boots at home and agree to wear a suit and tie ... 

I think tall boots go well with a suit and tie, just clean and polish them up!

Rogue

Thief

Billfold

Skirt

Jeans

Dune

28 minutes ago, KneeBooted said:

I would have totally kept them!

Yeah I didn’t realize it was possible for boots to be too tall/long

Metal

Flying

Train

Tower

Coil

Turbine

Group

6 hours ago, Shyheels said:

I am not disputing there are differences between men's feet and those of women. But unless you're getting your shoes or boots custom made, long, short, narrow, wide are going to be pretty much the extent of the anatomical differences you'll find in the shops. Mass production doesn't go in much for nuance or individuality. What I am talking about is what defines a shoe or boot as "women's" in the popular imagination. Popular imagination doesn't concern itself much with bone structure and subtle physiological differences, but rather with colour, style, heels and overall femininity.  

And yes, I have tried on what are nominally referred to as women's boots.   

As a guy who just started wearing heels only about 4 months ago, one of the most fascinating discoveries in this journey is how much style differences, rather than anatomical differences, contribute to the look of femininity in a shoe.  Yes as a baseline, a 10B is narrower than a 10D but if a shoe maker made the exact same shoe in both sizes the 10B is not going to suddenly look significantly more feminine.

When shoe designers have women in mind, they employ a number of elements to achieve the overall goal of making the feet look smaller, and this is beyond the physical size of the feet.  The soles are thin and glued instead of sewn.  Toe boxes, arches, and shafts (in case of boots) are contoured closely to the organic shape of the feet.  And of course, high heels angle the feet to reduce the overall “footprint” so they look smaller.  

On the other hand, when shoe designers have men in mind, they employ elements to make the feet look bigger than the physical size of the feet, while still being comfortable and not letting them flop around.  Thick clunky soles with multiple rows of sewn welts might be used to increase the footprint.  Lines are squared off to draw more of a “box” around an otherwise more slender anatomical part.  Generous use of thick materials beef things up too.  

I think the whole “boxy = masculine” and “form fitting = feminine” rule gets applied to other parts of clothing and fashion, but I think it has allowed men to get lazy and lose taste for aesthetics.  A properly tailored suit should flatter a man’s physical features, and often that is not a box.  Same with shoes.  

And along those lines, I would argue that the return of more form fitting clothes for men, beyond tailored suits now and into shirts, jeans, and trousers, are perfect outfit pairings with form fitting shoes in the heels department.  Men spend all that effort to look good from neck to ankle, only to finish the look with a couple of flappy boxes on their feet!  

4 hours ago, krazyhusband said:

You can say “ I went shopping for some heels today at Macy’s” or say what you said.  The heels section. 

 

In my ideal world there would be heels offered in men’s shoe departments as well, but I suppose my dream that this would magically advance acceptance of heels might be lofty.  My family brought up my “women’s shoes” again tonight and I asked again what made them women’s shoes.  My wife replied with, “you bought them in the women’s section.”  I replied, “is that all?” which I think sufficiently minimizes that point, because she then moved on to a second argument, which was “they are shoes that women like to wear.”  Also a weak argument, because women like to wear tennis shoes, loafers, and cowboy boots, but does that make them exclusively women’s shoes?  

Tendon

Well heeled

1 hour ago, Shyheels said:

It was just interesting to me that the qualifier was used so often here at HHP. 

I guess we still use common terms for communication.  I am not sure what else to call the section in the department store that sells heels.  

1 hour ago, Shyheels said:

Just curious - why do so many people here invariably refer to their heeled shoes or boots as "women's shoes" or "women's boots"? Surely - given the ostensible desire here to normalise the wearing of heels by men - adding the qualifier "women's" to every description is self-defeating. How is anyone ever going to change the world's perception If even the people here on this site naturally and intuitively characterise heeled boots and shoes as "women's"?

They are only “women’s” to me when they are sold in that section of the store, and I think we refer to that section as the women’s section out of convenience of communication.  Obviously we do not think the products sold there are exclusive to women.  To me, they cease to be “women’s” after I have bought them, as they are now mine.  

But yes the more we can shed the qualifier, the better.  My wife still talks about my “girl’s shoes”, but it doesn’t apply to my cowboy boots with 3” heels, so she is cool with those.  We’ll get there slowly.  

Wimbledon

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