Aiming High - Practicing in Heels

[Shyheels]

25 minutes ago, higherheels said:

You mean 10 cm, right? 😉

Nah, I’ve just gotten incredibly gifted at high heels! 😂

28 minutes ago, higherheels said:

And the good thing about heels is that I can still vary between so many styles, so it never gets boring.

That’s what I like about heels! They are always fun, never boring and there are so many interesting styles and heights - even if you just wear boots like I do!

[higherheels]

3 hours ago, Shyheels said:

Nah, I’ve just gotten incredibly gifted at high heels! 😂

Haha, now that came quickly! No longer practicing in these low 12 cm boots, 20 cm is the new thing 😄

[Shyheels]

The only way I’d ever manage 20cm is if I added together the heels on my 10cm boots …

[Cali]

I wear my heels 12 hours on most days and sometimes 16 hours. Only time I'm in flats is when I'm barefooted or working in my garden or kayaking or skiing.

Today its my Nine West Samreno suede block heeled knee highs, 10 cm.

 

Edited Monday at 08:37 PM by Cali

[Shyheels]

One thing I have been so pleased about as a result of this high heel challenge is the  ease with which I now get about in my 10cm stilettos. While I am slowly getting better in my 12cm ones, the improvement at the 10cm height is really gratifying and noticeable - so much so that I find myself tempted simply to wear my 10cm boots for the sheer joy of it, at the expense of practicing with my 12cm ones.

The past two days I’ve been wearing them 12 hours a day - admittedly not walking much, just puttering about, making meals and coffee and writing at my desk, but being in 10cm stilettos is starting to feel natural and intuitive. I like it

[Puffer]

On 11/23/2025 at 4:55 PM, Shyheels said:

Yes four inch heels does have a ring to it. Here in Britain we use both measurements regularly. Our speed limit signs are in mph, but we guy our food in grams and kilos. We measure our height in feet and inches and talk about our weight in pounds and stone. Screws and bolts are metric, as are most tools. We buy petrol in litres but talk of miles per gallon. It can be weird.

...

UK anachronisms also include: milk bought in either pints or litres (according to the seller); beer on draught in pints but when in cans or bottles it is metric (330, 440 or 500 ml etc).   Timber sold in length increments of 300mm (the 'metric foot') and plasterboard which was 8' x 4' now 'shrunk' to 2400 x 1200mm, but most other sheet material (e.g. MDF, plywood) still 2440 x 1220mm (equivalent to 8' x 4')!   And model railways, for example, are commonly built to a scale of 4mm:1 foot (UK) or 3.5mm:1 foot (US and Europe), both using a track gauge of 16.5mm (which is therefore too narrow to represent standard gauge of 4' 8.5" in the UK but almost spot-on for US/Europe models).  You need your wits about you when doing construction work or model-making, but we are used to the mixture.    I still 'think better' in imperial when doing joinery or plumbing etc but will often use millimetres when dealing with small measurements, as working in, say, 64ths of an inch is rather tiresome.

[higherheels]

15 hours ago, Cali said:

Only time I'm in flats is when I'm barefooted or working in my garden or kayaking or skiing.

Pretty much the same for me except I don't do kayaking.

 

@Shyheels Yes that's the great thing about it. I never had a problem with 12 cm heels, but now they become even more comfortable.

 

Now I'm even more confused about units in the UK, it probably can't get more complicated 😀

[Shyheels]

 

19 minutes ago, higherheels said:

Yes that's the great thing about it. I never had a problem with 12 cm heels, but now they become even more comfortable.

I’m so looking forward to being able to say the same about 12cm heels! 

[mlroseplant]

On a typical weekday, I spend anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, but averaging 45 minutes, walking in heels of 8 to 11 cm, depending upon the weather and my mood. I then effectively spend the next 12 hours in work boots, by the time you add in lunch and commuting each way. With my feet the way they are, I always bring a second pair of socks, which I change at lunch. If I do not do this, I am miserable all afternoon. If I had to go 16 hours in boots, I'd go through three pairs of socks a day.

