The High Heeled Ruminations Of Melrose Plant

[Shyheels]

Absolutely ! There are far worse things one could do than spending time and money learning to shoot film! It is great experience - all good grist for the mill.

[mlroseplant]

I am happy to report that on my monthly to bi-monthly trip to Costco, I saw not one, not two, but THREE other people (besides me) wearing legitimate heels. All were women, naturally. One older Asian lady had on block heeled boots of about 2 1/2" or so. A 30 something Caucasian lady had on a Cotton, floaty sort of dress with plain black stiletto pumps, which definitely approached the 4 inch range. And finally, another Asian lady, definitely on the young side, was wearing tight jeans with fabric stretch ankle boots. These boots had tiny stiletto heels that were metal, nothing insanely high, but probably approaching 4 inches, maybe only 3 1/2. This is a rare occurrence these days. Three in one trip, plus me!

[mlroseplant]

The following photo was faked. This is not really me, and I am not really wearing my own shoes. Do not believe your own eyes, and do not misconstrue the words I write here.

[Jkrenzer]

43 minutes ago, mlroseplant said:

The following photo was faked. This is not really me, and I am not really wearing my own shoes. Do not believe your own eyes, and do not misconstrue the words I write here.

Great Photoshoping. All joking aside, you look good in classic pumps, even rounded toed. 

[SF]

What brand are the pants?  Look like the Gloria Vanderbilt's that I wear.  sf

[mlroseplant]

19 hours ago, SF said:

What brand are the pants?  Look like the Gloria Vanderbilt's that I wear.  sf

Gloria Vanderbilt? I thought she was dead. Then again, Coco Chanel has been dead for over 50 years, and that whole empire is still going strong. Seriously, 75% of these dressy-ish pants you see me wear are Buffalo brand from Costco. The remaining 25% would most likely be something from Walmart. I discovered that this particular style of pant fit me well (with a little help from my tailor), and was like, 20 bucks, so I kept buying them every time I'd see a new color out there in the pile.

23 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

Great Photoshoping. All joking aside, you look good in classic pumps, even rounded toed. 

Thanks, Joe. I have been getting into pumps lately, though all of mine are a notch or two lower than yours. Those pictured are Steve Madden "Ronni". 4 1/4" heels in the classic shape, and that's what I like about them best, no setback heel. Whether I will continue to like pumps in the months to come is open to question. My feet get way too hot, especially in these plastic shoes. They may have to wait until fall.

I have bought a couple of open toed pumps recently, which seem to be coming back into style. Open toed pumps were a huge thing in the mid 1980s when I was in high school. As I bring them officially online, I suppose I will provide pictures.

[SF]

She is.  But I like her pants....   sf

[mlroseplant]

21 hours ago, SF said:

She is.  But I like her pants....   sf

Let's not go there, but pretend that we did. I AM a construction worker, after all. 🤣

[mlroseplant]

Since I don't post on mainstream social media, here is my church OOTD. One of my few designer shoes, Miu Miu. I think I bought them just because I like the name.

[SF]

Nice sandals, classy looking....   sf

[bambam]

If those actually support you and stay on your feet, I'll buy a pair, they're gorgeous.

[mlroseplant]

15 hours ago, bambam said:

If those actually support you and stay on your feet, I'll buy a pair, they're gorgeous.

I haven't worn them a ton, but they seem to be all right. As far as support, they are what they are, basically they are solid blocks of wood with some straps on them. I have always had good luck with the wooden shoes, I don't think I've ever owned a pair in this general style that I've absolutely hated.

There must be something about the property of wood that absorbs vibration, because in most cases, one's foot rests directly on a wooden footbed, which then strikes a concrete sidewalk with no padding whatsoever, and it's fine. Noisy, to be sure, but comfort-wise, there is no problem. I do admit that I have a LOT of experience wearing this type of shoe, so I am perhaps accustomed to the quirks, but you did ask if they stay on the foot, and the answer is yes, quite easily because of the back strap.

