fastfreddy2

I've mentioned it to a couple of members here already, location: Islington.

There's an opportunity to go somehwere to wear what you like on your feet in a closed environment this coming Sunday afternoon. [12-6pm] Entrance circa £5. Refreshment and food on site. They'll be opportunities to buy clothes and shoes, so maybe wise to bring some money. [Or not if the 'credit-crunch' has already found you? ]

Easy to reach from the South, and all parts Home Counties.


I intend to be there with my walking buddy lady-friend. In heels.


...

Loveshiheels

I said I go in a PM to Fastfreddy2 on Sunday, and meet up with other heel wearing folks. Be a better meet if more people turn up.

euchrid

I'm going too. Should be interesting.

Lurkers & ditherers... read all about it here:-
Buckingham Palace Garden Party

thedesigner

hmm sounds gr8, will confirm...

fastfreddy2

I visited the gig location last night. I had thought it moved from its previous venue (where I had been a couple of times, years ago) but it hasn't. In some respects it's a perfect place for a "private" party. There are gates that prevent non-payers getting in, so in some ways, it guarantees privacy.

What I do have to report, is they have wasted no money having the outdoor area re-laid. The consequence of this, is the COBBLESTONE exterior, originally laid some 200 years ago (maybe) looks like it was laid by a seaman. The shape, gap size, and elevations of the stones mean it would be foolish to attempt stiletto's on this surface. In consequence, I for one won't be wearing them. Even with my wedges last night, I struggled to keep a secure footing.

Inside IIRC, it was wood flooring, on at least 2 levels. There's a largish bar, and basic menu for food. Sadly, I got there too late to sample it. Still, the Turkish restaurant off Upper St got the benefit of my wallet instead, and I had a very pleasant meal there.


Bit of aside, but the 3 people on the table next to me at the restaurant were foolishly indiscreet, when one of them noticed my wedge boots. Because one of them was caught whispering to her friends (one of whom immediately looked at my feet without checking to see if I was watching) were repaid in kind by me staring at them for pretty much the next 30 minutes. The blokey/plain looking - middle aged/lardy blonde who obviously had not seen a hairdresser this millennium and dressed in Maison de Oxfam, grabbed a second glance as she got up to leave.

These were a group of 3 middle-aged people sitting in a town, arguably the most cosmopolitan in London. Yet the dark haired whispering very fat bird with glasses, found it necessary to act like a school girl (something she would not have experienced for some considerable time), when confronted with something unusual.

I suppose gossiping about a bloke wearing heels, made her feel slimmer?


Annoyed? I was fuming.

....

shyguy

So how did it go for everyone who attended?

__________________
He was so narrow minded he could see through a keyhole with both eyes.
Brown's Law: If the shoe fits, it's ugly

fastfreddy2

Executive summary:

Well, bit of a mixed bag, verging on disaster really.


Four of us arranged to meet at Shillbeers, home of the monthly London Fetish Fair.

I've been there a number of times, but some years ago. Mrs Freddy decided she was no longer interested in visiting after we witnessed attendees subjected to verbal abuse and water-bomb attacks from the "low-rent" <social housing> inhabitants of the accomodation opposite.

I have been assured this sort of attention had subsided after CCTV cameras had been installed.........


On the day.

I doubt anyone here with any personal contact with me, will need reminding my time-keeping is abysmal. I'd arranged to meet at 12:30pm and the SatNav confirmed that it was entirely possible. However, roadworks meant I actually arrived at 1pm. That's quite good for me BTW.

One of our number had arrived soon after 12 noon, and consoled himself with a beer and taking in the event. This included watching the Virgin "Rude" programme makers filming at the venue. On balance, this sort of incident would have had me bouncing back home (or at least elsewhere) but one of our number was 'lost in London' and we three needed to wait for him. If I remember, he took another 90 minutes to find us, so was 2 hours late.

One of the highlights of my day, was going to be a pleasant lunch somewhere with background interest. Sadly (I was told) the Chef cut the top of his finger off the night before, so there was no food. People were buying snacks from a small supermarket across the road ....

So, I (we) were dodging a film crew, going hungry, while waiting for one of the group to arrive......


By the time the late-comer found the venue, we had already decided to move on. I got the poor fella a drink, before we had a little walk around. There was nothing there for any of us. We'd all paid £5 entry and had really gotten nothing for it. I will NEVER go there again. [Which is a bit of a shame, because it has the potential of a great meeting place, even a monthly meeting place for HH wearers.]

