Skirted-UK

. Most interesting, I have been wearing 4" heel court shoes now for nearly 30 years and I am starting to suffer from osteoarthritis in my knees and hips, but nowhere else. Would I have this condition if I had not worn high heels ? I don't know. Interesting about wide heels, I recently bought a pair of 3" block heel loafers for wearing out in the country. I thought they would be a doodle to wear, but in fact they more difficult to wear than 4" heel courts. Until I wore them I did not realise how much you swivel and tilt on stilettos, which you can't do on block heels. Prolonged wearing of high heels will shorten the tendons in your legs making it difficult to wear flat shoes, I know this for a fact. 3 years ago the company I worked for went into receivership and I was made redundant. I decide to spend the winter studying for a qualification, as I had the house to myself during the day I wore a straight skirt and 4" heel court shoes all winter. As the months went by I found that the tendons at the back of my ankles felt tight when I wore flat shoes. This did not matter as I was at home most of the time in high heels, but when I started work in the spring in flat shoes, I pulled the tendons in both legs in quick secession. It was extremely painful and took weeks to heel, the only relief I could get was to wear high heels. High heel court shoes also change the shape of your legs and feet, I now have compacted toes and my wife once told me that I had "women's legs" because of my muscular calf's caused by high heel wearing. I often cringe when I read on this forum of members in their 20's who say that they can wear 5 "to 6" heels with no problem, will they be able to say that in 30 years time? All I can say in my experience is don't wear anything higher than 4" for any length of time and certainly not on rough or uneven ground or you might regret it later.

When I was 13 I became fascinated with long straight skirts which were in fashion at the time. A couple of years later I tried one on and was immediately hooked. I then discovered that these skirts were easier to walk in if you wore high heels with them. I then became hooked on high heels as well. In my 20's I went through stages of trying to stop wearing skirts and heels and lead a "normal" life. I would have periods of intense skirt and heel wearing in isolated locations at night, in an attempt to "grow out of it" but instead of growing out of it, I grew into it, and a skirt and heels began to feel like a normal thing to wear. I too went throughout high's and low's, but even in the low's there was always a woman around in a straight skirt and high heels to remind me of what I was missing. I now try to wear a skirt and heels every morning before I start work. If I go for long periods of time without wearing them I get tense and stressed. If you get into a low, DON'T throw out your shoes, you will regret it. If you think you are going to give up wearing them forget it, you won't!

Its just a stage that you are going through. A lot of men go through a stage of being very depressed in their 20's I know I did. People will tell you to pull yourself together and snap out of it, but its easier said then done. I managed to throw it of by finding some new interests and changing my lifestyle. The result of which I had the time of my life in my 30's, I took up skin-diving, rock climbing, caving, horse riding. I met several interesting older women and had affairs with them. I have never suffered from depression since. I have learnt to spot it coming now and I don't let things or people piss me off. If you can't solve a problem, walk away from it. After all you are not getting paid enough to let it ruin your health. As Genebujold say's get out in the sun and get a life.

Women are definitely getting larger. Back in the sixties size 7 UK was the largest size that you could get in an average ladies shoe shop.. Dress sizes have also changed, Size 16 was the largest size that you could buy in a dress shop, anything larger was called outsize and sold in special shops for large ladies. The shape of women has also changed as well. If you bought a straight skirt back in the late fifties you could expect the waist to be 12 inches smaller than the hips, now it is only 10 inches. As women get larger, dress sizes are getting larger with them. What used to be a size 12 is now a 14 or 16, size 8 or 10 is the new size 12.

A couple of years ago I was having an email corespondent with an American actress who shall remain nameless. we were discussing shoes and she asked me what court shoes were, I sent her a picture of a pair of 4" heel court shoes. She wrote back and said that they call them "fu*k me pumps" in the states. As she is a moderately well known actress I thought this was rather amusing. This is the first time that I have heard this expression since then.