I have wondered what they would be like without the back strap, but I haven't really experimented with it, and I probably won't do any modification in any case. These are too expensive to screw with too much. I have had both good experience and bad experience in the past when I've tried to convert sandals which were not designed as mules into mules. Sometimes, it's brilliant. Sometimes, it is not!

[Jkrenzer]

I expect you made some noise in church, or are the floors carpeted?

[mlroseplant]

11 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

I expect you made some noise in church, or are the floors carpeted?

Carpeted, but it's funny you should mention that, because I make reference to that in the standup comedy routine I wrote a couple of years ago. Hopefully someday, I actually get to deliver it. Our public health issue kind of completely messed up those plans.

[Jkrenzer]

1 hour ago, mlroseplant said:

Carpeted, but it's funny you should mention that, because I make reference to that in the standup comedy routine I wrote a couple of years ago. Hopefully someday, I actually get to deliver it. Our public health issue kind of completely messed up those plans.

Clippity clop. Been there, do that. 

[mlroseplant]

The farmer's market season has begun. I have refrained from putting an exclamation point behind that first sentence because the novelty has long worn off, and I am less than excited by the prospect of having to spend all of my Thursday nights hawking egg rolls. However, this does have an upside, and that is I get to wear high heels all evening, as my wife has long stopped objecting. Not only does my choice of footwear not hurt business, there is the slim possibility that it might actually have the opposite effect.

It was not warm. I was better prepared than most, and I was still never really warm the entire four hours. I chose to wear clogs rather than sandals, which turned out to be a good idea. When I was deciding at home, I was waffling between my Dansko wedges (which are super comfortable but boring) and my BCBG wooden heeled clogs, which are also comfortable, but are considerably higher, having right at 4" of height difference between heel and toe. I finally decided to go big or go home, and went with the BCBG clogs, pictured below.

I got two compliments, one of which was probably good for my wife to hear, because the lady came right up to our tent at a time when we didn't have any customers and went on at some length about how much she liked my heels, and how I was better than most women at walking in them, and how she couldn't wear heels anymore. What was my wife to do except smile and nod?

Mostly standing in 4" heels for five hours is one of those conditioning things, and I am out of condition.  I found that a quick trip walking around the block was good for another 30 to 45 minutes of standing comfort. By the end of the night, however, I was ready to get out of those clogs. I wouldn't call it pain, but my feet were very tired.

[mlroseplant]

Not much going on here, so I thought I would post a picture of a casual outfit I wore to attend a junior high band concert. Shoes by MiuMiu, Pants by Buffalo (Costco), and polo shirt by God Only Knows. Excuse the background. I really have to find a better place to take pictures.

[bambam]

Those look great, I can't wait to start wearing shoes like that.

[mlroseplant]

SF reminded me that it was National High Heel Day yesterday. Since I missed Tuba Day the other week, it only make sense that I would miss High Heel Day this week. The only significance to me is that I had decided to pick the 20th as my heeling anniversary date. It's impossible to pin down the exact date, as I didn't mark it at the time, but sometime in mid-May of 2012, I ventured outside the house in a pair of high heels for the first time. I don't have a picture of that event, but I have a picture of the shoes I wore under long jeans. By Thanksgiving of that year, I had another pair of clogs with higher and thinner heels. By New Year's, I had a few more pairs. It's been all downhill ever since.

Then and now:

[Puffer]

10 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

... It's been all downhill ever since....

I suppose that is true if you consider the angle of your feet!

[mlroseplant]

10 hours ago, Puffer said:

I suppose that is true if you consider the angle of your feet!

I appreciate your humo(u)r, but perhaps my wife does not! Perhaps I've said this before, I'm really not sure which is true--either she has accepted me, or I've just worn her down.

[pebblesf]

On 5/21/2022 at 7:13 AM, mlroseplant said:

SF reminded me that it was National High Heel Day yesterday. Since I missed Tuba Day the other week, it only make sense that I would miss High Heel Day this week. The only significance to me is that I had decided to pick the 20th as my heeling anniversary date. It's impossible to pin down the exact date, as I didn't mark it at the time, but sometime in mid-May of 2012, I ventured outside the house in a pair of high heels for the first time. I don't have a picture of that event, but I have a picture of the shoes I wore under long jeans. By Thanksgiving of that year, I had another pair of clogs with higher and thinner heels. By New Year's, I had a few more pairs. It's been all downhill ever since.