Unless I have somewhere to go after work, such as church choir rehearsal or the occasional special event, I have various slip-on sandals that I use as house slippers, but all are 7 cm or less. That is why I wonder what my life would be like if I could wear heels to work every day, such as the red patent Via Spiga shoes I wore Sunday.

[higherheels]

Ah, of course if you have to wear specific work shoes you don't have that much time left for heels.

I have an office job so I can wear whatever I want at work, that's a plus when it comes to heels.

[Shyheels]

I have the luxury of being self employed so when I am not travelling on assignment I am working from my kitchen table and can wear whatever I please. Theoretically I can wear whatever I please on assignments, but most of my assignments are in wild remote areas where hiking boots or engineering boots are the only sensible option. Even then, though, I do have some knee boots with the right soles 

[Cali]

I'm more like @higherheels, I have a professional job so I can wear what I want at home and when I go in, and for me that's high heels.

[Shyheels]

Yes but your job doesn’t take you to Antarctica, Papua New Guinea, Chad or the Darien Gap - mine does and heels are not useful in those places, but otherwise I’m in heels at work, and since I’ve largely stopped travelling, in heels full time!

[Cali]

I pulled my name out of consideration for a 6-month scientific assignment for NASA in Antarctica in the late 70's.

[mlroseplant]

Well anyway, the point is that some of us have jobs that will allow the wearing of heels at work, and some of us do not. It has nothing to do with our professional qualifications or opportunities. It's more to do with circumstances. I doubt I would wear heels to work, even if I were in the "office." Though were I in the office, I would sure long to.

[Shyheels]

41 minutes ago, Cali said:

I pulled my name out of consideration for a 6-month scientific assignment for NASA in Antarctica in the late 70's.

You didn’t miss much if you were going to be staying at McMurdo. Pole is pretty cool though. I got booted out of Palmer once. A few of us were whooping it up with a few of their guys and the base commander broke it up at 3am and ordered us back to our ship. There’s not exactly a great sense of joie de vivre amongst the NSF and military types that run the American bases

[mlroseplant]

I had some spare time yesterday, and wondered if I could come up with a formula that makes it easy to convert my size 40 into size 38 proportions. What I came up with is 94%. In other words, take my actual heel height, measured in person on size 40, multiply it by 94%, get the proportional heel height for size 38. It seems to work reasonably well, but it now requires that I rethink my entire categorization of heel heights. For example, I've always thought of 10 cm as being the minimum to be considered a "high" heel. Looks like I'm now going to have to up that to 10.7 cm, or almost 4 1/4". Interestingly, I have an oddly large number of shoes with that incline. It all make sense, now. It's probably an upscaling of a 4 inch heel from size 7 (38).

I suppose it fits my new standard anyway--a 10 cm heel in size 40, which I now have to discount to 9.4 cm, feels remarkably mid-heelish these days. Here is my mental categorization, translated to size 38: Less than 5 cm is a flat, 7.5 cm is the lowest mid-heel, 10 cm is the lowest high heel. I'll go with 12 cm and above as being Very High, since I can't walk in them properly!

I am trying to decide whether I'm going to convert to full-on metric the next time I do a shoe inventory. I'm kind of inclined (no pun intended) to do that, but since I do this for my personal entertainment anyway, why should I? Inside my weary head, I still think in inches, though I'm a whiz at translating to cm quickly, thanks in large part to my immigrant wife.

[Shyheels]

I would agree with your assessments - 7.5cm for mid heel and 10cm as a minimum for high heels, with 12cm - or in the case of @higherheels Hot Chicks or the new boots she bought, both unusually nice exceptions - being the upper limit of classy (not stripper) heels.

i just use the heel height chart on the Italian Heels website to reckon my actual heel height as opposed to the nominative height

Edited 21 hours ago by Shyheels

[VirginHeels]

This thread makes me want to go and get those 135mm Castamere boots and give walking higher a shot. Especially if it makes walking in 85 and 105mm heels more comfortable, or the feeling of walking in slippers.