Wearing very high heels will eventually damage your knees and will shorten the tendons in the backs of your legs. This is not too bad if you are a woman and you can wear high heels all the time. But if you are a man who has to wear flat shoes for your job It can be a problem. I spent a year out of work in 2000 and all through the winter I studied at home for a qualification. As I had the house to myself I wore a straight skirt and 4" heel court shoes all day. This made me walk a completely different way and modified the shape of my legs. When I went back to work in the summer I soon pulled the tendons at the back of my ankles which was extremely painful. The only relief that I could get was to wear shoes with a 4" heel which was impossible at work. Wearing 5" heels all the time might be ok when you are in your 30's but by the time you get to your 50's you will find that they have damaged your legs, I know I have got the Tee shirt! I would therefore not recommend wearing very high heels for any length of time, and like Becky say's it depends on the shoe size what constitutes a high heel. I never wear anything higher than 4" now and I take a size 11 UK.

My local golf course has it's own bore hole. The water is pumped up during the day and stored in a reservoir. The course is automatically watered during the night, each Hole and Tee has it's own sprinkler which pops up when in use. The prices that our local water company charge would make it too expensive to use tap water. Can't see what people see in Golf anyway!

Hi Daz, Back in the early 90's before women were allowed to wear trousers in banks, my local TSB bank issued it's female staff with long navy straight skirts. They were very 50's style with a small pleat at the back instead of a slit. I thought they looked great, but I heard that the were not popular with the women because of the limited movement they had in these skirts. I think today it would be impossible for an employer to issue such a uniform style, as women could claim that it was hazardous.

This business of who can wear skirts and who can't seems to be taking a new twist. Not so long ago when school governors were mostly men, female pupils and staff were not allowed to wear trousers. Now that a lot of school governors are women, it seems to be going in the opposite direction. See this link below from the BBC News about a school that is banning girls from wearing skirts!

There appears to be a strong anti-skirt movement here in the UK amongst women, who having won the right to wear trousers now want to see skirts banned. Only two years ago a mother challenged her daughter's school rule of skirts only for girls. She claimed her daughter's skirt was a hazard as she would not be able to run in it in an emergency. This was nonsense as the skirt in question was a flared mini.

With women giving all this bad publicity to skirts, I can see a time in the not too distant future when they will outlawed at work and school on health and safety grounds.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3823551.stm

On the other side of the argument are school boys like 15 year old Ed Ellson who wore a skirt a school in protest at the trousers only rule for boys. The surprising thing about this was that he was supported by his mother, who give him one of her straight black skirts to wear. You have to admire the lad, it takes a lot of bottle to go to school wearing one of your mother's straight skirts!. But with his shoulder length hair and his age I don't suppose many people took much notice. See the link below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/3796163.stm

Sophia Loren, (They don't make them like that anymore )

Nice to see you back Laurie.

It's good to see you back Gene, it's been a bit dull without you. !

I find women in trousers a complete turn off Sorry

Not true. If is has come off at the heel/shoe it can be often fixed by drilling deep holes and inserting screws. I guarantee a repair done this way will be stonger than the original and I can prove it by calculation

If the tube has broken, the heel will need to be replaced.

I have repaired 4" heels that have come off the shoe by using screws and high power Araldite, and as you say it is much stronger than the original nail fixing.

I think tights/stockings look good on women, but not when worn with sandals. I tried tights but I gave up on them in the end. I found that they were just too much trouble, they are difficult to get on and they ladder easily. The cheaper ones seem to be made of a very abrasive fabric which drags on the hemline of a straight skirt when walking, which I find irritating. The best tights I found are Elbeo Caress support tights, they are very strong and have a slippery texture which does not cline to the hemline of a skirt. They were difficult to get on and are expensive at £7.00 a pair. The only advantage I found with tights is that they make high heel court shoes more comfortable. Nowadays I prefer to wear court shoes and a skirt with bare legs. I much prefer to feel the lining of a skirt on my bare legs, specially in the winter when it's cool.

