Fredericks Catalogue - 5In Heels 1960's

[mlroseplant]

Also, there are few enough people who can walk well in 12 cm, much less 15. I have never seen anybody in real life walk well in 12 cm. There are a few on the internet who do a amazing job.

[Shyheels]

Yes a friend of mine who is quite expert in heels says she’s never seen anybody who can walk gracefully in 12cm heels. In her words there’s always some little hitch, some kind of concession 

And with the point of heels being being grace and style and an easy imperiousness you can’t have it looking like the heel is wearing you instead of the other way around.

[higherheels]

I also found that above 13 cm there are almost no visually appealing heels for me, now I know why! It really seems that there's a gap where almost nothing exists. I really like the mules shown by mlroseplant, but 14 cm is very rare. And 15 cm and up just doesn't look good to me.

It makes sense that 12 cm are like a cutoff point. I'd say of myself that I can walk fine in 12 cm heels, but 13 cm are much more difficult. I bought the Christian Louboutin Hot Chick 130 early when they came out and didn't expect them to be that difficult. I still only wear them rarely.

They even discontinued the Hot Chick 130 and changed it to a 100, I can understand why. But the 130 version is a very special shoe for me and I'd never change them for the 100s.

[Shyheels]

I’m impressed that you can walk well in 12cm. A friend of mine can also walk well in 12cm - in fact they are her favourite height. She too bought a pair of Louboutin Hot Chick 13cm and while she loved them, aesthetically, she said she rarely wears them. She said she can walk in them but not to the standard she sets herself.

As for me my calf muscles go into intense cramps when I try on my 12cm knee boots 

[Cali]

@Shyheels try magnesium for leg cramps,

[Shyheels]

1 hour ago, Cali said:

@Shyheels try magnesium for leg cramps,

I tried 10cm heels. Worked a treat! 😀

[mlroseplant]

I will admit to having a couple of pairs of  extreme-type shoes, which I bought because I wanted to see if I could actually walk in them. The answer is no, and the problem is two-fold: 1) They are made so cheaply that they're not even nice to put on, much less walk in, and 2) I do not enjoy the experience like I thought I would. Even though no one has ever seen me in these shoes, I walk so badly and awkwardly that I feel silly. If I make myself practice, I do get a little bit better after a short time of warmup, but on the whole I do not like wearing them. And yet still I aspire to wear them. I cannot explain this paradox.

I will say one thing for practicing in 13+ cm heels. After wearing them for 15 minutes, your 11-12 cm heels feel like butter! I wish I had some evidence to actually prove it, but I feel like I walk so much better in normal height high heels after spending a quarter of an hour in extreme heels.

[Shyheels]

I can understand why walking or trying to walk in something extreme would then make 12cm seem relatively easy, but I’ll never try them. I really dislike the extreme heel heights. To me they just look ugly, obsessive, raunchy - not at all the sort of thing that attracts me to high heels.

To me it’s all about the aesthetics with the heel forming apart of the overall look. I love the lines of 12cm heels with 10cm seeming to be a nice compromise between the imperious elegance of 12cm and real world walkability

if it were possible I’d be interested in trying the 13cm Louboutins, just to see what it was like, but the extreme 14cm and up heels have no appeal to me at all. Same with platforms 

[CAT]

I am good with 12 and 13 single soles with is +/- the 5" height.  I have some 6" singles that are still ok.   Really depends on the fit  but the 5's are my sweet spot.  I know some don't like platforms but I do have some that are 1/2" to an 1' and some concealed but I think that some platforms don't look good to depending on the shoe or boot  

[Shyheels]

For me platforms spoil the lines of a stiletto - not so much with block heels, but stilettos have a slender elegance that seem so much at odds, aesthetically, with a platform. It seems like fitting a bull-bar to a Ferrari.

[mlroseplant]

At the opposite end of the spectrum, 8 cm stilettos, which used to be the gold standard when I was a kid, now look weirdly stumpy to me. I think if I could go back in time I would probably be rather disappointed by the shoes I remember so fondly. This probably has nothing to do with the shoes themselves, but rather my constant exposure to 11-12 cm shoes that makes 8 cm shoes look funny to me. I suppose this effect happens in other ways also. As an electrician, if I run large conduit for a few days or a few weeks, e.g., 3 inch, "normal" size conduit like 3/4 or 1 inch looks absolutely tiny and ridiculous.

[Shyheels]

I agree with you - 8cm is a nice height for chunky heels but too low for the aesthetic of a stiletto. 

