jmc

If you're not comfortable going into a shoe store and trying on heels, keep an eye on Zappos and Nine West for stylish yet more discreet heels. Diba has also had some nice ones in the past although their sizes end at 11. Zappos is good because of their return policy (although many of our European members have a beef with them because they don't ship outside the US -- not an issue with you). Boot season, unfortunately, ended about three weeks ago, everybody is clearing out for the spring styles now. You might need to resort to eBay for now, then next fall the boots will be back. For a more discreet heel, try searching for a "block heel", "chunky heel" or "wedge heel". There are also some nice Western-styled boots that we guys can wear without attracting too much attention. They just look like cowboy boots to most people. Since you mentioned that you already are an old hand (or maybe foot ) at spike heels, you are certainly already aware of the sizing situation and know what size to get for starters.

Welcome Aboard, HappyFeat!

Age is not a number -- it's a state of mind.

. . . I would love to take pics of all women i see in the streets wearing very high heels, but I haven´t find the way to do it without being noticed . . .

Check out the "street shots" thread http://www.hhplace.org/discuss/your_favourite_shoe_pictures/2794-street_shot.html

Greetings and welcome to HHplace! I'll try to answer a couple of your questions:

. . .

I'm not sure of the demographics, but this site seems to be mostly male?. . .

Yes, that is true. Women don't seem to be as interested in talking about heels -- it's just footwear to them. We do have a small but growing female contingent here and we desire and respect their input.

. . .I'm looking for the discussion specifically aimed at men who enjoy women wearing high heels. . .

There's a lot of that around here -- look through the older threads under "For Everybody" and "For the Guys".

. . . and the women who enjoy men's attention? . . .

Probably not as much in that area, again look through some of the older threads. You may want to start a discussion on that topic but I would very strongly suggest you spend some significant time exploring the board and getting to know the members before you do that. There is more than five years' worth of postings on this board -- and just because a thread may be five years old does not necessarily mean it is irrelevant. It takes some time to find and absorb what all is here.

. . . I find the women only board the most interesting, but I'm not allowed to contribute to that one. . .

As a moderator I must reinforce the "No Guys posting in the "For the Girls area rule". This rule grows out of the respect factor I mentioned above. We like having the women around and we reserve a place for them. In the past, guys were allowed to post in the "For the Girls" area and at one point the women perceived that their area was being overrun by the men. And in fact it was indeed being overrun -- the majority of posts in "For the Girls" were by men and guys were hijacking threads all over the place. A veritable brouhaha erupted and most of the women left the board. It was a very unfortunate situation and it was not pretty.

Please regard the "For the girls" area as the ladies' powder room. Imagine the pandemonium that would result if one of us were to barge in there unannounced.

We, as men, can look at what is going on in the "For the girls" area but we need to leave that area to the girls for their own discussions. It is a matter of simple respect. Our female membership has been growing and we value their presence.

. . .There seems to be the two boards, women only and men only and the rest all lumped together. . .

There is only one board -- HHplace. In HHplace there are a number of forums: "For the Girls", "For the Guys", For the TV's, CD's and TS's", "For Everybody" and several more. Each of the headings you see on the http://www.hhplace.org/discuss/ main screen is a forum and as a male member you may post in any of them except "For the Girls". You may read posts in all the forums.

. . .Maybe I'm just confused, but where do I fit in? I've worn heels in the past, playing dress-up with some girlfirends, but I have no desire to be a TS/TV/CD out in the world. I'm happy in my "malemess" and I'd like to chat and talk with real women who enjoy high heels. No offense to the posers, but there seems to be some fakes on here, men pretending to be women for whatever reason. I have no problem with men who are upfront about being male, I've read some great posts from them so far.

A lot of us are faced with the same questions -- where exactly do I fit in? Again I would suggest exploring the board for quite some time (and I mean a few months) and getting to know the members. When you see and begin to understand the trials and tribulations many of us have already experienced you may begin to clarify aspects of your own situation. You will find items that strike chords of recognition within your experiences -- feel free to add your own comments.

Is this as confusing to read as it was to write?

Not really. A lot of us are a little conflicted in many ways. This board does help us sort things out.

