Thighboots2

Tech, That is a very shrewd post and I would entirely agree with your analysis. Frodo, I guess we are in a similar place then, both comfortable with wearing heels of our choice and because it is to us so normal, not feeling the need to share. So now you can be there to help those get to the state that you find yourself. BE around to help and be critical of choice. Share your thoughts on what you feel is the right style - I have often and will continue to bang on about how I feel stiletto heels are basically wrong for guys and 4" is really as high as a guy should go. You still have much to contribute, as does Johnny. Simon.

TLJ, Well why not wear them to work again and prove the point. Dawn, I concur on the chinkier styles. I have always thought a mans heel should be no thinner that 1" and even that is really too thin. Cubans heels 2.5-3.5" however look really good and are just so masculine. Simon.

Wow there are some serious heels in that lot. Nothing to my taste for either myself or for women, but then beauty is in the eye etc.. Simon.

Dave, I like the 2nd picture aka the loafers. Nice height and style. IMHO, these are definitive unisex shoes. 73 Simon.

K6PS, Nice post. Good research. Certainly the pointy toe is coming into the mens designs although there seems to be a trend to keep the heel as thin as possible. Trouble is that all the mens heels (which I view as medium height) from Archie Eyebrows, YSL, and Fluevog are just under 3" (between 6cm & 7cm). By mens standards these are super high, but they are a bread and butter height for womens shoes (7 cm is an extreemly common height for a womans shoe heel) and for good reason as I can seem to do everything I need including run properly and the walk is not altered, I don't slide down the shoe so no toe jamming, etc. etc. Gosh I did sidetrack myself there, so back to what I was about to say. Trouble is that all the mens heels currently available range from rather pricey to downright expensive and so put off men from buyin them. The cheapest is the Archie Eyebrows at £175 upto £400 for the YSL with the rest being inbetween including the moderate heel Jeffrey West shoes. However, unless men do go and buy the heels, they will remain in the expensive bracket. Mind you I don't think anyone on here really wants to wear this sort of heel as they seem to be totally besotted with the stiletto heel and will not consider wearing anything else even if it means that they will never get to wear any sort of high heel openly. Talk about cutting their nose off to spite their face. The real point is that I wear my heels, be it Archie's, YSL's or my womens cowboy boots (3") all the time and very rarely do I wear flats and absolutely no one ever comments. I wish they would because it would be so nice to say they are genuine mens shoes right on the cutting edge of todays fashion. The fact that no one has ever made me feel uncomfortable means that they are quite acceptable, even my wife is quite immune to them. and I know she is one of those who are not in favour of men and high heels but I think that is because she equates high heels with stiletto heels - who doesn't. Oh well, I am rambling on up here on my soapbox and nothing is going to change and all the guys who will not wear anything unless it is a stiletto will just have to sneak around in private whilst I enjoy wearing heels where ever I want. Simon.

Bubba, Thanks for the great find. Wow what a voice that lady has. It certainly sounds like a properly tutored voice. I guess well be seeing more of her. Cheers, Simon.

Bubba, Got it in one. Indeed the Internet is probably the vehicle by which many have discovered things that interest them they would never had been able to identify before. It is my opinion, as expressed above, that HHP as digressed from its roots and by trying to be all inclusive and liberal and so on, has included that which IMHO detracts from the aim of heels and the male wardrobe. As far as I am aware there is only one place that really fits this description and that is Tech's Heels4men board. Sadly HHP, totally overshaddows H4M, and maybe the men's aspects of HHP should migrate now to H4M. Then again H4M could be deemed as unnecessary duplication and we get back to our roots and wish bon voyage to the parts of the board that are well catered for elsewhere. As I said above, I'm not anti the other parts, but do they have a place here? This is a really fundamental discussion topic and perhaps it should be re-organised into a new thread. It is my firm belief that as HHP is currently formed, just reinforces the idea of heels and men = perverts. Simon.