[higherheels]

On 7/29/2025 at 11:31 AM, mlroseplant said:

I will say one thing for practicing in 13+ cm heels. After wearing them for 15 minutes, your 11-12 cm heels feel like butter! I wish I had some evidence to actually prove it, but I feel like I walk so much better in normal height high heels after spending a quarter of an hour in extreme heels.

I have the same experience. Not only short-term, but also long-term. When I started wearing my Hot Chick 130 (and felt like not proceeding so much), any 12 cm heel felt much easier. It makes sense because it's basically a training thing, and when you got to the next level the previous one becomes easier.

 

On 7/29/2025 at 11:31 AM, mlroseplant said:

And yet still I aspire to wear them. I cannot explain this paradox.

It's also somewhat like a selfmade challenge to me. I bought them, like them, so I also want to wear them 😄

 

I also agree with you on the height of stilettos. While I have many heels with around 8 cm, they're almost exclusively block or wedge heels. Stilettos require a certain height not to look like "tried but failed".

[Shyheels]

18 minutes ago, higherheels said:

 

I also agree with you on the height of stilettos. While I have many heels with around 8 cm, they're almost exclusively block or wedge heels. Stilettos require a certain height not to look like "tried but failed".

Yes! Tried but failed! Exactly the feelings these stubby stilettos conjure up. 

[higherheels]

Glad I'm not the only one who feels that way. Now that kitten heels seem to be popular, which is the absolute worst case when it comes to stilettos.

[Shyheels]

Totally agree! An abomination! 

[mlroseplant]

Over the years I have done an about-face on my opinion of many things, but my hatred of kitten heels is not one of them!

[Shyheels]

They are an offence. One of our former prime ministers used to wear them - no, not Boris Johnson, but Theresa May. It was not a great look.

[mlroseplant]

I did a little image search, and found these pumps from the 1980s. So many women/girls used to wear these, and now they seem very unimpressive. Not quite kitten heels, but too close to it. To be sure, they are far better than Adidas rubber slides worn with socks.

[Shyheels]

What are those called? Cat heels? Very dowdy, nothing like the dangerous glamour of true stilettos 

[higherheels]

They really scream 80s. Not my style, I'd even rather choose some flats than such pumps.

[Shyheels]

If they were red they could be emoji heels 👠

[mlroseplant]

My very first pair of heels was pretty similar to those. It was 1984, after all. Even back then, I never thought of them as high. I have no nostalgia for them at all.

[Shyheels]

They are quite soulless - pardon the pun. My first heels were altogether more memorable - a very elegant pair of chocolate brown stiletto knee boots with 12cm heels. I’d always fancied a pair of boots like that. Trying them on was exhilarating - until my calves seized up in knots! Welcome to the world of high heels!

[mlroseplant]

One of these days I'm going to drag out the story (again) for those who haven't heard about the time I wore way too high of a heel too early in my high heel journey. I'm not surprised you faded pretty early if 12 cm was your first pair.

People point to the 1980s as being a good time for heels, but looking back through my old photos and watching old music videos, it was and it wasn't. Yeah, elevated heels were much more common back then, but I don't think I actually saw in person anybody wearing what I would call actual high heels. Taller mid heels, for sure, but 4 inch + was just not a thing in real life around here. Not even in college. The heels I thought were so tall at the time just weren't all that high compared to what I wear every day. I actually went shoe shopping with this girl one time, and she bought some black patent leather pumps which were about the highest heels I'd ever seen somebody actually wear. I never got the chance to actually measure them, but I'd estimate them to be right at 4"/10 cm. She wore them somewhat regularly, but then the next year she chose to study in Europe and I never saw her again after that. That is not 100% true, but close enough for this story.

Here is something similar in style and height to what the girl bought when I was with her. As I said, hers were black patent rather than suede.

[Shyheels]

I think it depends too on where in the 1980s you’re talking about. The early eighties was still in the shadows of the seventies, but by the end of the decade fashions had changed considerably.

When I was in college I don’t remember anyone wearing heels - clogs were a big thing, but not heels

[Cali]

It also depends on your university. I went to a university on a hill, about 750 feet in elevation between different locations on campus. Steep gorges, steep hills, redwood trees droppings, uneven pavement, deer, quail, and mountain lions.

[Shyheels]

Sounds like a great place for a nighttime stroll in 12cm stilettos! My university was very much east coast preppy/boho/hippy vibe depending on your social set - and none of these demographics were particularly likely to be seen in heels, especially not in the mid-Seventies.

And yes, my university was also located on a hill. No mountain lions though …

Edited 2 hours ago by Shyheels