CrushedVamp

It is too bad because we have never lived in such a time as when educating yourself is so easy. It is kind of like making repairs on a car. Here anyway, the parts places are closing down because no one o=works on their car any more, they take it to a mechanic. Yet, need to do a brake job on your car? Just look it up on Youtube and the parts, prices, and even tools are listed on what you need, then they proceed to show you just how to do it. Many repairs are actually quick and easy yet no one does them. It is the same with high heels. There are a ton of videos on how to walk in high heels yet it is obvious few watch them. I really is a shame because watching a few videos and buying a good pair of well-fitting high heels might just change what a person wears for life. What may not change however is a stigmatism or what could be considered a judgmental encounter. I remember my wife and I went to a pub as a quick date night. We had four young daughters at the time and getting away together was extremely hard. It was the first time we left our oldest daughter in charge of her sisters so we only were out for an hour or two. But the wife wore her high heels and jeans. Nothing earth shattering or slutty, and we had soda and a pizza, not even drinking or anything. But the waitress told us, "I'll get your check quickly. Wearing those heels I know what you two are headed off to do". It was actually ironic because she thought my wife wearing high heels meant we were going to have relations" when we had four young daughters at home. I don't think we even did. She just wanted to wear heels out for a few hours as we had some alone time as a husband and wife. So there is a stigmatism with wearing heels unfortunately too that may put some people off.

I think fit and function are what dooms the high heel industry. Having raised six daughters almost everyone of them wore heels for the first time at their Junior Prom, a right of passage for a high schooler here in the USA anyway. But since they might grow out of them, and being for a singular event where they would only be worn for a few hours, they were all chosen entirely for how they looked with my daughter's dress. They therefore were cheap and ill-fitting. That was how they were introduced to wearing high heels and it really never got better for them. Most of the time the only time they wear high heels beyond their junior prom which was to weddings and other special occasions. Again the high heels chosen for a singular event and chosen for how they looked and not fit and comfort. This causes many problems. The first is that they learned by experience that high heels were uncomfortable to wear. The other issue is, being chosen for how they looked and costs, properly fitting heels are hard to find. The girls went to the local shoe store where there was a crappy selection of heels to buy and none were expensive because people were not buying expensive, well-fitting heels. And when they bought them off the internet, they were bought based on style and color and not about to be sent back because they did not fit well. "It was only for one evening" was the statement made. My wife, she is a little different. She loves high heels, but struggles to find good ones. When she does find a pair that is comfortable, she wears them exclusively, and I tended to notice these are often the most expensive ones. But the quality retail shops are closed now, and only crappy, ill-fitting ones grace the local chains that are still open.

The only dress code I can think of in regards to shoe-dress-codes are airline stewardesses. The last I knew they were required to wear heels while in public settings. I think it was a two inch heel height minimum, but honestly I can see no reason why they could not be allowed to wear flats if they wanted too. I do not like the look of flats myself, but am not into forcing anyone to wear something they loath either. An interesting note about their dress code too is that they do not actually wear pantyhose/tights but instead wear compression nylons because of the constant pressure and depressuring they are subjected too. It does not matter so much for only a few flights a year, but a career of it can be damaging to a person's circulatory system. Because of that they were once required to wear them, but I think that requirement has eased up. Mostly because they are not paid that well and so many just wore regular pantyhose/tights which were NOT compression ones because they were much cheaper but their employers were none the wiser just looking at them. And in a fire situation several stewardesses sustained severe leg burns when the nylon melted onto their legs in a crash.

There is a High Heel Race in Washington DC every year and is coming close now to 40 consecutive years of the running of it. I think on May 20th, High Heel Day, men are encouraged to wear high heels to their jobs so that they understand the rigors of what some women are required to wear for shoes all day, every day. Not the same as a race I know, but I always thought that was a great idea and not encouraged enough. I read an article years ago about the day and suggestion and some men had to remove the heels only a few hours in because of the rigors of wearing them showing that wearing them did heighten awareness.