As a side note, my escort told me after we left, a couple of men there had a 'titter' at us wearing HH's. I'm not sure how they felt themselves to be in a position to do this, because there was no-one there save 4 women, who were sartorially equipped to be critical. Most others there were middle-aged men 'gawpers' looking for attractive girls to fantasize about later ... I've never considered blue jeans with leather waist-coats to be qualifiers for anything other than the potential for a poor-taste-award. Had I been made aware of the 'smiles', I'd have gladly smiled back, or even complained to the management. [Though God knows I had plenty to complain about already!]

I noticed many others leaving after just a short period, including a rather tall/elegant (middle-aged) tanned blonde Lady, and partner. Both more at home in Mayfair or Kensington I'm sure. She was wearing stiletto's, and wisely left with them undamaged. My wedges weren't so lucky.


We decided to leave and the two out-of-town visitors wanted to visit Camden, so we left to go there. Walking up the road together in heels, a small group (3) low-renters had a cackle at our expense, but they were so far back down the street, 'conversation' wasn't possible. I walked back down the road and passed where they had been on to where my car was parked, but the group had dispersed. The one person left who may have been one of the group, had an appearance that told age had not been kind to her. Unless she was the grandmother to the child in the pusher she had with her?


At Camden we parked at Morrison which has 2 hour free parking. We arrived just before 4pm as the store was closing. I used the loo, and spoke to one of the security chaps about the parking arrangements. While there, I saw two 16 year old store-workers rush outside to look at something. Only later did I suspect (because I still don't know for sure) they may have been pointed at a man wearing heels outside. They walked past me twice, completely unaware I had 4" high wedges on .....

I tried to discourage the wearer from continuing with his heels on, because of the 3 incidents so far. He was keen, and I'm not his mother, so we carried on to the markets.

Pretty much everywhere we went the heels were noticed. Unsurpringly since they weren't hidden in any way, and being new to wearing heels outside, I suspect his walk isn't as elegant as it could be. I'm more used to wearing heels and find 4" completely natural. Several times my escort had to stop me striding on ahead of everyone else. I've walked around this place a number of times, and not experienced people staring, this time was much different.

We went to a number of shops, including the Aldo Outlet store. It resembled a Jumble Sale, but given we got there at the end of a busy summer Sunday, that should surprise no-one. We also went to 3 or 4 of the shops closer to the canal bridge that stock Pleaser shoes and boots. One particular shop had a good range, but most of the sizing information was missing.

Despite this, I eventually tried on some 5.5" knee boots, that fitted (literally) like a second skin. This told me they must be a size 6 [US 8] and completely useless to me unless I wasn't going to wear them for long or planned wearing them sitting/laying down. The £40 price tag didn't help. Okay if I wanted them there and then, but this is the same shop I tried to buy from in February, where I got poor service from the (then) girl assistant. I certainly don't need to pay extra for poor service anywhere.

There was a young French mother in the shop trying hard to spend money too. Seems she had tried on quite a lot of shoes, and the shop-keeper was perhaps tiring of this. [In keeping with the overall service I expect.] She smiled at us all, and made a helpful comment to another of our group trying on shoes. Bless her!

The one 'highlight' of the visit to the shops for me, was finding some mens cowboy boots, with a moderately high heel. Again at £40, they were a little expensive, but I'll probably have another look at them on a cooler day. Not that I remember what shop they were in, but it wasn't the one with the "poor attitude" assistants.


Back outside and now after 5pm, one of our group left us, and the three of us remaining went toward Morrisons and the car park. Walking along the canal, were many people sitting on the pavement eating or drinking. Heels got noticed again. No loud comments, but smiles and whispers were evident. [No biggy really.]

Higher up and on the road to the car park, we were noticed by a couple of middle-aged (and attractive) lady shoppers. They made pleasant comments, and we had a rather entertaining conversation with them. We bid farewell, and moved further along the road. Almost immediately we passed 4 youths, from another 'low-rent' area. Three chaps, and one chapess. A rather loud comment was made about us being 'gay', and an equally loud guffaw followed. We were not equally mob-handed so confrontation was not the preferred course of action. Me starting a conversation with "Well, I can take my shoes off, but you'll always be ugly" wasn't seen by my escort as a wise move either, especially since my wearing HH might be a slight handicap to having to vacate the area quickly.

We got to our cars without further comment anyway, so it wasn't a big deal. I calmed down soon after.



