Anne_Louise

Kitty and 'Cinthy' evidently have a lot of work to do, and I for one wish them well. This thread is about wearing 'sexiest' heels to work, by the way! Of course nobody should be judged by their shoes, and for me the height of my heels is governed much more by where and how far I shall be walking than by any possible 'prostitute' associations, and as I can negotiate most obstacles in 51/2" heels (which could be considered an obstacle in themselves!) the question is only how much higher the circumstances that day permit me to go. Social attitudes and prejudices have nothing to do with it. And if heel height is the mark of a prostitute, then I should be earning my living very differently - and more lucratively! Anne Louise

Those shoes are utterly beautiful, I can hardly wait to get some! I suspect though that the pose is not so much to emphasise her boobs as to conceal the fact that she can't stand straight in the heels!

Ah, Genebujold, but if I were that much younger I would still be well past the 'pimples and exams' stage!

JinxieKat, you put things so well. I think a lot of it is jealousy, it takes a bit of courage to dress unconventionally. I'm lucky, I work in the arts, and rarely in an office, so I don't usually hear 'f... me' type comments, at least not to my face! In fact, as you can tell from my signature, I like to break the rules and wear my highest heels with my shortest clothes. As well as my heels and stockings (often with seams) I like leather, fur, p.v.c., gloves, short tight skirts and dresses, in fact anything that stimulates the senses and makes a statement about my personality. As I think I've already mentioned in a different thread, I could be seen as a walking fetish-symbol, and a 'pro' in the sense in which Kitty means it. However, presumably because my clothes are natural to me, I take care in the way I put my outfits together and I feel right in them, most of the comments I get, from women as well as men, refer to my looking 'glamorous', 'elegant' and occasionally (nearly always from men!) 'sexy', but never 'tarty', 'sleezy'or 'tacky'. I also have enough sense to dress for the occasion - I don't wear my shortest clothes to church, for example, where they could be regarded as unseemly and distracting, and I wouldn't, to give an extreme example, wear a p.v.c. micro-dress and black seamed nylons to a funeral. The common factor is my shoes, which are always high and with the spikiest heels I can get. When I get around to wearing 7" heels for work I'm not suddenly going to be regarded as a whore, I think my colleagues and associates have too much respect for me for that! Don't let them get to you, Kat, you must feel very superior, dressing as you do! Anne Louise By the way, if Kitty is to be believed, and why shouldn't she be telling the truth, then she deserves sympathy as she must be feeling thoroughly betrayed. My only issue with her is the association of my footwear with prostitution, and I've explained my views at some length!

Jeff, it won't surprise you to know that I agree! But you might inadvertantly have hit on a reason for some of the disapproval - which only serves to encourage some of us!

Well, I am not a pro (except in the sense of 'professional') and I wore 61/2" heels twice for work last week, and 51/2" on other days, including a high profile presentation on thursday and to church yesterday. I don't think people should make assumptions based on the type of shoes that someone is wearing.

So yet another weapon to add to the armoury of 'shoe language'! This happens quite often and, as JinxieKat says, walking can be interesting as one periodically has to replace the strap. I find it easier to wear mules or ankle-straps for summer shoes and slingbacks more often in the winter.

High10, you might find the answer at the Stockings HQ site, www.stockingshq.com.

I think those wide-tipped stilettos were a fashion feature that didn't last all that long, though it might have returned from time to time. It might also have been a way to make stilettos more acceptable by causing less damage to floors. The first stilettos were very slender and had a much more graceful curve than the ones currently in fashion. I think the heel height was measured straight up the front of the heel, so the standard 21/2" or 3" of those days would be equivalent, I guess, to something like 41/2" or 43/4" in today's measuring.

inebriate

I see that I've progressed to wedges. Well it's some improvement on the kittens I suppose! In fact I'm wearing something rather similar, but prettier, and red, at the moment, but I would have to be brave, or very casual, to go out in them! When do I get a respectable pair of stilettos?!

Poised

Vanity, as you started this thread back in January, how have you got on since with the 7"? What size are your feet?

elegance

Mickey, I take a U.K. size 8, and I think it is quite possible in that size to get a 'true' 7" heel. The shoes I have which are advertised as 51/2" are in fact a little over when new, and nearly that height when the tips have worn to the point where they need replacing. Also the replacement tips are sometimes thicker than the originals, taking the heel to nearly 53/4" when just repaired, although wearing such thin heels on a daily basis means that they do wear down very quickly. My highest shoes were advertised I seem to remember as 6" but in my size are 61/2". I've had metal tips put on so they should stay at that height for a little while as I'm obviously not yet likely to wear them as often as my 51/2" or 6". I've had no significant difficulty adapting to them though as I've said, standing for long periods can be tiring. Walking down slopes needs extra care but is quite feasible. So once the weather is cooler and I can be wearing them several times a week, I don't expect too much difficulty with 7". Be sure that I shall publicise the fact as soon as I get past the 'walking about the house' stage! Hello, Jeff. You know, from our exchanges of messages, that I'm someone who likes to push the boundaries a little! So what's a mere extra half-inch on a pair of heels? Of course comfort can be interpreted in different ways. If I've gone to the trouble to get dressed up, I would feel decidedly uncomfortable in low shoes and quite incongruous in trainers or any other flats. As I've said, I can dash around the shops in 51/2" heels giving hardly any thought to my shoes, even 6" don't impinge on my consciousness much. I was able to spend a few hours a week or so ago in 61/2"and walk out to the car having quite forgotten which shoes I was wearing, and I was so pleased with myself that I started a thread on the subject as soon as I got home! A young man yesterday was quite entranced by my red patent 51/2" heels and obviously couldn't take his eyes off them having told me how wonderful he thought they were! Oh, would that I were twenty-five years younger! Anne Louise

