Fall 2020 Selection on Sept. 19

[blueparrot]

I just came from Northpark Mall in Dallas.  The current selection of fall styles in all the stores there is for the most part dismal at best.  They have not received the bulk of their merchandise.  One manager told me that corporate office has it stashed in their warehouses and won't release it until the "covid issue" is resolved.  Macy's has a small few styles out, most of their shoe department looks like it did in July, but with a lot of empty displays.  Nordstrom has a few but not much either.  Aldo had a few as did Steve Madden.  Madden didn't let me in because they only allow five in the store at a time, I could look in the glass and see most of the shelves.  Across the 75 freeway the outlet stores are even worse.  Nordstrom Rack has many empty shelves.  Appears like they are going out of business.  Saks off Fifth has a few new boots but mostly sandals.  Bloomingdales has nothing new since June.  DSW had the massive selection of two knee high boots and a few booties.  Those were already there in July.  The one bright exception was Dillards.  They have a shoe department full of new fall shoes and boots in just about every style one could want.  They have some beautiful styles and they have them in stock in back to try on and buy.  I was told the Northpark store is #1 in the chain for shoe sales and has the full selection. 

Now I do know that some of these retailers do offer more styles on their websites, but they are located in their warehouses so they are willing to ship from there.  They just don't want them going out to the stores.  This does present a problem with people wanting to look at the real thing and try them on of course.  How are the stores in your area of the world right now?  Texas is open with mandatory masks but we can go out and shop to our heart's content (if we can find merchandise).  

[pebblesf]

Many stores in my area are in the same condition, empty shelves, leftover stock....

[Cali]

I just checked Jessica Simpson site and I saw the first new knee high boot in months.  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for some), you don't see the bottom half in ZOOM meeting. I know many are in slippers while I have stilettos on. So I don't expect a large collection this year.

Edited September 19, 2020 by Cali

[blueparrot]

59 minutes ago, Cali said:

I just checked Jessica Simpson site and I saw the first new knee high boot in months.  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for some), you don't see the bottom half in ZOOM meeting. I know many are in slippers while I have stilettos on. So I don't expect a large collection this year.

Dillards had several Jessica Simpson ankle boots with very high platform heels.  They also had several platform clogs with about 5" heels.  There were some over knee boots in leopard print.   More animal prints this season all through the shoe department.  

[Cali]

I've gotten into the animal print scene with leopard print sherpa, hoodie, face mask, and skinny jeans as well as foil snakeskin print pants.

But I'm staying away from animal print heels. Maybe a purple crocodile or a multi-color snake boot.

Edited September 20, 2020 by Cali

[Chorlini]

I think its pretty normal in the Netherlands. The stores are well stocked and only bars and restaurants still have to keep track of the number of customers they have inside. Some shops are more strict but most no longer seem to care much. More like what is the minimum amount of covid regulations we have to adhere to? I reckon it helps if the fight against covid is not being politicized as much by a heated election.

[Heelster]

Most places availabe to shop at have little to nothing of interest. Local DSW is heavy on sneakers. Heel selection looked pretty thin and nothing of interest. I may get a road trip here soon so I may get to see what's at some of the bigger shopping venues, but given this Pandemic, and the lack of actual businesses open, I highly doubt I will see much.

[JeffB]

I think retail as a whole (at least in the States anyway) has been thrown into chaos because of the virus as it looked like stores were in the process of swapping out fall/winter stuff in favor of spring/summer stuff when the lockdown went into effect. Once the lockdown was lifted and stores reopened, there were lots of empty shelves everywhere as stores struggled to catch up, and only over the last few weeks, things appear to have returned to a semblance of pre-lockdown normalcy.

[Chorlini]

On 9/21/2020 at 10:48 PM, Heelster said:

Most places availabe to shop at have little to nothing of interest. Local DSW is heavy on sneakers. Heel selection looked pretty thin and nothing of interest. I may get a road trip here soon so I may get to see what's at some of the bigger shopping venues, but given this Pandemic, and the lack of actual businesses open, I highly doubt I will see much.

Methinks heel selection is thin regardless of covid. Everybody wants to be comfortable in sneakers. And the less heels get worn, the more uncomfortable the become, resulting in even less wear.

 

I do wonder how this will impact men in heels though. I reckon rhat most of get into it because seeing women wear them around us. For most of us, me included, its an fetish item. If heels disappear from daily wear will that mean that men's fetishes will shift to other things, like leggings?

[Pumped]

My local DSW has a fair selection of heels, best in the area. Locally, my only other choices are Macy's Pennys, Kohls and a couple other chain stores. None of them is close to DSW.

I wonder if DSW stocks stores for what sells for that area. I have been n other DSW stores and their inventory will differ from my local store quite a bit.

[RonC]

In my area, DSW has jumped all over the sneaker trend, now calling themselves the "sneaker headquarters."  I bet that they have taken out a minimum of 50% of the selection of dress shoes/heels, and in some stores it's been more like 2/3 of the space formerly devoted to heels.  It saddens me to see this, but I'm afraid it is a sign of the times.  I've also now seen articles about our vice presidential candidate, Ms. Harris, heaping praise on her for her choice of Timberland work boots and sneakers on the campaign trail.  Quite sad to see in my opinion, and certainly not appealing.