Conclusion:

An interesting and 'different' day for me. Not wholly pleasant, but an experince that perhaps I'll get some benefit from.


I have in mind, the idea that a monthly or slightly less frequent but regular meet might be attractive to some of us?


....

"Wellies"

Sadly your description of your afternoon is roughly what I would have expected. And that is why the shy members of the forum like to hide the fact that they are wearing hh's and are wary of meets with complete strangers.

I think it would require such numbers that would make it possible to hire some sort of venue to solve the problem.

I think your patience in the circumstances was outstanding.

I wish you better luck next time.

fastfreddy2

Actually, my patience was far from outstanding. True we waited, but with someone having driven up from the South coast, it would not have been the 'right' thing to do, if we had moved on without them.


I have not been the subject of so much attention before, and I think I know the reason why......

When I'm out in heels, I don't usually wear stiletto's in daylight, with a single exception of the Heel Meet '08. My trouser always hides my heel whatever type I'm wearing [stillies/wedges/blades/block/cuban-type] so I'm not telepgraphing my footwear style. Yes, my heels get noticed, but I'm not showing them off. <Watch out for my impending heel report about a visit to Cardiff.>

When I walk in heels, I walk like a girl would. (Apparently .) I have a slight hip rise as I stride, but my thighs/knees/feet stay aligned, and my knees straighten. Girls -typically- notice the hip rise as I walk, men don't. The front of my wedges look a little girlie, so sometimes get noticed, but not often. More recently I've been wearing much noiser 'block' (square) heeled boots, that get more people noticing, <again watch fror the Cardiff report> but still no remarks.


The guys at the meet fully expected (rightly so) to move around in a protected area, free to wear heels without criticism or remark. Sadly the camera and lack of food meant moving somewhere more open. They had perhaps expected Camden attendees to be more 'free thinking', but the place is full of (usually younger) foreign nationals at the weekend. In a big crowd a pair of Mary Janes clearing poking out the bottom of some jeans were not going to be noticed easily, but that isn't true in a quiet street. Noise and overall look meant attention would be drawn.

It wasn't great, but no-one got hurt, and only 'feathers' were ruffled.



I'm sure there are places where men can wear heals with impunity. I pretty much get away with what I like, so maybe I'm doing something right? But I take on board the remark about 'safe' venues, and arranging something around that need. I may be wiser by this time next week.

......

Loveshiheels

Fastfreddy2 said it all in his last post. Yes, it was me that was very late. Had the directions to the place printed off from the computer. Got into the very heart of London wanted to find the road I wanted and there was no signs for any of the roads I needed, but I got to the venue in the end.
I was expecting a large fetish fair but it turn out to be a pub that charged £5 to get in. Took about 15 minutes to have a look round the stalls. There were some good leather skirts and dresses for sell but no shoes. Very disappointing indeed, not be going there again. Did wear my new Mary Janes .

We moved onto Camden, I again wore my Mary Janes, against the good advice from Fastfreddy2 telling me not to. To me it seemed silly not after coming all this way and not to were my heels. There were times when Fred had to wait for me, but I was just being careful with the cobble stones and having a look around as we walked past the Thames and the shops. I think I did very well in the way I walked as it was my first time

The shops were very disappointing and had nothing in a size 9. But like Fred said it had been a very busy Sunday for them. There was one shop that a male member or staff asked me if I needed a hand and I said have you got anything in a size 9. Well he called out to another member of staff and I there thinking to myself that was not very discreet and since I was not going to buy any shoes, we moved on to the next shop. The last shop we came to sold Pleaser shoes downstairs. I did try a few pairs on and I had a French women tell me that the shoes run abit small as I was trying a pair on. I think that was because the shoes were still marked up in us sizing.

On the way back to the car we had a nice chat to a couple of older women about us wearing heels. They asked us how we could wear heels and were we doing it for ourselves.
The only bad part of the day came straight after that chat. Some youths shouted out gay to us. We did the right thing by carrying on walking, I didn,t even turn to look round. The last thing I wanted was a confrontation with those youths. I expected they had knives on them anyway.

Took me just over two hours to get home and I live about 60 miles away.
Would I do a mini meet again. Yes I would, just to meet other members here and I would still wear heels and try on female shoes. For other members not to sure about going to a meet. Remember you don,t have to wear heels or go shoe shopping but the chance to talk to other members in person, make the whole thing worth doing.