Everybody in my family was tall, but me. So I loved heels. One of my sisters didn’t like to go places with me unless I was wearing heels, because she was sensitive about her height. And she was only 5’8".
I was a hippy so high heels, bras and makeup were never my thing. For dress-up occasions I had (and still have) black fabric mary jane type flats that I bought at Pier 1. I also wore platform sandals in the late 70s but that’s different. I did wear some borrowed high heels a few times in my younger years. I’m 5’ 10" and I wore them to be intimidating. For a job interview maybe? I can’t remember now.
I was out driving delivery today and at a bus stop I saw a lanky person wearing possibly THE highest set of stripper heels I have EVER seen, and I’ve seen some strippers in my time. We’re talking about a four inch platform and spike stiletto heels that looked almost ten inches tall. Steve Martin must’ve had these in mind when he wrote about the “Cruel Shoes.” The very idea of trying to walk around on Portland streets and sidewalks and navigating a moving bus in those things was absolutely terrifying to me, that’s a fucked up knee and ankle begging to happen.
High heels can be a challenge until you are used to them. At that point, your Achilles tendons will have contracted so much that you will find wearing flat shoes uncomfortable. But high heels mess with your feet and balance in the long run. I speak as a former model who took up running after turning in the heels for real shoes. Then, I turned in the running shoes for Birkenstocks and haven’t looked back (well, not much).
I do know a woman who was advised to wear high heels due to a low back problem. The heels made her stand in a way that put less stress on her lower back than standing in flats would do. She often used a cane, heels or no, but I don’t know what her specific spine trouble was.
Those are high heels, they’re platform shoes. The soles are level
I have a wide toe cage. And my big toe and the next two toes are all the same length. Those pointy shoes really don’t fit me.
When i had to wear ladies pumps at work, it took me ages to buy shoes i could wear. I dreaded shoe shopping. I also never bought heels more than about an inch high.
That’s what a lot of the streetwalkers are wearing here nowadays.
I also recently saw a mom at a high school performance of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” wearing them. In that play, audience members are selected to come up on stage and participate. Cast members’ parents opt in ahead of time to be selected at random. Every audience member watched in suspense terror as she was selected and tottered up onto the stage, afraid she was going to break some bones. She managed to keep her balance.
Sister!
– do you also have relatively narrow heels?
“Interesting” wardrobe choice for a woman who knows she’s got a good chance to be paraded before the entire high school parents’ group. And much of the students too.
Is her daughter’s name “Stacy” by any chance? 
She had it goin’ on, alright!
Those Japanese wooden shoes are called “geta” and they’re super practical in a country where torrential monsoon rains happen on the regular, dirt and gravel roads are common outside the big cities and there are ditches that run along both sides of the roads that are often used as open air urinals. I wore those when I lived in Japan and I loved them–I didn’t go for the ridiculously high ones, just a couple inches of platform per sole, and I got to where I could run in them pretty good. Sounds like a horse clopping along.
Yes!
(Discourse letters)
I remember when I was in 6th grade, drooling over a pair of Cherokee wedges, which my mom bought for me. I don’t think I wore them very much - really not practical for walking to school, so I only wore them to church.
Lzzy Hale (Halestorm) definitely knows how to walk/run/dance in high heels:
Standing
Action shot
Me too! I am very happy when I can find shoes that fit both my wide feet (including a 2nd toe that’s the same length as my big toe) and narrow heels.
I really wish combination last shoes hadn’t disappeared from the market.
It’s not as if nobody has feet that are shaped that way. You can’t even get combination last in the men’s boots any more.
My aunt used to have her shoes hand made because of similar issues. It helped that she could afford it then. But when you can’t find/afford them, that’s hard news.
Yeah. I can’t afford it; and even if I could, the nearest people doing that, last I looked, appeared to be several states away, and backed up for years.
Western (cowboy) boots are much the same design – long pointed toe and higher heel. But in this case they do serve a functional purpose. The pointed toe makes it easier to fit into a saddle stirrup, and the heel prevents the foot from sliding too far into the stirrup and becoming caught. Also, of course, they spend most of their time riding, not walking in them. They are function, working attire.
Stiletto high heels are working attire only for streetwalkers & strippers. And most of their work is done after they have been removed.
Many documentaries on this sort of work seem to show the work being done with the tall shoes still on. Not always, but quite often.
Or so I’m told by folks into such documentaries.
I wear flats. I’m short. I don’t care.
I can report however that I danced an entire high school musical in heels. (Hello Dolly!) We didn’t just wear them for the performance, we had to wear them in every practice.
I recently tried wearing some modest heels to a wedding and they pretty much ruined my night.
Doesn’t look good for me ever wearing heels again.
Quality baby, quality; the amount of material is inconsequential.
My ex was really into high heels, and she had a veritable collection of high-heel, high-end, high-dollar shoes. As she pointed out, the good, expensive ones didn’t only look good - they were actually well designed (function-wise), and were much more comfortable to use extensively than most cheaper models. Watching her go, I had no reason to doubt that.