ilovetights

ilovetights: can you at least post your reccommendations for this little australian?

Well first and foremost... Black Milk as mentioned in my first post in this thread. They are great quality... I have only had one pair where the stitching came apart and I was given a replacement pair shortly after I emailed them about the problem! (I usually get Medium)

My next recommendation is Sportsgirl. They can be a bit "hit and miss" but overall I think they are alright.... try and buy things on sale though. I bought 'wet look' stirrup leggings and absolutely loved them... wore them constantly for months but unfortunately they got a hole in them and became uncomfortable to wear. (They were Medium.. I think I should've got a large though) I have another pair though that I bought a few years ago that are still going strong - just plain black cotton leggings with cuffs on the ankle (Small) which make them sit really nicely. Last time I was there I noticed some pretty cool legging 'designs' too (:

Next is Country Road... although I believe their quality has declined in the last 5 years or so /: Still I picked up some thick leggings from CR (size Large and on the recommendation of a female friend who knows I like heels and women's clothes and we go shopping together occasionally ) earlier this year and wore them on cold nights in Winter and they are great! I have a pair from.. maybe 4 years ago - again plain black cotton leggings (Med) - that are still going just fine... Unfortunately I find CR leggings slip on me and like I said, I think the quality has declined a little but they are still pretty good (certainly better than some other shops).. again try to buy things on sale.

I also have some Sass & Bide leggings that are amazing.. from when they were starting out I guess.. because they don't do anything plain these days.

I've heard good things about Witchery, Kookai, Metalicus, Gorman and American Apparel leggings (especially for shiny leggings!) but I've not tried any of these. There's a shop called 'Fat' which stocks some pretty good brands but I haven't been to one in a long time.

I'm not aware of any/other online shops that sell quality leggings at a reasonable price.

Best thing to do is go out and try them on and find out for yourself... I still get embarrassed when I walk into a women's clothes shop and look around... but it's much easier once you're in the privacy of a dressing room

I have thought about scoring some leggings however I have no feel for what size to buy. Any tips?

Larry

Usually depends on the materials used ....so some leggings are very stretchy and others are not. I've fit into leggings marked size 8 or small right through to leggings marked size 16 or extra large. (For reference, I wear size 36 in men's pants). I think it's best to try them on or at the very least get the measurements of the leggings before you buy.

I can't recommend any brands as they probably aren't available outside Australia. Also keep in mind the sizes mentioned are Australian too.

ME!!! I wear leggings or tights almost all the time. I love leggings and tights as much as I do heels AND I'm VERY lucky to have a family who are fine with it, so I can wear them around the house. I usually wear leggings underneath my pants when I go out and always at work.

EDIT: I don't know how many pairs I own... but it's at least 20... add in tights and I have at least 40 pairs of legwear!! (...it's probably more than 50!!)

Black Milk is my favourite brand for leggings! For example.. I have these (which fit in with the 'black and shiny' though they are not VERY shiny). They are high quality and worth their price. After wearing Black Milk, most other leggings just don't compare!!! The only downside is almost all of their 'designs' are limited time only and are often taken off the site/discontinued before I can afford to buy them

With that said, I am yet to find the perfect pair of shiny leggings :/ I think latex is the best way to go!

They make very well made shoes but the problem is that most of their shoes are flats ... or might as well be. Since their "tall" heels are only like 2 1/2".

Yea... there are occasionally 4 inch heels.. but that is the absolute maximum /: It's a good thing I love flats too though

Beautiful shoes, Barney!! Good to see the larger sizes being catered for with good looking mid and high heels (instead of low chunky styles seemingly aimed at 50yo+ ...because apparently they're the only women with large feet)......... I wish Australian footwear retailers would get up to speed with this.

I think they're GREAT!! ...But unfortunately I don't own a pair

3 inches (and 4 inches) I see as simply heels - the average or middle... too low to be called high but too high to be called low. From 4.5 inches up (+10cm's) I consider as high and 2.5 inches or less, as low.

Don't you hate it when a woman wears a pair of low (practically flat) shoes that sound like high heels. The sound gets your attention and then the letdown.

Absolutely agree!! It's one of the reasons I prefer flats or high over kitten heels (as outlined here http://www.hhplace.org/everybody/19508-kitten_heels_why_bother-2.html#post274885 ..aside from the person who started that particular thread, I seemed to be alone in my dislike of kitten/low heels)

I work at a department store, occasionally as the greeter and for the most part I have nothing better to do than notice the shoes of the women walking by. Sometimes it makes my day to see a pair of high heels click into the store and usually I get to see them on the way out too

Hi ilovetights, thanks for your response. Although i dont consider myself a CD, i don't see that there is anything wrong with it.