[Shyheels]

I must say, practicing in higher heels really does improve one’s ease and ability in lower heights. I’ve been really surprised how much easier I find walking in my 10cm boots now that I’m putting in time in my 12cm ones.

[higherheels]

You guys must have or have had interesting jobs, I can't even really follow from the descriptions 🫢

 

On 11/27/2025 at 2:00 AM, mlroseplant said:

I doubt I would wear heels to work, even if I were in the "office." Though were I in the office, I would sure long to.

How come that you would long to, but still wouldn't wear them?

 

21 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

Here is my mental categorization, translated to size 38: Less than 5 cm is a flat, 7.5 cm is the lowest mid-heel, 10 cm is the lowest high heel. I'll go with 12 cm and above as being Very High, since I can't walk in them properly!

Good categorization, I also go with that!

 

20 hours ago, Shyheels said:

being the upper limit of classy (not stripper) heels.

Is there actually a definition of stripper heels, or do you have a personal one?

For me, the only type that comes to my mind are the ones with huge platforms and rather low heels (if you subtract the platform).

 

10 hours ago, VirginHeels said:

This thread makes me want to go and get those 135mm Castamere boots and give walking higher a shot. Especially if it makes walking in 85 and 105mm heels more comfortable, or the feeling of walking in slippers.

Of course, join us if you want! I can also recommend trying something higher if you like the style. And yes, it really helps with lower heels too. I can feel the difference especially in something like a 11-12 cm heel, they became more comfortable for longer walks.

Now that all the christmas markets and events are starting, I might as well try some higher ones for that and see how it goes. Not my new 13+ cm boots though, that would be too much. But I wear them everyday at home and it's getting better. I'm close to wearing them out for the first time.

 

[Shyheels]

4 minutes ago, higherheels said:

Is there actually a definition of stripper heels, or do you have a personal one?

For me, the only type that comes to my mind are the ones with huge platforms and rather low heels (if you subtract the platform).

 

Yes, I’d agree with your definition. I don’t think there is an official definition, but the huge platforms and absurdly long heels (although not when you deduct the platform height) just scream “stripper” to me.

aesthetically I always thought that 12cm stilettos are the ideal - they project just the right sort of stilettos imperiousness without going over the top. To me that always seemed the limit. I must say though your Hot Chicks and the new boots you’ve bought have shown me that heels of 13cm and even slightly higher can look really smart.

it would be fun to go out to the Christmas markets in 12cm heels. I can see where your new boots could be a bit too much of a challenge for that just yet, but that fact that you feel nearly ready to try them in a real world setting is hugely impressive.

I’m wearing 10 or 12cm stilettos all day, every day in my home office, and have really grown used to the idea of high heels being the norm. This challenge has been so beneficial 

[higherheels]

OK, so we have the same definition 😉 I was just asking because you said upper limit of not-stripper-heels. 13 cm or 14 cm heels without platform sure are extreme, but I wouldn't describe them as stripper heels. But a 14 cm heel with a 6 cm platform might be a typical stripper heel in my eyes.

I've also always been a big fan of 12 cm heels, but liked the Hot Chicks from the moment I first saw them. And now that I'm wearing them out more, I like them even more 🙂 Still not an everyday shoe though, mostly because of (dis)comfort. Style-wise it would work, but definitely always be an eye-catcher in every outfit.

This weekend we're going to a christmas market already. Maybe I'll try some 11 cm boots for the beginning. Mostly there's standing for a long time at christmas markets, so I don't wanna regret it in the end if 12 cm were too much.

[Shyheels]

Yes the Hot Chicks are very chic! I would love to try a pair out of curiosity’s sake, but they don’t come in my size and even if they did it’s too expensive for idle curiosity!

I'm glad to hear that even you give thought to a day in 12cm heels - i feel a bit better about my own struggles with them!

I’ve a pair of very nice suede Jean Gaborit OTK boots with 9cm slender - not quite stiletto - heels that would be great for Christmas markets. Warm and with slightly thicker 9cm heels perfect for a long day. I need to find some Christmas markets to wear them too!