Definitely

When I received my first pair of 51/2" heels they seemed a lot higher than 5", the highest that I had worn until then, and I truly thought I would hardly ever wear them. However, they were so beautiful and desirable that I couldn't bring myself to send them back, and I began wearing them when I knew I wouldn't have to walk too far. After a short time I tried wearing them for work and received amazed compliments from any of the teenage girls, and their mums, who knew me well enough to comment. Of course even then I wasn't totally unaware of the association of very high shoes with 'tartiness' and I tended not to wear them with anything too short - echoes there too of growing up in the 'sixties mini-skirt era, when it was considered quite wrong to wear heels with short clothes, a convention which I have always avoided (hence my 'signature' which I add when I remember to tick the box!). I was so besotted with those shoes, and had managed to get some more after a little while, that the 'low' (41/2" or 5"!) spare shoes that I had with me remained in the car when I went to the supermarket. That's a real test, walking in 51/2" needle heels on a hard, smooth surface and trying to control a heavy trolley through crowded aisles, quite apart from giving people the opportunity to point at my shoes and comment to their companions. Of course I kept buying more whenever I could afford to and they soon, in months rather than years, became my daily wear. I can stand, walk, even run, in them all day long if I need to. More recently I've managed to get a few 6", and though they aren't as stylishly designed, my compulsion to go ever higher means that they also very often find their way to work or the shops. If you've read my postings elsewhere you will know that I've graduated to 61/2" now, and I've worn them for work too, although standing for long periods can be very tiring. At this time of year I am more likely to be wearing open shoes and sandals, and the 61/2" are closed courts so it will probably be autumn before I really get used to them to wear them daily. I did wear them for part of yesterday, as the weather is cooler. I had to visit a remote farm, not somewhere for heels of any height, with stone steps down to the door and uneven stone floors, but I can say truthfully that I managed without difficulty, so I'm looking for some summer shoes the same height! Next autumn or winter it will definitely be 7"! Because of the exercise I take, and the kind of work I do, I have flexible ankles, and Dr. Shoe told me, when I wondered why I don't need a larger size for high shoes, that I must have supple feet, so I count myself very fortunate. After reading this little bit of biography I wondered if it might not have been more suitable for the 'stories' section. Anne Louise

Oh no, Paul, if I were self-conscious about shoes (or clothes in general) I would be in neat little 2" heels and repectable just-below-the-knee A-line skirts in wool, cotton or, if very daring, suede! One tends not to blend into the background if in a leather suit and 51/2"+ stilettos! So fear not, I am enjoying the language of shoes but it's merely that I hadn't understood that what were inconsequential and unconscious actions were causing at least some men to indulge in erotic fantasies. It's just that now if I suspect I'm being watched those actions might be just a little exaggerated - an innocent lifting of a foot from its shoe might now result in the shoe falling over and having to be retrieved either by 'fishing' for it with my toes or even crouching down to replace it by hand. And of course I have no idea how much stiletto-wobble I exhibit as I battle with that stubborn supermarket trolley! And only about six months ago, for purely practical reasons, I rediscovered stockings, only to find out that there are men out there who are searching for signs of suspender bumps, and drooling over seams! Then of course that crouching down to replace my shoe presents another hazard in the possibility of a flash of stocking-top! So, as I've said, at my age I should be better behaved, but I'm having such a lot of fun! Anne Louise

Industrial

Not enough!

This really ties in with the 'Do Women have a Shoe Fetish' thread and my posting there applies here as well.

I never feel properly dressed if I'm not in heels, nowadays, as I've posted elsewhere, 51/2" or 6", and going higher! Consequently I have often to be in heels all day. I also wear hiking boots for long walks and have no trouble switching from high to low except when walking up steep hills, when I tend to walk more on my toes. The important thing is to vary heel-height and get plenty of ankle exercise

I think that in even moderately high stilettos it is difficult to avoid some wobble and in the height that some of us here like to wear it is virtually impossible. I've always been aware of it and tried to keep it to a minimum, for the sake of elegance. It must still happen though, because only a couple of months ago a teenage girl student, a bit of a tomboy who likes to comment about my shoes, was walking behind me and took some delight in telling me that my heels were tipping from side to side! I was walking on a slightly uneven slate floor at the time but I was unaware of any significant wobble, so I suspect that we all do it a bit without realising. I tend towards the 'tightrope' style of walking as taught in deportment all those years ago, but not in an exaggerated way, and I would have expected that to minimise the heel wobble. Until I discovered the internet, and forums such as this one, I knew practically nothing of the language of shoes and what effect I might be having on onlookers. Sometimes I think it might be better to remain ignorant. I'm now so conscious of those little things which I knew I did, but didn't realise were significant - dangling a shoe and sometimes 'losing' it, 'leaning' one ankle against the other, slipping a foot in and out of its shoe as I stand at a supermarket shelf - and now I find myself doing it all the more if I think someone is watching. Now I have to add heel-wobbling to the list - I really should be better behaved at my age! My shoes always wear on one side, and I've never found a way to avoid that. Does anyone have any ideas? Or is that supposed to be seductive too?! Anne Louise

Nobody so far has come up with any reason why leather SHOULDN'T be worn to work.

Haze