Standing in Heels

A friend posted this link somewhere:

When a Man Wears Heels - The Times online

It garnered the following response from me:

On Friday night I was organizing a couple of classmates to help me film a friend's concert. One of them had clearly never been in a nightclub before and squawked about many things including, "But those girls - they're just going to stand all night and watch the bands?"

Yes, that's the idea.

"But they're wearing heels!!"

Yes. (I don't think she's ever worn anything other than sneakers.)

And then I patiently explained the concept that standing in heels, even for a whole evening, isn't a big deal if that's what you're used to doing. Depends on the actual pair of shoes - I have some I could stand in all day and others I can use only as photo props. I find heel height isn't the only factor to consider, either.

"But it'll be their death!"

Oh, quit being so damn melodramatic.

I might as well have been explaining the importance of the polar ice caps to an iguana. An iguana might at least look at me and pretend to listen on the off-chance there might be a treat in it for the iguana. (Or at least when I had a iguana she used to pretend to listen to me. Other iguanas might not be so patient or interested, so your results may vary.)

This fellow reminds me of that same wide-eyed bewilderment. But at least he seemed to clue in at the end that there are benefits. And if he bothered to try a couple of different styles or even similar styles from different brand, he might have discovered that some stilettos are actually rather comfortable to wear all day.

Or all night as the case might be.

On cycling

Cycling of fashion, that is.

So, I guess gladiator sandals are in yet again. It seems to me this must be the fourth or fifth time they've been 'in' since I was sort of paying attention to fashion. I'm almost starting to feel old - almost.

That's the whole point of the system, though - make you feel old if you don't jump in with it.

For the record, my reason for skipping gladiators this time around is that I'm in school full time and tending to wear jeans or trousers, and gladiators look like shit with any hemlines that reach the ankles. That and I spend too much time sitting, which can make fluid retention a problem and fluid retention and straps don't mix.

I also noticed in the August issue of Fashion Magazine that the almond toe is out for fall. It's all back to pointy toes (ie, winklepickers). Suits me fine, but I thought it rather cute since whenever the almond toes started coming in again (for the fourth or fifth time that I can recall) it wasn't so long ago and it was that pointed toes were sooooooooo passé (for the fourth or fifth time).

But hey, the real king is style as opposed to fashion. Use what looks the best, whether it's fashionable or not.

Jessica Simpson

She may not know if tuna is a chicken or a fish, but the girl's got some great shoe designs.

(Yes, I know she doesn't lift a finger to design any of them.)

I finally broke down and bought a pair last week: Black leather. Peep toe. Four inch stacked heel, what I'd call semi-stiletto as they're a bit chunkier than usual but not really chunky heels. Half inch platform sole. On sale.

I've seen some of her shoes before at Winners and other places, but either the designs didn't really impress me or they didn't have any in my size or they weren't on sale. Finally the stars all lined up and I got a pair.

Jessica Simpson Shoes

A General Rule of Thumb

Today I had some running around to do downtown and I took the bus. As we pulled up to the stop at Broadway and Granville, I saw a woman wearing a great pair of black and tan peep-toe pumps, probably about a 4" heel.

What really caught my eye, however, was the white and red sticker on the sole of the arch. Instantly I could tell she bought them at Winners (white sticker) and on clearance (red sticker).

Now, I buy most of my shoes there too, and I love a clearance price as much as the next gal, but whatever happened to peeling that sticker off when you get them home? Hmm?

Just a general rule - the underside of that arch will draw attention to itself if there's anything bright on it. Some designers like Laboutin and Betsey Johnson take advantage of this real estate and make you look through using brightly colored or patterned soles. This is good. Having attention drawn there by the price and sale stickers is not good.

Naughty Monkey Pics

As promised, some close-ups of those Naughty Monkey pumps. (I call them my Canada Day pumps because of the red and white houndstooth pattern.)

New Stuff

First up: new shoes!

On my way into school today, I had a hunch that I might get lucky if I popped by Shoe Warehouse at Lansdowne Mall. As usual, the hunch was right. I found a great pair of red and white rounded toe pumps by Naughty Monkey. They're cute on the outside, but I think the really neat part of them is the inside embroidery and details. And they were on sale for about 60% off!

I'll have a couple of photos up by next week.

Site progress

I'll be building the site over the next term, probably going for some Flash elements as well as CSS and XHTML.

In the meantime I am working on the structure and the content of the site. I will be adding an article section that will cover tips and tricks for high heels (fit, walking in them, etc.), histories of different kinds of shoes and heels, and I'll probably also have some other articles as I think of them. Probably the articles section will go live before the rest of the site, but I haven't decided yet.

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