Women and pretty shoes and stockings or lack thereof...and shoe stores and shoe sales people.

I am a woman myself, so perhaps it seems odd to be asking, but it has been a very long time since I was interested or even able to wear heels. I wear serious shoes with orthotics in them for collapsed arches - which I should have worn when I was two, but my mother didn’t press the issue.

ANYWAY… I look at the fancy dressed up women in spectacular fancy shoes that are nine miles high and evidently any form of hosiery, unless it is a kind of exposed part of the outfit with garters or something, is a thing of the past. Do I have this right? Women now put bare feet into these beautiful shoes, to sweat and rub? Do they make the inside of these shoes in a different way these days, so that it is more comfortable and reasonable to put bare feet in them, such as lining them completely with some kind of pleasant, absorbant material the provides a degree of traction?

Are you following me with the issues I’m seeing here?

And is this just a fancy Hollywood babes in Louboutin and Blahnik that are doing this, or most fashion-conscious women in most heels? Are hose still worn at all? Do women wear some version of the little footsies that they provide at shoe stores to cover your feet?

Speaking of which, seeing as how I only buy special athletic shoes at a specialty store… at regular “Pretty shoe” stores, do they still have shoe salespeople who actually fetch the shoes and pop them in and out of the boxes and slip them on your feet while caressing your ankle and probably getting off because they have a fetish?

Or have shoes stores gone the way of gas stations, self-serve?

I don’t wear socks or stockings with most of my shoes–unless it’s winter and they’re boots, or they’re shoes that have more coverage than just a shoe that I’d slip on. Generally, if it’s the kind of shoe I’d wear in warmer weather, I don’t wear anything else with them. I’ve never had a problem with sweating or anything.

Around here 95% of women do not wear hose with dress shoes. It’s been that way for a while now. There are very small stockings that will not show - they just cover feet but I think very few women wear those.

I haven’t worn pantyhose for over twenty years, not even with heels.

I hate pantyhose- they always bound me. I seldom wear dress shoes, but when I do I’m so glad for the no-hose trend. May it continue forever.

All the shoe stores I’ve been to have been self-serve. But then again, I don’t have the kind of feet or ankles that anyone would get off on caressing.

Forgot about the shoe store question–I’ve never been to any where they put the shoe on your foot for you. They could be out there–maybe I just don’t know about them.

I’m a guy, but I think the Nordstrom salesguy still brings the shoes to you and puts them on your feet. The salesguy will also bring a couple of other shoes in addition to the one I said I wanted to try. It’s nicer than Macy’s for around the same price.

Yeah, you just suffer through your feet rubbing and hurting and stuff. Part of life. Nobody wears those little tiny hose things.

I’m a woman (mid 40s) and I can’t wear heals without some form of hosiery with the exception of one pair of open-toed dress shoes I had for an evening gown (and I hated it).

I much prefer pumps where I can at least where something as a foot protector/padding (albeit, a thin one).

Can’t you just buy comfortable shoes? I’m female and don’t wear hose and I don’t usually have that problem.

I am wondering where you are? I work in an office with professional people as well as sales people and attorneys in and out and very rarely do I see a professional women without hose wearing a skirt and heels. As a matter of fact, I recall a female physician assistant that worked here that did wear a skirt without hose once or twice and her supervisor informed her that it was not acceptable to do so in our office because it does not look professional. Personally, bare feet in dress shoes seem a little odd to me as well.

If you want to wear silly shoes, I mean. My work shoes are all comfortable without hosiery, except sometimes my black shoes get hot.

The guy is a shoe salesman for god’s sake! Don’t deny him the simple pleasures that make him hesitate to commit suicide!

HIs life in your [del]feet[/del] hands.

Well, it was long ago, but, as a shoe salesman, I learned very quickly that if you are physically attentive to female customers feet, you sell a lot more shoes.

I don’t have a particular fetish for feet, by the way. No aversion, but this was not a sexual experience for me, it was simple economics.

Guys, you just hand them the box.

Tris

So have women somehow evolved in the last couple of decades to no longer have sweat in their feet?? I learned when I was only a child that uncovered flesh in a shoe was an instant blister as well as sweat and just general nastiness.

How odd.

I work in an office where the dress is casual every day so not many women here wear dress shoes, they mostly wear pants. Wearing jeans and a T shirt is OK but most people wear something like a golf shirt and dockers.

When I go out and about I do see women dressed up and they don’t wear hose with a dress or skirt and dress shoes. I have heard in the legal area women still wear hose but it’s one of the last holdouts. I am in NC if that matters so we have very hot summers.

Maybe shoes have improved? I never went sockless as a kid either but I usually just wore sneakers all the time. But I never have any problems going sockless in any of my current shoes…

It’s not rare to see men here wear topsiders without socks during warm weather.

We have local tech firms where guys wear bathing suits to work in the summer. To me that’s going a bit too far.

This bothers me SO MUCH. It’s one thing to wear pantyhose because you think it’s pretty or whatever, but I don’t understand why women’s bare legs are unprofessional.

As I said above the legal field has not changed dress at all despite so many other fields going casual. We had a judge get in hot water recently because she blasted a woman for showing up in court with shorts on - they were very nice dress shorts.

Also I had person leave my company and go to work at a bank and he has to wear a tie every day even though he just writes software so many banks are still big on a dress code.