skirtcafe.org

Sinned wrote: ↑Sat Feb 12, 2022 10:33 pm What's in a name? I'm no expert but if the name "Mary Janes" brings up the image of a particular style with the round toe and strap across the foot then it will have served its purpose.

Anyway, why do women have a different size to men's? Why can't a size 9 in men's be the same as a size 9 in women's? It iterates to have to add a 1 or 1.5 to a woman's size to get to a man's size. Or subtract from a man's size.

Like the rest of their bodies, womens feet are different to mens. Womens feet are generally shorter and thinner, so I suspect that the sizing is based on an increment per gender. You could,in theory standardise this but you would end up with many small increments in length and breadth to cover all permutations. Amd as usual sizing differs between countries.

I have wide feet, but not quite Donald Duck proportions. When I needed a pair of "womens" shoes for a fancy dress party (I was going as Holly Willoughby (M&S check skirt, white blouse and kitten heels etc.)) the heels were a real PIA to find as I needed an EEE (I think) whatever is really wide. I still have the outfit, but it's not really me....

r.m.anderson wrote: ↑Sat Feb 12, 2022 10:26 pmIt is helpful to locate and use the Brannock sizing device (usually found in better shoe stores)

I note that I am well off the far end of that scale as I require a women's 14 (US) size which I think now are largely unobtanium.

Damn. I hope there are still cobblers around who can fix the ones I have now because there likely won't be any more any time soon.

Bodycon,

The reason why womens' feet are smaller than mens' is so they can stand closer to the kitchen sink.

Carl, I thought unobtanium floated on a magnetic field or something.

Tom

Kirbstone wrote: ↑Sun Feb 13, 2022 1:10 pmCarl, I thought unobtanium floated on a magnetic field or something.

It turns out that's only valid in the presence of hens' teeth. Otherwise it sinks like the proverbial stone.

So I learned something today: the EU shoe sizes are based on the French system which worked with stitches of 2/3 cm. So shoe size is:

3/2 * (length of foot (in cm) + 1.5)

This works for men/women/children/etc.

The UK system is based on a longer stitch length, 8.47mm or apparently one third of a thumb. They also decided to shift their numbers to make them smaller since you don't make size 0 shoes.

And the US system is the clusterf*ck you're all describing here.

Men's feet are in general wider than women's feet, but there's a separate measurement for that.

crfriend wrote: ↑Sun Feb 13, 2022 12:46 am I note that I am well off the far end of that scale as I require a women's 14 (US) size which I think now are largely unobtanium.

Maybe they're not your style, but https://www.zappos.com/ has quite a few. You can pick sizes up to 16 and only display those that are in the size you are looking for.

Ugh. Five pages of Birkenstocks, Crocs, sick-flaps (for the sound they make), combat boots, and trainers. I think there were four styles that were even remotely attractive and those were all sandals.

Carl, did you get paddles supplied with your shoes?

When it comes to Zappos, nice heels seem to end at size 12, anything above that becomes those less than appealing styles crfriend mentioned in his post. Frustrating to say the least.

Sinned wrote: ↑Mon Feb 14, 2022 1:10 amCarl, did you get paddles supplied with your shoes?

Nope. The 14s I got from Long Tall Sally are actually quite attractive. Sadly the line was bought out, badly dumbed down, and the large-size shoes discontinued.

TBH I posit a radical solution ( not really ) that we stop separating clothes into men's and women's - just have a section dresses, a section skirts, a section trousers, blouses/shirts and so on. It has been suggested before but we must keep plugging it. Something broken that needs fixing. Since women raid men's clothes for their wear there should be no complaint from them. All would gain familiarity with all types of clothing so dresses and skirts should be more accessible to men. Even underwear could have its own integrated section. Men wearing women's underwear is allegedly fairly common so let's drop the distinction. If men want to wear frillies without stigma then let them. Not saying that it would be the catalyst for men skirt wearing but it couldn't do any harm. It may even force a standardisation of clothing sizes ( yeah, I know ) but we can but hope.

I take a men's size 7, women's 8 with a narrow width so footwear has never been a problem.

Dennis,
You'll never walk on water in size 7s. Not enough displacement.

Tom

My feet may be small but my wife seems to think that they are perfect and I do have a good arch. I have no desire to walk on water, sometimes just walking on land is a bit dodgy and I have to cling on to stop falling off.

But at least, with those feet you are near enough to the kitchen sink to cling on to that.

Tom

Sinned wrote: ↑Mon Feb 14, 2022 10:23 pm TBH I posit a radical solution ( not really ) that we stop separating clothes into men's and women's ... All would gain familiarity with all types of clothing so dresses and skirts should be more accessible to men. Even underwear could have its own integrated section.

I sympathize with the sentiment, but I guess you know there are practical problems. Most women have a radically different outline in the chest and hip areas, and it generally makes sense to separate clothes that are cut for that shape. (There are also online companies selling lingerie designed to accommodate men's dangly bits: I don't think the ladies would relish having to sort through them in the store to find their own undies!) Some fashion companies produce gender-neutral ranges, and a section for those in high street shops would be a welcome step. I think it for now we can at least hope to normalize "crossing the aisle". It might also be a good step to stop separating boys' and girls' clothes, since children are genrally much more similar in shape, but at the moment people are still battling to get children's toys displayed neutrally, not "blue and macho" versus " pink and sparkly", so I don't hold out much hope for clothes.