Do the red and green labels mean they are not a pair?

Oh,silly me, I just realised its a nautical thing isn't it, to show left and right.

Emma

Red = Port, Green = Starboard. Easily remembered by the phrase "The ship left Port" (Port wine is Red)

I just thought I would chuck this in Emma, you never know you might be out with a load of Sailors one night and want to impress them.

It's great to see you back Anita!

I'd like opinions and medical advice about this.

Is it possible to slighly modify the shape of your feet without harming them by wearing tight pointed toe boots for short periods of time. Wearing never exceeds 30 minutes at once, or even less if it becomes inconfortable.

I do this since two months now, 30 mins morning, 30 mins midday and 30 mins in the evening without any discomfort, my feet are slowly taking a nicely "arrow" shape, but I'd like to know if its dangerous to continue ...

We all start off wearing high heel shoes with pointed toes for short periods of time, but after 25 years or so it turns into a long time and you end up with feet like Dr Shoe and myself.

I have worn 4" stilettos for the last 25 years, at the time that was all I could get in women's shoes in my size. My toes have now compacted into the toe shape of a pointed toe stiletto shoe and the 4" heels have given me muscular calves and shortened the tendons in my legs.

Unlike Dr Shoe my compacted toes don't cause me any problems, but I would hate a Chiropodist to see them.

My shortened tendons on the other hand can be a problem, they feel tight and painful if I walk for long distances in flat shoes and on several occasions I have pulled the Achilles tendons in my legs by running or jumping. This is extremely painful and lasts for a week or so.

The bottom line is, if you wear women's shoes for long enough you will eventually end up with women's leg and feet problems.

I bought a pair of these Vivian Loafers from www.womenshoesplus.com last week to wear in public. They are very comfortable and look and feel like men's shoes.

The problem is that they are more difficult to drive in then a pair of 4" stiletto courts. The 3" block heel makes it difficult to depress the clutch fully and there's not much room between the transmission tunnel and the clutch peddle.

I was surprised to find that I have to use a completely different technique to walk in them. I seems strange not being able to pivot on the heels and angle these shoes when walking. I have never owned a pair of 3" block heels before, they seem very strange after the instability of stilettos.

[ I have worked on Meteors, Vampires, Dakotas, Canberras, Neptunes, C130A and E, Mirages and finally Machi. Didnt get to work on F111s. I have worked on all these doing every thing from preflights, A service through to D services on the Hercs and also in the aircroft depot where all the instrumention is overhauled. Jeff

We will miss you Anita

Talking about women shaving their legs. When I was last in Russia I noticed that a lot a smartly dressed Russian women do not shave their legs. One young woman I saw on the underground was very expensively dressed in a leather skirt suit and a fir coat. Her make-up was immaculate, she looked like a model. She was wearing a pair of 4" heel black patent court shoes, she had great legs but under her nylons you could see that they were covered in black hair. I thought it looked strangely sexy on such an attractive woman.

My legs are covered in thick black hair. I used to feel very self-conscious in shorts, I got so fed up with people making funny remarks about them that one day I shaved the lot off. Since then I have not looked back. The cool satin lining of a straight skirt feels wonderful on freshly shaved legs. The only drawback is that I have to shave my legs twice a day to keep them smooth. Once you start shaving your legs you have to do it once a day or they will feel very prickly and itchy if you leave it too long, but I would hate to have hairy legs again.

I am annoyed that the BBC has lost a good Director General while we are still stuck with Tony Blair. It would have been better for all of us if Tony Blair had resigned and Greg Dyke had stayed on. Things in this country just seem to get worse!

I have only been on this forum since last April, but the thing that impressed me most is what a nice friendly group of people your are. The moderators are excellent, in fact I would go so far as to say that Firefox is wasted here, he should be in the diplomatic service.