Again, welcome aboard!

As you have just discovered, any increase in heel height has a far more profound effect as the height goes up. Go from a 2-inch heel to a 3-inch heel and the effect is barely noticeable. Go from a 3-inch to a 4 and the effect is considerable -- although certainly manageable. Go from a 4 to a 5 and it's night-and-day. Go from a 5 to a 6 and, well, you know. I might suggest something a little less radical as an interim "step" (no pun intended) -- try a 5.5 inch heel and get accustomed to that, then go to the 6-inchers. It's no doubt -- 6 inchers are a challenge. I probably never will be able to wear them well.

Thighbootguy -- I've driven from Northern Michigan to Tampa in heels a number of times -- 1400 miles one way. Mostly stayed on I-75 all the way. I did not make a lot of stops, just gas and pit stops (food stops were at fast-food drive-through windows "road food in my lexicon", most of the gas stops used pay-at-the-pump stations and pit stops at the Department of Transportation rest areas) so there was not a lot of chance to be seen in public. The heels were at least 4 inches high, block style but they were completely visible to anybody who cared to look. Next time I do it I've got some wedges that are definitely going to make the trip. Of course I had to stop at outlet malls along the way to see what they had in the line of interesting heels -- I find that Rack Room Shoes often has nice heels but the sizes seem to end at 11. Sometimes I can use an 11 if the sizing is generous. I would change my shoes before going shopping because I do not yet have the guts to go shopping for heels in heels. Except for one incident in which an older female cashier gave me an unapproving "evil eye", nobody batted an eyelash.

. . . Thing is, I cannot quite decide if I want stilettoes or chunky heels.

From my own experience, block heels are quite a lot easer to "get away with" mentally, and wedges are even easier. It takes a lot of self-confidence to wear stilettos well (but I will admit I have not progressed that far yet). I do believe that wearing wedge or block heels will allow you to build your self-confidence while you get practice and still enjoy wearing heels.

Could you supply further details please

Yup, right here: http://www.hhplace.org/discuss/real_life_meetings/6139-world_heel_meet_2007_london_sat_march_10th.html

Welcome to the board, misschocolat!

Fabulous boots, Gina!

. . . if you look closely you will note the heel is that off-tan/brown color that many of the styles are favoring this season and, as such, it's pretty hard to cover any dings or color breaks in the heels..does anyone have any suggestions on how to REPAIR blemishes and small wear-marks in heels of this type?

. . .

I guess I'm not quite clear here -- are you asking how to match the color of a polish or other material to be used in the repair? You mention a bottle of polish earlier in the thread, am I to assume that did not perform satisfactorily?

Depending on the construction of the heels, you might try a wood stain to effect a repair. They are available in many colors and those heels appear to have a wood-grain look to them. If they are simply a plastic construction, wood stain probably wouldn't work.

Another possibility might be model paint like Testors. Color matching would be a challenge, you would have to mix paints.

i like stillettos.

Don't we all?

Stilettos are amazing but they do take a tremendous amount of self-confidence to wear well -- especially for guys but also for women.

For me, personally, blocks or wedges work better. Just a personal choice.

Hi all, my name is Sam

Can I put a picture of myself on here ?

X

First, Sam, welcome to the board!

Now to answer your question, certainly! But first, please to back and re-read Nigel's post. Then go to this post to see how it's done.

Basically, to summarize the technical minutiae:

This board really only supports text. The text can be a link -- meaning a pointer to something else on the Internet -- but text rules the day here. So if you want to post a picture, that picture must reside somewhere else. (This is called "hosting" in Internet-ese.) So you will want to upload your picture to an image-hosting site such as imageshack, photobucket, flickr or several others. Then you insert the link to that picture into your post here. When another member reads your post, the board software will follow that link and send the picture along with the text of your post.

The nice thig about imageshack, photobucket, flickr and the others is the pictures you place there will be kept there for an indeterminate time. This means the link you place here will continue to point to that picture for many years to come. This is called "permanence" and it is something to consider. Just suppose you find this absolutely sweet "to-die-for" little pump on Zappos -- and you post a link to a picture of it here. Next year, when styles change and Zappos no longer carries that cute little shoe, they will probably delete that picture from their site. And that means it will disappear here too. But if you had posted that picture on photobucket, it would still be there until you delete it.