Richie, You are quite right of course. You may be many things, but a mind reader isn't one of them. Me neither. In my opinion, the pervy stuff is more than well catered for on the web, whereas what I originally thought HHP was about, and in the early days it certainly was, was to be a meeting place for heel lovers that was not already catered for on the web. I have absolutely nothing against the fetish crowd, the TV/TS/CD crowd (I dabble a bit myself), the wet and messy brigade and so on, but this all detracts from the more realistic fashion side to HHP which is a wonderful thing and as far as men wearing heels, it just promotes the wrong image or reinforces the current perception of a why a man wishes to wear heels. Much as I would like too, I have not introduced my SO to HHP. She is tepid (at best) about my love of wearing heels. I know that she like the general populace sees a man wearing heels as just plain wrong and I know that were I to introduce her to this site as proof that "I am not alone" she would immediately focus on the wrong bits and it would force heels underground where they are currently on the surface. I think it is may be part of why Kneehighs has found he has outgrown HHP, because we are so focused on the heel and only the heel. There is more to it than just wearing heels. The whole outfit is something to be considered too. Just look where pushing the fashion envelope and including heels in the whole outfit took Kneehighs. I hope you find this constructive. HHP is totally unique, and I am not about to disappear in to the ether, but it does seem to have gone way beyond the original concept. Simon.

Amanda,

Like you I was sorry to read Roz's post. A great contributor to the site and will be missed.

I too don't care for the "pervy" stuff on the board. It is nicely compartmented and kept very tidy and if you don;t like, then don't look works for me, however, the fact that it is there at all detracts from the site and must be off-putting to women. Were it not for my enjoyment of wearing heels and trying to incorporate them into my daily wear when appropriate then I would also pass this site by.

Richie, Seeing as you have made a heels4men board, which is completely overshaddowed by hhplace (more is the pity) as it has exactly the same facility in the Guys section, perhaps the time has come to split the relevant sections up and have a heels4girls board and a heels4anyoneelse moderated by the particular group it is aimed at. I know it is all down to cost and bravo to you for doing this for us, so this suggestion is just a load of hot air really.

Then again as girls are not just interested in shoes, but everything else that goes along with the look, then maybe their section is a bit too limited to just one particular aspect of their wardrobe.

Simon.

Roz, This is an extreemly sad post to read, but I can understand your feelings. You certainly did do your best to get the girls section going. There are time when you must step back and let someone else take up the lead, and now is a good time. Perhaps you should consider just "cherry picking" the best of the board, as do I. Simon.

HHT, I beg to differ on the heel height, but concur on the platform. Those heels are more like 3.5", just look at my avatar which are 7cm heels/no plat and look at the arch area. This is similar to the arch on RD's shoe without the platform. They do look like very plain versions of the shoes I used to wear in the 70's though. Yet another glimmer of light at the end of our tunnel. Simon.

OK, so they are not "High Heels" as we on here define a high heel (as a woman would do), but in mens terms, these are high heels. Be grateful that it is starting. I have said over and over again, we are not going to go from flat to 4" stiletto in one go. Its got to be a gradual thing. Heels are all over the place in the fashion world now, and as usual in the fashion world, things are usually "Over-The-Top" as far as normal people are concerned. However, the broad thrust and design queues usually filter down to the stuff the general populace buy and wear. More and more runway shows feature male models in heels of some kind so it is simply a matter of time now. It is sad that the only male heels that are nearly, but not quite, 3" are from YSL/Archie Eyebrows and that the prices are £400/£175 respectively, so they are pricely in most people's eyes. But if you don't buy, then they won't be made. The mainstream shoemakers are just waiting to see how well the high end is going before they come out with their own versions. Get down to Tom Baker's in D'Arlby Street, Soho and you can see/buy the Archie boot and shoes. Sure they are still pricey, but they are full leather and hand made. IMHO, they are great value. Simon.

I voted 2 1/2" to 2 7/8" as that is exactly the height of my normal day shoes. Sure I have days when I wear 3 1/2" and also when I wear 3/4". I vary my footwear to suit my mood and dress style. My normal daily footwear is my Lenny boots from Archie Eyebrows, but for posh occasions I break out the Johnny's. Simon.

Clearly a Woman's shoe and that's how I voted. Vote any other way, and you are deluding yourself. The slenderness of the heel, let alone the height and the low vamp all weigh against this being viewed in any other way. DanielP's picture on the other hand is properly gender neutral, and of the style I wear most every day. Simon.

This from the Elle Blog of February 2009.

http://fashion.elle.com/blog/2009/02/men-in-heels.html

Enjoy.

Dr Shoe, You are so right, it is the only way. It may well be starting at the designer level and that is at least 5 years now, but has yet to filter down to the high street. Mind you those are one nice pair of boots. Simon.

