The unFashionable Life

[logovo]

In a new effort to start dressing like a grown up (I've attempted this many times before, but I have jeans+tshirt enablers all around me) I managed to hurt my left foot by wearing heels. They weren't even that tall! *sigh*

My mom gave me this humongous bag for my birthday. I think she supports my efforts to stop dressing like a 14 year old boy. However, having no experience with huge leather handbags, I'm surprised by how heavy the thing is, what with the leather and the zippers and the heavy canvas material that makes up the lining. Do people normally walk around carrying these things and not get tired? It's like the heels thing, right? I'm just never going to get it. The bag is pretty though! I just can't put that much stuff into it's hugeness, otherwise I'll throw my back out or something.

Comments

[laurashapiro]

I hardly ever carry a purse. When I do, it's a thing that is shaped like/works like a backpack, though made to look stylish. Much better for my back.

There's no reason to carry anything huge, heavy, or cumbersome. For that matter, there's no reason to wear uncomfortable shoes, either -- I never do. Arguably there are some outfits that "look better" with heels, but there are plenty of ways to dress like a grown-up without them.

[logovo]

The only trouble I have with backpacks is actually getting to my stuff quickly, but yeah, they're more what I normally carry. Messenger bags and backpacks. I have to wonder how much "better", weight wise, extremely expensive handbags are. I had never thought to wonder if they're carrying around pounds and pounds worth of leather and metal.

Heels. *sigh* I have feet that don't like shoes that are too tall or stuff that needs to be worn without socks or tights, so that means I can rarely wear dresses. Good thing winter lets me wear boots!

[laurashapiro]

If I need to get to something quickly, it goes in my pocket. That's where my (tri-fold, "men's") wallet lives. Also my keys and a hanky. (:

I never wear shoes without socks or tights, though sometimes I wear (practical) sandals without them. With dresses or skirts, I prefer my big clompy boots and tights.

[logovo]

I'm glad that tights are so much back this winter. It will make dressing up a bit a lot easier and comfy :)

[laurashapiro]

I second your enthusiasm for tights! I'm also thinking about buying some of those arm-warmers and/or fingerless gloves for the season.

[rodo]

I am not the only one hopelessly confused by handbags! Yay!

[logovo]

Some look pretty, but why do they need to weigh more than my cat? >:(

[fayance]

Well, I am the least fashionable or fashion-conscious female on the planet, I think, sigh. I teach prekindergarten and we wear smocks over our clothes with big old pockets to put glue, crayons, little girls' hair clips, kleenexes, etc in, ha, so my daily wardrobe under my ugly but useful smock is jeans or casual pants, a t-shirt, and sensible shoes, no heels. I'm chasing two dozen four year olds all morn, what the heck do I need with fancy shoes, ha? And when I'm NOT working, I also hate 'fashionable' shoes and high heels anyway because they are TORTURE on my bad feet. As for handbags, I am always mixing work with my regular life, ha, so in my bag I usually carry wet wipes, reward stickers, hair barrettes, band-aids, hot wheels, crumpled crayon drawings the kids make for me that I forget to put up on my fridge...I always carry at least one novel to read in down time or in lines anywhere, my journal I write letters, poems, stray thoughts, etc in; I also carry my daughter's glucose meter and extra testing strips and lancets for her diabetes, also emergency sugar source in case her blood sugar drops too low; plus her extra seizure pills, all the emergency numbers for her various doctors, etc. And her small beanie bag stuffed penguin so in case we are at one of her drs and she forgets her usual BIG stuffed penguin Waddles or her stuffed toy calico cat Cally, she will have a backup softie to comfort her. Which I guess seems sad to most people since she's 22, ha, but she has autism and is my forever six year old in that sense. So...rather than carrying a fashionable bag, even a big one, I usually end up lugging around my old beach bag for books or even sometimes those reusable grocery 'green' bags you put your groceries in so I can put all these various things in it. So that's not exactly a great fashion statement!