Then and now:

Great heels/outfit, good choice for driving that nice old F150!

5 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

I appreciate your humo(u)r, but perhaps my wife does not! Perhaps I've said this before, I'm really not sure which is true--either she has accepted me, or I've just worn her down.

Hmmm, sounds very familiar to me for sure....

[mlroseplant]

19 hours ago, pebblesf said:

Great heels/outfit, good choice for driving that nice old F150!

Perhaps I have mentioned this before, it might be time to part ways with that old truck, even though I don't really want to. The transmission for that truck is currently sitting on a makeshift table in my garage, waiting for me to do something with it, or not. The problem is, even if I successfully repair the transmission, I'm still stuck with a rusty old truck. My wife kind of needs a cargo van for her business. You see where I'm going with this?

[pebblesf]

On 5/23/2022 at 11:02 AM, mlroseplant said:

Perhaps I have mentioned this before, it might be time to part ways with that old truck, even though I don't really want to. The transmission for that truck is currently sitting on a makeshift table in my garage, waiting for me to do something with it, or not. The problem is, even if I successfully repair the transmission, I'm still stuck with a rusty old truck. My wife kind of needs a cargo van for her business. You see where I'm going with this?

Message recieved for sure!  The picture just shows a little bit of the truck and it looks rust free and in great shape.  Sorry it is rusty and needs transmission work, really loved that vintage of Fords.  

[Jkrenzer]

I don't miss those days of salt rusted vehicles since moving to Winston-Salem from Syracuse. My wife's 2013 Ford escape is my newest. 

Have a '97 suburban, 2002 buick century and 2002 Tacoma. Not a spec of corrosion on any. No rustin my face or flame cutting bolts maintenance them 🙂

 

[p1ng74]

10 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

Perhaps I have mentioned this before, it might be time to part ways with that old truck, even though I don't really want to. The transmission for that truck is currently sitting on a makeshift table in my garage, waiting for me to do something with it, or not. The problem is, even if I successfully repair the transmission, I'm still stuck with a rusty old truck. My wife kind of needs a cargo van for her business. You see where I'm going with this?

The scrapyard is now paying $10 for every 100 pounds of metal, so I finally took my wrecked car there to get crushed and walked away with a wad of cash... 

[mlroseplant]

Perhaps because I have passed my 10th year of public heeling, I have been thinking about how my tastes have changed in that time, how the styles have changed, and how my methods have changed.

I have never been one to go to a shoe shop. Back then, I was a little shy about it, but at least they had some stuff I might have actually wanted to buy. Today, I don't even bother looking, because also the self consciousness is not an issue, there is never anything I want to buy anymore, and it only seems to get worse with each passing year. Have you seen some the awful stuff Nine West is offering these days? So, I am an online kind of guy, I seem to have about a 75% success rate, that's been fairly consistent for the whole 10 years. Of course, once I figured out that I'm a size 9 and not 9 1/2, that helped.

One thing that I always did back in the old days, one rule that I had, was that if I couldn't walk two miles in a pair of shoes comfortably, they were gone. And I tested all of them out that way. They would have to go through the two mile road test before I'd wear them in public. I don't do that anymore. For one thing, I own enough stilettos now that a two mile road test would take 20-30% of the heel off, depending. For another thing, I pretty much instinctive know now whether a pair is going to work out. Nowadays, I have about half a dozen pair of "walking" shoes that I do my actual walking in, and the rest are for incidental use--going to church, going to the grocery store, going to the mall, that sort of thing.

In what ways have some of you evolved over the years, style-wise?

[Jkrenzer]

I agree about usually knowing in advance. For the toe box is key. Almond toes seem to be the best for me. Until wearing pumps I never realized the foot fits slightly side ways in pumps. Obvious once you see that the foot bed is wider in the inside relative to the heel. The tip of almond toed pumps actually lines up just inside the big toe. In my case my big toe is the furthest forward so it lines up well with the longest part of my pumps. Round toed pumps actually pinch my big toe more and square toed pumps are even worse as over time with wear my feet slide deeper into the vamp. That's wear I end up with more uniform support across all of my toes. 

