Bubba136

Hmmm! The ugly stigma attached to high heels seems to propagate without letup. How to get rid of the association between heels and hookers -- or heels strictly for sexual foreplay -- is just as big of a problem as men wearing them......

Garnering information from the fashion world, it would appear -- with all todays top models parading up and down the runways displaying the latest dress and fashions, while wearing high heel-- that concept would be self-changing.

RPMindy

my boss said it's the concern of sexual harassment lawsuits that keeps the ideas out of the office. my boss, a woman, says she'd wear heels more if it wasn't for the fact that men notice and the patients notice. she doesn't want the extra attention, so she drops her heel height for work and outside of work, she's in them. (as you can tell, i'm cool with my current boss like that)

at my last job, the same, fear of sexual harassment charges if a guy made a compliment on the heels. so, the policy said no heels allowed... period!!!!!

the job before that, wanted heels, but not too tall. the manager (a guy) didn't want to be written up for noticing how high the heels were.

the job before that, the boss felt that if she couldn't wear the heels comfy, then the workers shouldn't. so she gave those who wore heels, a very hard time and gave all the assigments that required the most amount of standing in place. she felt it wasn't fair that they could and she couldn't (so her actions suggested.... i'm not that cool with her to talk like that)

the job before that, was a very conservative place, so heels were to a minimum. the dream job I wanted but didn't get, all the ladies wore pretty tall heels. the place was very upbeat and fast paced. but I didn't get in :(

that is my two cents on it. it's a shame really, because some circles are loosening up and wearing more heels, but not everywhere.

RPM

Heelfan

My answer to the question "Are high-heeled women unusual?" is that it depends whether you know where to look. For instance, in my region in and around Bristol U.K., people who wander around the local villages, outskirts, or even the city centre on a weekend morning will be lucky to see a single pair of heels over 2.5".

However, visit the city centre any Friday or Saturday evening and you'll be gobsmacked! I gave exactly that advice to a member who lives 20 miles South of Bristol, and he duly came up the very next Saturday night and stood outside the Hippodrome theatre. The next day he posted to say that he had seen more fantastic high heels clicking past in one hour than he had seen in the whole of the lasty five years in his own little town.

Likewise, my jazz band performs at a lot of weddings and similar functions. They are AMAZING, because a lot of ladies who wouldn't normally wear heels make that special effort (often buying them specially)to look their 'smartest' at weddings. Such functions are a veritable feast of heels.

On a more depressing note however, as I hope said on previous threads about fashion trends, internationally high heels are currently on the wane:

Fashion slavishly follows a 20-year-cycle:

1955 The start of the first stiletto craze.
1960 The peak of the stiletto boom
1965 The end of the first boom
1970 The dreaded "Grunge" peak - flat granny boots etc.
1975 The start of the next high heel phase (platforms for men and women)
1980 The peak of the 2nd stiletto boom (plus high heeled Beatle Boots for men)
1985 The end of the second stiletto boom
1990 The second dreaded "Grunge" peak - girl's flat lace-ups & Doc Martins.
1995 The start of the next high heel phase, beginning with stacked heels, blade heels etc.
2000 The heels peak in height, mostly stilettos (nothing for men this time though)
2005 The end of the high heel boom - kitten heels and flatties.
Prediction: 2010 Another inevitable grunge period AAAAAArrrrrggghhh!!

Mournfully yours, Heelfan

__________________
Onwards and upwards!

zoidberg

It's been show that there's a correlation between the length ( or shortness) of ladies' skirts and the economic performance of the country at the time. Economic performance was very high of the UK during the 60's when skirts were at their shortest.

I wonder if there's any such correlation with high heels?

dr1819

That would indeed be an interesting study. I tried finding some long-term charts of economic interest, but no luck.

I do know the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, one indicator of a country's economic performance, was 2.7% APR increase betwen 1987 and 1995, and 4.1% APR increase between 1995 and 2000.

Given Heelfan's 20-year cycle, it appears that a low or falling GDP corresponds with grunge, and a high or increasing GDP corresponds with heels.

Hardly scientific, and we're just looking at two swings of the cycle, so...

What happened in 2001, a drastic reduction in GDP, followed by a waning interest in heels, appears to support this as well.

There are definately ties between consumer confidence and fashion trends. Put simply, low confidence appears to breed both a depressed fashion statement (grunge) as well as a "roll up your sleeves and get to work" statement, such as what we see in the blue jeans cycles. And high confidence and increasing wealth leads to more refined (expensive) fashions. Could be the designers are pushing higher, more expensive fashions to the stores when people have a greater belief that they can afford it.

I have few doubts that heels fall in there somewhere. Just wish I could get my hands on a long-term historical chart of the GDP and CPI. It would reveal a bit more.