[logovo]

Ah, your work and life doesn't really call for the heels and the dressing up! You would probably be injured pretty quickly, with all the little ones around you. My job - maybe. I work at an office, but my boss doesn't care how we dress and people sometimes are running around barefoot. But left to my own devices I'll dress up in jeans and hoodies, which - um - is not professional at all, but so, so comfy.

I like pretty shoes, it's just that my feet don't. There are people though who can wear all those pretty shoe and not feel like they're being tortured. We're just not among them :/

[franzeska]

Heels are a filthy prank played upon us hapless girl types. I do not and will not wear them, even when dressed up in an "adult" manner any more than I would wear a corset. (Well, unless we're talking about costumes or naughty outfits or something.)

I used to be able to walk in really high heels with no problems because I did so much Scottish dance. There are also creepy foot exercises that can help. That said, there is nothing unprofessional about the kind of flats that look like business pumps but, well, flatter. A nice women's suit looks just fine with appropriate flats.

My feeling on dresses/skirts and the shoe problems that go with them is that most of them are not actually business formal under any circumstances, so the issue of having super formal shoes does not apply. For business casual that is truly casual (and not the kind of "business casual" that means "formal except that we let you leave out item X only") or for casual but professional-looking fashion, there is absolutely no reason to ruin your foot health.

Uh, but if you do think those Medieval torture devices are pretty, like I said, there are foot exercises that can help make them more tolerable. Your feet will still hurt at the end of a day of standing or walking around though because all those people who say that heels can be comfortable are lying through their teeth. All that means is that they wear heels so often that their tendons have shortened and flats are now also uncomfortable. *rant rant*

[logovo]

Rant away!

Ah, but if I start thinking logically about fashion my brain will demand to slap me around a bit.

There was this article somewhere about the reasons we still keep wearing heels, considering how we know they're bad for us, but that instead of them going away we end up with the nightmarish stuff of MsQueen's designs, S/S10. I thought noone would actually wear those things, but they just appeared in the new Lady Gaga video. I wonder if anyone is going to break something walking around in the real world wearing these things.

I do buy into the idea that I look better in heels, but my feet are just not able to handle it. I mean, even wearing flats with no tights or socks is an ordeal. I hate how nylons went out of fashion a decade ago, because heels by themselves are impossible for me to wear. Oh, and then I have the fallen arches thing going, which means I shouldn't even be looking at heels.

[franzeska]

Heh. To be honest, I think high heels are stupid-looking, though I do kind of like the look of fetishwear on fetish models. Standing up straight will do most of what high heels do aside from the swaying walk of impending ankle doom. I suppose I can kind of sympathize with exceedingly short women to a degree, but I'm only 5'3", and no one ever notices I'm short because I gesticulate wildly while talking and I'm rather loud. A lot of the time, really platform-y heels just make you look like a little kid on stilts. They advertise your shortness more than anything. (Yes, I really don't like heels. :D)

Personally, I think the reason we still keep wearing the damn things is because fashion victim idiots keep training themselves to like them. There are perfectly attractive shoes that are good for your feet, but you have to go out and look for them and learn to appreciate them aesthetically just like brainwashed teenage girls need to seek out images of non-anorexic women and learn to appreciate bodies that don't look diseased.

I mean, half of my volcanic anger over this subject comes from the fact that I have spent my whole life not giving a crap about body size and liking non-moronic shoes (I mean aesthetically, not just because moronic shoes make my feet hurt) yet the crap I get about this is all from my female friends who persist in whining about how their shoes hurt but they feel insecure without them boo hoo hoo. I always got this message like it was somehow threatening to not feel that way or that women were supposed to bond by hating themselves together. RAAAAR! (And all that goes doubly for anything involving body hair or fat! Bonding through whining! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!)

That said, birkenstocks are fugly as hell. I like sandals with a more pointed toe (though still rounded enough to not pinch). And clogs! (Of course they have their own set of problems, but I have really strong, non-sprain-prone ankles, so I haven't had any issues.)

I thought that first high heel picture there was something that was made as a parody/joke on the fashion industry, though if anyone would actually like those horrible things, it would be the revolting Lady Gaga. In reaction to the other three, the only thing I can think is: GWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR! (Or maybe Lordi... They really have a heavy metal monster costume look.)