[Cali]

I switched to wearing only women shoes in 2011. Haven't purchase "men's" shoes since. After my last ankle reconstruction, I determine the major reasons for my ankle issues was my foot really didn't fit men's shoes. My foot shape fits so much better in shoes designed for a women's foot. No ankle issues since then. But I am very lucky that I'm mostly a U.S. women's size 10.  I enjoy in-person shoe shopping, since I can try on shoes and decide right there and then if they fit, but I purchase maybe 40% on line. I have about a 60% luck with on-line purchases. And I only buy new shoes.

When I first started purchasing heels higher than 3 inches I would hide them under long pants. I never thought I would be wearing knee high stiletto boots over my skinny jeans. Since then I have embraced the fact that I NEED to wear shoes with at least a 3.75 inch rise, so I no longer hide them, but proudly display them.

I have never found a pump that fits my foot, so I don't even look at them any more. 

[mlroseplant]

22 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

I agree about usually knowing in advance. For the toe box is key. Almond toes seem to be the best for me. Until wearing pumps I never realized the foot fits slightly side ways in pumps. Obvious once you see that the foot bed is wider in the inside relative to the heel. The tip of almond toed pumps actually lines up just inside the big toe. In my case my big toe is the furthest forward so it lines up well with the longest part of my pumps. Round toed pumps actually pinch my big toe more and square toed pumps are even worse as over time with wear my feet slide deeper into the vamp. That's wear I end up with more uniform support across all of my toes. 

I am with you about almond toes being my favorite. I don't find a significant difference between the way pointy/almond/round fits, but maybe that's because although my big toe is the longest, it is by a mere millimeter. As far as square toes go, I've never owned a pair in my life of any style. Not even in the '90s did I succumb to the idea that square toes were ok. I think I can probably survive the rest of my life without square toes.

20 hours ago, Cali said:

I switched to wearing only women shoes in 2011. Haven't purchase "men's" shoes since. After my last ankle reconstruction, I determine the major reasons for my ankle issues was my foot really didn't fit men's shoes. My foot shape fits so much better in shoes designed for a women's foot. No ankle issues since then. But I am very lucky that I'm mostly a U.S. women's size 10.  I enjoy in-person shoe shopping, since I can try on shoes and decide right there and then if they fit, but I purchase maybe 40% on line. I have about a 60% luck with on-line purchases. And I only buy new shoes.

When I first started purchasing heels higher than 3 inches I would hide them under long pants. I never thought I would be wearing knee high stiletto boots over my skinny jeans. Since then I have embraced the fact that I NEED to wear shoes with at least a 3.75 inch rise, so I no longer hide them, but proudly display them.

I have never found a pump that fits my foot, so I don't even look at them any more. 

I, also, have not bought men's shoes for a long while, but it has nothing to do with ankle reconstruction. Since neither of my ankles has ever been de-constructed, there is probably little reason for re-construction. My reason has to do with the width, since my feet are both short in length and narrow in width compared to what is commonly available for men's shoes in your typical retail establishment. Other than width (and sheer choice of colors and styles), I have not found a great deal of difference between the way a woman's shoe fits and a man's, if one is comparing similar styles. A men's size 7 Nike athletic  shoe is going to fit similarly to a women's size 9 Nike athletic shoe, except for the width.

Once you get into dress shoes, yes, I will agree there's a huge difference. The man's shoe is constructed much more sturdily, with thicker materials all around. A man's dress shoe will last many, many years if taken care of. Not so with women's dress shoes. I suppose that's ok with us because we like to switch it up a little more often than every 15 years. A woman's dress shoe is just a little wisp of a thing, init? Not very supportive, which is why we have to have stronger feet than your average person.

Pumps did take me a long while to get right, but I think I've found a few pair that are a decent balance between staying on and not pinching my toes. I still don't understand how many women manage to slip into their pumps no-handed, yet not walk right out of them afterwards. That's one of the mysteries of life, I guess.