Avatars work the same way, you can get to them through "User CP" (User Control Panel). That may be the best place for your picture -- but please keep avatars small -- 100 x 150 pixels or 10 KB total file size maximum.

Sorry if I got a little too technical here.

I still buy online. (Yeah, I know that's missing out on a potentially wonderful experience -- but I have not built up confidence to that level yet. Furthermore, the only brick-and-mortar store in my area that has anything bigger than USW 11 is Payless. They are good for what they are but I definitely prefer a higher quality product.) With that in mind, I am gravitating toward online merchants that have a generous return policy. With all the inconsistency of the different sizing systems, it is just too much of a "crap-shoot" to buy footwear sight-unseen and hope it will fit. My current favorite shoe-store offers free return shipping and I have availed myself of it about half the time.

Kennard's sandals look like a D'Orsay from the back and a sandal from the front. Two classic designs merged into one -- and I like the result!

I'm your basic guy -- whatever shoe or boot I buy is black. (Or it will be after a few applications of the appropriate colorant.) That way it goes with jeans or dark pants. I get the footwear first -- mostly whatever looks interesting -- and then I make the rest of the outfit work with it. Boots tend to catch my eye first and I like a pair of nice, worn jeans better than anything. I really think boots and jeans were made for each other.

Although I prefer the term "block" over "chunky", I will welcome their return! In fact I'll have to celebrate -- by buying a few pair!

Welcome to HHplace, BlkKhb1! You say you have been lurking for 6 months -- I was a "lurker" for more than a year! Believe me, it's more fun once you de-lurk and start actively participating. "Partial CD" -- I like that. I'm a CD from the knees down! Have fun posting and exploring the board.

Welcome aboard, _Boot_lover_! A lot of us like boots -- myself included.

Welcome aboard, pumpedup! Look around, there are a lot of like-minded heelers here!

. . . and very fine sandals they are, too! Happy New Year to you as well.

Mind you, I'm a dedicated non-smoker. Never smoked a day in my life and don't intend to start. Ever. Tobacco -- I hate the stuff, it stinks and it is unhealthy. And nicotine is one of the most addictive substances known -- just ask any smoker about their first cigarette, it's never a pleasant experience. I enforce a strict smoking ban in my home and in my vehicles. But at least in the United States, these smoking bans bug me. This is supposed to be the "land of the free" and we keep ratcheting down on what people can do. My home -- that's not a public place. But a shopping mall or a restaurant -- those are public places -- and at least restaurants have had smoking and non-smoking areas for years. If tobacco is so confounded bad for us then why don't we just ban it outright? Of course all Americans know the answer to the question at the end of my last paragraph -- Washington DC and all the state governments are positively addicted to tobacco . . . revenue. In the form of taxes. If we are really all that concerned about public health then we had better ban the use of the wheel post-haste -- ever look at traffic death statistics?

. . . THANKS FOR VOTING ME INTO THE TOP TEN !!!! It was you in this forum - nobody else ! . . .

Hey Gina, if it was up to me you would be at the top!

. . . your wearing jogging bottoms with stilettos . . .

I do that. Check my avatar. The sweatsuit is my "schlump suit", it is very comfy when I'm just rattling around the house. And my "schlump suit" usually includes some kind of heels.

. . .Hey guys, I'm just on my soap box hear being an amateur photographer and all so I'm just offering a point of view, not trying to cast judgement....

Yeah, I can get into that. I've been a major shutterbug since the early 80's. I get a little crazy with digital cameras because it is so inexpensive to take a lot of pictures -- no film, no developing.

. . . Maybe if the camera was kept still, and some more suitable attire was matched with the shoes it would look a whole lot better...

Well, yeah there are a few photographic flaws in the picture but I will congratulate member pumpedup for working his way through the intricacies of posting pictures on a message board. It took me a while to figure it out.

(Why do i get the feeling I'm gonna get shot down in flames for this)

Poof-ssssshhhhhh -- Ok, that's me lighting up the propane torch. . . (well, not really )