Little Steps for Big Steps

So melody, you say you can wear 4″ heels all day.  How true is that, really ?

The answer depends on where I am all day.  At home, 4″ stilettos are the norm.  After 20+ years it feels awkward to wear a smaller heel.  The memories of fighting through the painfully aching feet after 1 hour, 2 hours, 8 hours are much faded.

But the environment is easy.  The carpeted floor is fairly smooth (the concrete under the carpet has uneven flaws that give a nod to the uneven ground found outside).  Yes, there are flights of stairs to negotiate to test balance but these days I’d consider the home as a benign heel wearing environment.

So what about in the real, outside world ?  It’s not viable for me to parade in 4″ stilettos in my daily life.  Experience confined to surreptitious strolls around the block in the quiet darkness of the early hours of the morning.  It’s chalk and cheese out there – there’s no carpet.

Balance is not so much of an issue these days as the problem of stride.  ‘Outside’ is the realm of the male and ingrained traits.  One of which is the longer length of stride in male shoes.  Female stride length is naturally smaller and heels curtail it even more.  To be successful outside in heels requires learning a whole new muscle memory.

I’d struggled for a long time to come up with a solution to this since the only way to do it is to spend that time in heels in unknown environments.

A couple of months ago I arrived at a possible solution.  I’d never been a fan of ankle boots, but I’m now a bit of a convert.  Poking out from the trouser leg the toe end of the boot doesn’t at first glance look too different from a male boot.  Spanish and Italian male boots have stacked heels, too.

The point is, that wearing such boots in public means that the public have to take a second look and even then, they’ll probably still be uncertain in what they see.

As you might gather, this has been my solution to extending heel wearing proficiency.  The first public outing was the weekend shopping.  Then wearing them on days out.  The anonymity of the environment meaning that whilst I spot the odd stare and double take, I don’t care because I don’t know these people and won’t ever know them.  Quite a thrill walking through the motorway service area with head held high.

Now there’s a real test.  I know that wearing these for a whole day is not a problem.  The new muscle memories are not complete, though they are getting there.  The test is one of self-confidence.  Can I carry off wearing them in an environment where everyone knows me ?

Today is the first day I’ve worn them to work.  In learning to take small steps, I end up taking a big step.

Update: Adding actual under desk shot.