I don't see that I can vote, but here is my 2p worth. I don't think that women are particularly against men wearing heels, it is just not the current fashion for men to do so because there are, currently that I am only aware of, only offerings from YSL, Gucci, Archie Eyebrows and Fluevog. Wear any of these and the answer is Women accept a man wearing heels. However, for the majority of the board, the current offerings are not worth considering as heels. They are too low, being sub 3", but only just, and they are not stilettos. What it seems to me is that the majority wish that society would not consider the wearing of 4" stiletto heels, and hosiery, skirts and other such gender specific clothing as being anything other than deviant. I too wish that society would not judge a person by what he/she chooses to wear, but sadly we are all guilty of judging a person by their appearance and even though I wish the above, I am still guilty of the said judgemetal attitude. It is human nature and anything that is way out of place will cause concern. In these enlightened days where it seems every male is considered to be a paedophile, anything that can be used to bolster that opinion will be seized upon and the wearing of clothing manufactured specifically at females just helps fan the flames. Of course in these PC days, leeway is given to those who are TG, but it is still an uphill battle for them to get acceptance. It is for this reason that the majority of wifes/partners may well be quite happy with you wearing stiletto heels around the house, but will not consider your desire to wear them everywhere. For a lucky few, their wives/partners don't care and revel in poking fun at the ridiculous attitudes of society. Simon.

Nice find Shrimper, Massive leaps in fashion are usually music led as fans love to emulate them. It now remains to be seen if the fans of Semi-Precious Weapons are up for wearing similar attire. If so, Mr Weitzman is going to be extreemly busy! Simon.

Morpho, I think i can quite understand your wife's reaction. She was faced with an obvious male dressed in female attire and basically not trying to hide the fact. Why not, it is NY after all but it is a sight many will not be used too and anything that one sees that you are not used too will initially cause a similar reaction until the information is processed by the person and they recover and are able to decide how to proceed. If this is how you wish to present to your wife, then this is certainly the reaction you will get. But what if it were kneehighs who had just walked out of the door instead? Still in 4" stilettos, but clearly dressed as a man expressing fashion freedom. I guess we will never know the answer to that. How do you want to present to the world? Personally, whilst I am totally against all this gender specific stuff and I am totally for whomever wearing whatever they choose, it doesn't mean I have to like what I see. Personally I think there are precious few guys that can wear a dress well (or walk in high heels come to that even though they kid themselves they can), precious few can cross the line into female clothing and really look good as an obvious male, but there are certain styles that do lend themselves to being worn by either gender and business suits are one of those. A good example of this is the pictures by Heel-Lover from NZ. Maybe his choice of skirt length is a little to short for my taste, I am a little conservative in this as I prefer knee or longer lengths, but this aside, the look is not as outrageous. Rather a nice juxtaposition of the male and female clothing styles. Another style would be skinny pants with knee boots over as long as the guy has the right figure. I do not really think you can count the gentleman you and you wife saw as a "heeler" as he was far more than that, and a brave soul too boot. Simon

Bladerunner, What an interesting week. Good on you. Glad to read that you have the courage of your convictions and are out there wearing what you want. Simon.

Jamie, I wear anything between 2.5" - 3.75" block or cuban heels to work every day. It is rare that I wear anything approaching the normal 1" gents heel and has been so now for nearly 2 years. Simon.

thanks. your teasing us! how about a picture of you all done up for work?

Jamie, methinks you doth ask too much.

Cinamon, They are just beautiful boots. Best you go Ooops whenever you feel like it, especially if that is the result. Simon.

I agree with kikepa's comments, especially concerning designers, but they are probably putting their models into feminine heels to draw attention to what is otherwise a lacklustre parade of rehashed designs that would otherwise not get any coverage from the press, precisely because mens fashion is so blooming limited - all round. On a more general note and the comments contained hereafter are not pointed at any particular member, just what seems to me to the majority. (General disclaimer to avoid flamming or anyone thinking I am having a go at them personally) I am still firmly of the opinion that to go from the currently available 7cm cuban heels (YSL, Gucci, Archie Eyebrows and now Fluevog), and seeing them is rare enough, to 4" stiletto heels in one bold move is really asking too much for society to accept in one swallow. Sure its the goal for many, but if you just sit on the side lines and moan about society this and society that and don't have the courage of your convictions and wear the heels you want, then nothing is going to change. If you don't have the courage, like myself, but you still want to wear heels, then broaden your outlook as there are lots of opportunities if you would but look. Sure you are compromising yourself, but then again, your sitting there moaning and I am out there wearing, along with several others on the board. The choice is yours. Simon

Artic, If there was a "Say Thanks" button, I would click it. I concur with Kneehighs. Simon.