[mlroseplant]

14 hours ago, RonC said:

In my area, DSW has jumped all over the sneaker trend, now calling themselves the "sneaker headquarters."  I bet that they have taken out a minimum of 50% of the selection of dress shoes/heels, and in some stores it's been more like 2/3 of the space formerly devoted to heels.  It saddens me to see this, but I'm afraid it is a sign of the times.  I've also now seen articles about our vice presidential candidate, Ms. Harris, heaping praise on her for her choice of Timberland work boots and sneakers on the campaign trail.  Quite sad to see in my opinion, and certainly not appealing.

It is true that my wife wears the pants in our family, but I wear the heels, dammit!

[p1ng74]

On 9/26/2020 at 6:29 AM, mlroseplant said:

It is true that my wife wears the pants in our family, but I wear the heels, dammit!

Sounds like a fair trade to me!

On 9/25/2020 at 3:54 PM, RonC said:

In my area, DSW has jumped all over the sneaker trend, now calling themselves the "sneaker headquarters."  I bet that they have taken out a minimum of 50% of the selection of dress shoes/heels, and in some stores it's been more like 2/3 of the space formerly devoted to heels.  It saddens me to see this, but I'm afraid it is a sign of the times.  I've also now seen articles about our vice presidential candidate, Ms. Harris, heaping praise on her for her choice of Timberland work boots and sneakers on the campaign trail.  Quite sad to see in my opinion, and certainly not appealing.

It's definitely a sad state when the 1" platforms on Converse sneakers are being touted as a "power move":

https://sports.yahoo.com/kamala-harris-converse-fan-closer-205808728.html

But in the fashion world, they're still sending heels onto the runway, even if it means the models have to walk in the grass!

 

 

[RonC]

Well, the clothes were goofy as usual, but the footwear was encouraging!  Something caught my eye online the other day and I ended up on the website of one of the high end stores the other day - think it was Bergdorf-Goodman - and I was quite surprised at the selection of heels.  The vast majority were stilettos in a variety of heights, which is opposite to what I'm seeing in places like DSW and Macy's, where it seems chunky is leading the way.  I will say that the heel heights I was seeing tended to be lower than what has been prevalent in past years, which personally I am quite fine with.  But the shoes were for the most part attractive to my eye, not unlike several pairs in the video.

 

[Jkrenzer]

The elite are more apt to be in high heels. Weaker ecomony equals lower heels for the masses for some reason. The rich are rich in bad times too.

[blueparrot]

Interesting thing happened Saturday.  Usually I donate items to thrift stores but this time I went with a group distributing clothing to a poor apartment complex in South Dallas.  The ladies there went crazy over the heeled boots but some very nice riding boots with low heels didn't get any interest and couldn't be given away.   

[blueparrot]

I revisited Dallas Northpark Mall Sunday afternoon Nov 1.  Things have improved some but Macy's still has little selection compared to what's on their website.  Nordstrom has some boots but not up to previous years.  Aldo store has a scant few boots, looks like what you'd see in about April.  Went into Sam Edelman store, the lady there admired the ones I had on, said she wished they had that type of style but didn't get anything like them "Indigo".  Customers have been asking for them.  They had a few knee and ankle boots but nothing like last year.  Only Dillards has a great selection and they had even more styles in stock than last time.  Across the freeway Nordstrom Rack still has aisles of empty shoe shelves, Bloomingdales has what's left from June (one pair of ankle boots for $200), and Saks off Fifth has nearly nothing new.  What they did have is not priced to sell.  

[RonC]

After watching DSW go from two full aisles of dress shoes/heels down to half of one aisle, I didn't think things could get much worse.  Friday I stopped at Marshalls and TJ Maxx, both of which, while not often having much in my size 11/12, always had a decent selection of heels.  I was appalled to find that both stores had basically eliminated women's dress shoes completely with nothing but low and flat heeled boots on the shelves along with some casual sneaker type crap.  The only heels in either store were a couple of pairs left over in the clearance racks.  Wow.  That was a very disheartening trip to the store for sure.  Looks like those of us that like heels are in for a very real dry spell at best.

[Cali]

I have been looking at website like  Steve Madden. Jessica Simpson, and Aldo. Seen some decent size (4+ inch) heels, but I really would like to try them on first before putting down $100+. Waiting for knee high boots with full zippers from JS. Hopefully I wont be disappointed.

 

I just looked at Macy's online and they had 10 size 12 shoes with 4 inch heels.

Edited November 15, 2020 by Cali

[Pumped]

We have a TJ max here but it is a disaster. I wandered through once, looked at the non existent shoe section and never returned. I have seen better organized second hand stores.

[RonC]

Cali, I know that there are heels available on line, but I like to try before I buy.  The decline of the availability of dress shoes period in many stores is simply troubling.  I used to be able to find a decent selection of size 11 heels at DSW.  Within the last year, the size 11's basically disappeared, and now the selection of dress shoes has been reduced by at least 60-70%.  And while there are plenty of boots still available, the number with a heel of much over 2" keeps shrinking as well.  And no 11's in boots either.  

In my area, Macy's stores have, for the most part, gone to a self-service style in the women's shoe department.  They still do have a decent selection of dress shoes/heels and I give them credit for still having at least some 11's and even the rare size 12 in stock.  Shoe Carnival is also offering a decent selection of heels (though not much in the 4" plus range) and they most often carry size 11 in the majority of their shoes.