There's always time to go shopping! especially with chaddy open until 9pm on thursdays and fridays! Your other priorities must be pretty important to put shopping aside!

I was always fearful of going about my business in chadstone as it's such a large and commercial shopping center, i preffered the quieter ones (ie waverely gardens ) but now i've had positive experiences at chaddy, i'll definately be going there more often to shop my little heart out!

I don't mind at all, thankyou for the compliment i also showed my GF these pictures and she said i look good too, so that made me extremely happy!

I do have quite a few pairs of heels now (12/13 off the top of my head i think) but not too many clothes, i think i have around 5 or so dresses, a couple of skirts, jeans etc.. enough to keep me going for odd night out on the weekend anyway! there's 20 years of being a traditional socially normal boy to make up for! haha

i paid $40 for my black rats, although i noticed one of the girls in santini wearing a pair and hers were nowhere near as shiny as mine :S mine have all the genuine tags and labels attatched, but i cant help wondering wether they're fakes or wether Sass and Bide brought out different shades of them?

I said there was nothing wrong with it in my post :l ...I was agreeing with you! Anywho.. I hope you still come down to Wavo's every now and then!!

Regarding the Sass and Bide Rats, there are several types...

Black, PVC (which is probably the ones the Santini girl had on), Bronze, Chrome (Silver), Grey Marle, Beast (or something like that), Snake... and a few others (that I can't think of). You can get the older ones at at the S&B warehouse sales for cheap.. though I have never seen the animal print Rats at those sales. I've got a few pairs of PVC and one normal and one bronze. When I saw them I couldn't resist!!

Whilst i am a wearer of women's clothes, i dont consider myself a CD, as i feel like the fashion fits me and who i am, rather than being assigned to a specific gender.

I've never liked the term crossdresser because it has so many negative connotations but even more so because I have never felt like I am doing anything wrong (I know I'm not!!). These are the most thruthful words I have ever read regarding wearing women's clothes (and I thank heelguy for it). I feel exactly the same way.

Heelguy, why didn't you tell me you were going to Chaddy??!!

I have been wanting to buy a skirt from Forever New so badly but have been working quite a lot and have had a few other (more important) things going on too so have held off to this time.

I remember one day (years ago now) I went around Chadstone looking for skinny jeans and asking shoe stores the largest size they offer and I got far more positive, friendly and helpful SA's then negative ones. Ever since I've had no problems shopping around Chadstone. (If anyone comes down to Melbourne they should definitely check this shopping centre out... it is pretty big and has so many great shops! It's slogan is "The Fashion Capital").

Love your description of supre!!! ....Good to hear of your adventures and new purchases, heelguy. You're looking great (if you don't mind me saying)... you must have quite a collection of heels and clothes now?!!

I love the shoes at Santini, most of all in summer! There are always great heels there and most with platforms! I hope you didn't pay too much for the S&B Rats... I've bought 2 pairs of Rats for $10 each (rrp $170+ for those who are not familiar) from their warehouse sales!! As a result, I wouldn't pay more than $50 for any rats.

Thanks mate Welcome to the forum!

Hi,

Gents, check this out --> http://blog.solestruck.com/?p=5000. JC (my favorite shoe designer, by the way) has finally started to seriously think about heels-loving men too*.

Did i already say i'm happy today?

Happy Heeling

k6ps

*) Note: this is more for the lovers of blocks and platforms, not so much for the lovers of stilettos.

So this is saying JC will make selected styles in size 12??? Is this correct??

Hello and welcome to the forum from the other side of of the country!

I'm with the OP on this one..... why bother?!! My older sister seems to love kitten heels but I've never understood why! (In my opinion....... ) Kitten heels - whether they be boots, sandals, courts or whatever else - would look far better with a 3 inch or higher heel attached OR as a flat shoe. Almost everything about them irks me.. Like how a kitten heel doesn't change the look of the shoe or the foot (so why bother with such a low heel?) or when you hear the click of a heel only to find it's a (disappointing) kitten heel. It barely helps make a girl (or guy) taller and according to other posts in this thread they are equally as difficult to wear as a 3 or 4 inch heel. Yes it's easy to say that given a choice of kitten heels, crocs and trainers that you would choose kitten heels but they are 3 different types of shoe. Given the choice of a ballet flat or (the same) ballet style with a kitten heel there is no doubt I would choose the flats.