I always thought your photos and poses were well put together. I am not sure that it matters but my wife does photography and we like the fine arts; said only so you know there is some added credibility behind it. As many of you know, I do not wear high heels myself, it is my wife who is the high heel shoe lover, I just like her in them, but I think if I did wear high heels it would most likely be in wearing high heel clogs for starters. I have no idea why, I guess it is just like fine art, there is no need to explain, if you like the painting you just get it. But the same can be said for high heels too I suppose, no need to justify or explain why; just wear what you like. I think for me it would be heeled clogs. Sorry to read quite a ways back and here that a lot of people have had eye trouble. I hope everyone is clearly on the mend regarding that. I certainly relate as due to my profession I have had my eye drilled seven times and my eyes are showing the wear from that. My plight lately is more inline with dental issues. I had a tooth extracted recently and it went horribly wrong. It took an hour and a half, then the broken tooth had to be drilled out, the dentist broke my jawbone so it had to be grafted back, the stitches came out before I even got home, only to get dry socket and an infection in the removed tooth. It was so bad that I was curled up in the fetal position driving myself as far back from the chair as I could it hurt so bad. It has really ruined me as I don't think I could endure a simple procedure without being knocked out by an oral surgeon. It really was that traumatizing to me.

Hey thanks. It is good to be missed. Just very busy as we finished up this house and then decided to sell it due to the incredible market right now. That part is easy but now its on to find a new place. It is tough as we are looking for a VERY specific place and there are only six places in the whole state. For those that might not be sure the scale of what I am talking about, our state is the exact same size as all of Ireland, so picture such a big area and only six houses to pick from. Fortunately three are in the are we wish to live, but none are perfect. If only this place, which is perfect building wise, could be put in this town people wise, but the town having views like this other town... Anyway, it's tough. I did think of all of you though the other day. I was watching a video on home renovation and a woman was just given a walk-in closet by her husband. As she looked at the top shelf of the closet she exclaimed, "wow, a place for all my red-soles". That is literally how she referred to her high heel collection. I thought it was cute and thought of members on here. My tenons are getting better in my legs with only a few pangs of pain now and then, but they say restarting again too fast is the number one cause of its resurgence. So I have yet to get out there walking again, but I do miss the exercise.

Good for you on trying to stay fit! I can certainly relate, wanting to get in better shape but am struggling with quality shoes myself. I have not been on this site for awhile and part of that has been because I decided to be a little more proactive in my health myself.. It worked at first until it took a dark turn, but in three months I was able to lose forty pounds. Lost a lot off my waist and was two-thirds of my goal...Then all my walking caused the ligaments in my shins to detach from my tibia. Grrrrr. A lot of pain and a long recovery time. But I also hit a weight loss plateau and despite walking 5-7 miles per day, the weight loss was the exact same. I just stalled. But even before that I was struggling with good sneakers. I got some Sketch Slip-In's but their design rubbed a lot on the shoehorn part of the shoe causing the material to wear off and expose hard plastic that gave my archille tenon's blisters. I have switched to Kirik slip ins that use what they call a "cage" and they do not have the shoehorn issue, but they need help in their insole design as they are not comfortable to wear in extended walks like I do. I wish I could help you on your color choices but got nothing. If you can find quality white trainers/sneakers you might be able to dye them the color you like. My wife often does that matching dyed white Keds to specific outfits she wears. But I fully understand dying Keds is pretty easy.

Very valid points on everything... Kind of an interesting note on ankle bracelets and femme fatale's. In the Femme Fatale novel I wrote, I had my main character wear an ankle bracelet with a little locket on it. She said it was the ashes of her late-mother, but in reality, it was where she kept her cyanide that she killed several men with. It was kind of a cool way to always have a means to kill on her with nobody really the wiser to it. She also owned sheep, so she had all the ingredients on hand to cook up her own cyanide. On the other end of the spectrum with them though there are those in India where women typical have some opulent ankle bracelets because that is how they show they are married. It works over there because of their style of dress but I am not so sure that would work so well in western cultures. It would be kind of awkward to pull up the cuff on a lady's jeans to see if she was married or not before hitting on her at a dance club! 🙂 As for those that think the ankle bracelet is shameful in some way, it has that in common with the pineapple. I have heard that putting displays of pineapple symbols around your house, like pineapples on your porch, of having pineapple shaped wall decorations or the sort is a way people who have open marriages tell others of their lifestyle. But that is not the case at all. Pineapples have typically been status symbols because prior to refrigeration, to have such costly tropical fruit meant the owners had money. They even showed a university that is well known for degrees in the hospitality industry, having pineapples all across their campus to show that. The one piece of jewelry I think is very unique, but have never seen on a person in real life, is the waist chain. I wonder what kind of secret meaning that is supposed to have? 🙂