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone here has bought Aldo boots before and if so do they run true to size? They only seem to go up to size 11. I have bought Nine West & Via Spiga boots in size 12 and they fit quite comfortably. If Aldo run true to size or slightly larger, I should be able to hopefully squeeze into a pair as their designs are just too wonderful to pass up.

What size (Australian) are you normally??

I'm size 12 or sometimes size 13 and there is no chance of me fitting into any Aldo women's shoes or boots...... I wonder if Aldo Australia is different to Aldo America??

I work in a (major) department store in most of the service areas. When I am doing lay-by, I often get asked to clean the shoe section.... I must say that people are just pigs when it comes to shoes!! It is so often a complete mess (worst on the weekends). There are often at least 2 pairs of shoes on the floor in front of most racks and even more on bad days. Last week, I covered a lay-by break (15 minutes spent tidying the shoes). I was tidying the flats (there was at least 15 pairs on the ground!! ...and that was just one rack of the whole section) and a woman tried a pair of shoes and just left them on the ground. I waited while she continued looking at other flats and then when she was about to move off I said "Are you going to put those back??" and she said something like "I didn't know how" (as in how to put the shoes back on the hanger) I wanted to call her names indicating her low intelligence!! ..but of course, we are not allowed to do that. I think a 4 year old could work out how to put shoes on hangers properly! So, TO all those who (....drop by my store ) put the shoes back where they are meant to and properly, a big Thank You

for the WORLD?? They're seemingly phone companies but that aside I have no clue what you are talking about!!

I wear tights and pantyhose all the time. The key to them not driving you nuts is no hair! I have tried to wear them in the winter for an extra later but with hair I am the same way, can't wait to get them off.

I fully understand everyone is different.... but I've been wearing tights/leggings and pantyhose for more than 3 years (almost every day in that time) and I have never had a problem with hair under my hosiery or leggings!

My legs have never been fully shaved. In fact, the only time when I've shaved any of the hair on my legs is when I needed to get my ankles strapped (with medical tape) playing junior footy.

So just over a week ago I bought myself some new heels as detailed in this post http://www.hhplace.org/guys/9231-who_has_bought_some_new_shoes-327.html#post270858

Here are pics of the shoes. Just did them in a hurry.. so there's only 2 (Thanks again to my sister for taking the pics).

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/232/imageefz.jpg

These pics were taken last yesterday (Sat 12th) and I had worn my heels for an hour or two at this stage. Unfortunately I somehow got a mark on them

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/9053/imageazl.jpg

...here I am. Wearing my Wolford tights (They are worth the expensive price!). The tights are darker than what you see in this pic. They are very contrasting to the heels.

Even though they are low, I really love these heels. They are soooo easy to walk in!!

Since we're voting, I think I like the older, chunkier pair. Heel height on that about the same? Are they the same size? The length of the 'footbox' looks bigger on the (new) black pair compared to the (old) brown pair.

I agree. I like the brown lace up boots MUCH better than the black pair. What's better is that lace-up booties are very on trend right now!

I am now the proud owner of a pair of Corelli 3.5 inch (9cm) nude court heels They were reduced to $30 (on clearance, I don't know the original price but that's pretty good) and there was a further 30% off so they cost $21

There's no 'high heel' thrill as I don't consider 9cm's to be high and I have some 13cm heels (no platform) but I absolutely adore them nonetheless! Unfortunately I can't find any pics of them on the net. I might take some pics and post them on the forum.

Anyways... You can check my new heels out here: http://www.hhplace.org/stories_high_heel_theme/17954-my_collection.html (5th post)

Edit: Thanks for all the thanks for that post!! ^^^^

I just wanted to post ahead of time. I'm heading back to the H.S. I graduated from for a Play happening tonight. The only difference: I'm going in heels! So I'm gonna get it from alot of people, cause this is Opening night, seemingly the first busiest nights my school has. That, and I posted an Event for awhile that I was coming, so I don't know if it contributed to people coming or not.

But it's gonna be quite the night, and I'll get to see who's my real friends or not. Wish me luck! I'll bring my camera and try to take pics, but I'll be taking a sort of shy approach mostly. We'll see

Best of luck mate! Hope you have a great time

As mentioned (only once for each point) it's about genetics and overall body weight. I saw a thread for this on another forum I frequent... so this is some of the things they have said (it's not my advice, but I trust it all the same)... It pretty much says you can not lose fat from just one part of your body, you need to lose fat from all over to slim your calves. The best way to go about losing fat is to create a calorie deficit ("burning more through cardio and resistance training, eating less, a combination of the two") and to gain muscle because the more muscle you have, the more fat you will burn (due to higher metabolism). Your calves are very much determined by genetics.... girls who have long skinny legs were born that way. Some guys have great difficulty gaining muscle (I guess those like hoverfly and laceups). So resistance training to gain muscle will help you lose fat quicker and endurance cardio (cycling - as suggested and long walks/jogging) to make the muscle lean. Also pilates will help you shape your legs.

Everything's going good thanks, just working my butt off trying to save for a new car and to move out with the GF how about you? That's okay mate, i guessed things might have been abit hectic on your end!

it would be great to catch up again very soon, saturday night would probably suit me better as sometimes i work on saturdays during the day, i haven't seen him around here lately but hopefully ShoeDre would be keen for coming along again, and im sure that ilovetights would enjoy getting out and meeting us! i went to visit him at work one day as it turns out he works in the shopping center where i did my first public heeling, he wasn't working that day though so we still haven't met! feel free to organise something as im usually free most weekends, apart from the weekend starting the 11th feb, my girly's down from Sydney then

I did read this at the time... but wasn't in a posting mood.

However, last Saturday I bought some heels and they would be absolutely perfect for my first ever outing in heels!

Happy to finally contribute to this thread! .........I'm going to share my story with the forum because as other large-footed people (men and women alike) will know it is the best feeling when you find beautiful shoes that actually fit!! On Saturdays, from October through to March (Australian spring/summer) I usually spend my afternoons playing cricket. Last Saturday was the final round of the season and I have played all but one game and I get dropped from the team. I was very angry with this but with everything there is silver lining.... Instead of going to support my teammates (like I did in the other game I missed), I decided to go shopping with my sisters and my mum. I am lucky to have a family who is completely cool with me wearing heels, tights etc... The first place we stopped at was a shoe store so naturally I took a look around (at the guy's stuff and the girl's) but there was nothing there for me... my younger sister picked up some heels she liked but they didn't have her size (she has good taste in shoes!) and my older sister bought some kitten-heel slingbacks (she has - in my opinion - poor taste in shoes). Anyways... so we moved on to some other shops and then after spending an hour in a department store, my younger sister and I saw a clearance 'prop' store of the first shoe shop we were in and took a look around.... I picked up a heel that looked quite big and tried to find the size as my sister has size 10 (AUS) feet. I looked at the bottom and nothing, then inside the shoe and was completely shocked when I saw the number 12 inside a little circle!! I showed my sister (with some 'silent excitement') and she told me to try them on in the corner and she would cover me.. I waited until some other customers had moved away and quickly slipped off my shoe and slid my foot in. I tapped my sister's shoulder (who was pretending to look at some boots) and said quietly "They fit, I'm getting them".... there was smiles all round I quickly looked at the guy's shoes there and tried one pair on but it was too big (I know my women's size but not my men's!!) and they didn't have the size down so I went to the counter where my sister was talking to the shop assistant (who assumed the heels were for her) and she bought the shoes (though I paid for them still). Best shopping trip EVER! I didn't even know this brand stocked size 12 but apparently they have a few styles that do. It was such a surprise that only come about because I was dropped from cricket. I am now the proud owner of a pair of Corelli 3.5 inch (9cm) nude court heels They were reduced to $30 (on clearance, I don't know the original price but that's pretty good) and there was a further 30% off so they cost $21 There's no 'high heel' thrill as I don't consider 9cm's to be high and I have some 13cm heels (no platform) but I absolutely adore them nonetheless! Unfortunately I can't find any pics of them on the net. I might take some pics and post them on the forum.

I have read this thread with interest and as I have never known any girl to have done this or want to do this, I don't have anything to offer... Except one thought did occur to me - I wonder if it would help if you took ballet OR advice from ballet dancers/instructors (?). Professional dancers can go en pointe to flat again within a second! I imagine they would have strength and flexibility in their ankles which seems to be a great requirement for being permanently heeled. If this is a bad idea than please disregard. Best of luck with your goal!