I cannot think of a reason why men shouldn’t wear them. And what would it matter, all forms of jewelry are bondage like. I mean necklaces are collar-like, bracelets resemble handcuffs, ankle bracelets are leg iron-like, etc. Its even been said wearing jewelry started out back when cave men chained his cave women to a cave wall so she would not run off as he went out and hunted down his wooly mammoth. Then one day he saw pretty shiny rocks in a stream, pounding the soft metal into a chain, and gave that to her instead so she had something shiny to wear instead of being chained to the cave wall. Other cave women saw her jewelry and wanted that from her special caveman. I have my doubts on if wearing jewelry started out that way or not, but it was what I was told. Myself I have never looked at a woman wearing an anklet as anything but wholesome, but I also grew up going to church and a lot of women wore them in the 1980’s, and now in a resurgence, are wearing them again. In looking around last year, I counted 7 women wearing anklets out of 350 church members. Its not like everyone is wearing them at church, but at the same time, not uncommon to see in a respectable setting. But I once saw a lady who did not think the same way as I do. We had just got out of church so my wife was dressed up in a dress, pantyhose, ankle bracelet and high heels, and needed to grab some things from a big box store that sells hardware. As we were grabbing some things for a home project a couple came in the same aisle, and she looked down at my wife’s ankle, then looked at me, then down, then at her husband, and from her raw inquisitive look you could just see that she had heard that ankle bracelets can mean sometimes open relationships. We do NOT do that, my wife just likes ankle bracelets, but you could see the woman was mortified.

You make some valid points, but I am not so sure "Planned Obsolesce" is so much about planned failure about exact places of weakness, as much as it is in knowing they could do more to fortify the shoe... or product... and just don't. In that way, "planned" is kind of an arbitrary word, kind of like how someone might say "passive-aggressive". It is more of a case of, only 10% of the produced product fails so they do not do anything about redesigning it, but if 75% fail, then to prevent costly returns, they will. The Pinto was the classic case for this. It was originally going to be the safest car because it was designed with a gelled gas tank, kind of like how WWII planes had, or stock cars, but they took it out of production due to production costs.

Good for you! No matter the gender, I am just glad to see when people dress nicely. What that entails is subjective of course, but when I see anyone, of any gender; dress sharp, it is impressive, and often times the bolder they are, the more I am impressed. Overall its just a dislike of mine for todays dress like a slob attitude that seems to permeate fashion. My daughter now wears Bear Jeans. I call them that because every time she wears them I ask her if she needs her AR-15 to take out the bear that attacked her and shredded her jeans to nothing but gaping holes... I was looking at getting my wife another ankle bracelet the other day and got sidetracked on a blog post where the woman railed against ankle bracelets pretty much just saying they should be worn at the beach. IN reading the comments below her post however people slammed her for being so close-minded. Some of her points were that they should not be worn by anyone over the age 40, and NEVER to work and got hounded for saying as much. Kind of like how people supported you in your skinny jean post. Again, good for you, and I am glad you got so many likes.

What is the difference between an onion and bagpipes? No one cries when you cut up bagpipes. (Just an old joke I heard a long time ago. Bagpipes don't bother me, but my daughter learning to play the alphorn might). 🙂

I think it is called Planned Obsolescence, which is where they design things to fail in relatively short time frames so that people are forced to buy more of them. I once worked for a company with a highly respected product yet KNEW the paint was bad and so the product would rust out quickly. It took a class action lawsuit to get them to change their ways. I had to replace a pair of shoes of mine yesterday that I wear at work. I love them, but the sole that is glued on cannot handle the oil I work in, so slowly the sole comes apart. I am hoping they change their glue, but if these fail I'll have to go to a different shoe.

My wife has a pair that is multicolored but in that they are very shimmery and change from gold to silver depending on what light they are in. In some light it changes color midway, like at a bar the vamps might be gold but the toes are silver. They are not sequins either, but gritty in texture but really change color. I think she got them at Macy's, but gosh, ten years ago.

What are people's thoughts on "having a way out" for those who wear high heels? For my wife who LOVES her high heels and wears them a lot but not every day; they can get painful at times so we always have a less painful option for her if it becomes too painful. Like having a pair of Keds (primisols) in the car that she can put on, or a pair of ballet flats. It depends on what she is wearing of course so she looks stylish even in shoes without high heels, but we have a way that she can quickly change from painful to painless. Or do you feel working through the pain is best to toughen up and get more accustomed to high heel wearing? I know sometimes for me, I am a little disappointed because she can be quick to change, especially if it is the main event we are going to, but she wants to switch out to flats when I think she would look more refined in heels. But it is not my feet in them, and I am not the high heel police.