My mum was 6 foot and wore size 9s and a fairly wide fitting. She would have been 85 now.
she had to go to fairly specialist shops in london for her shoes. A few stores like long tall sallys would sell a reasonable selection.
a lot of places she shopped for shoes she would be offered insensible, impractical high heals. That was all she could get when she was younger in 50s. She often used to have to buy mens flat shoes when younger.
It took her years to realise why she couldn’t get sensible shoes in her sizes, her epiphany came one day in a shop in the 60s when she sat next to a man trying on some knee high high heel boots to go with his mini skirt. I kid you not…Stravers shoes are one such company whose large size shoes for “women” were made for, what was in those days called, transvestite women,
when I was young and shopping with her, she’d tell the shop assistance “I do not want the sort of shoes a transvestite wears”. 😱🤷🏼♀️ . I guess those type of shoes weren’t suitable for being a teacher and on her feet most of the day 🤣🤣
im a size 8. Internet shopping was a relief for me as I suddenly i had access to trawl easily through loads of shops to get shoes that fit. Before the days of internet I trip round all the shoes shops in a town and not find one pair to fit- I could pre kids fit into a generous 7. Back in even hte 80s most shop went to size 6-even 7s was scarce. I don’t know how many times I was to,d “we don’t go up to THAT size “ like I was a freak. I have always been bemused with women with large shoe collections…for most of my life I’d only have maybe 1 pair trainers, one flat, one heal, ankle boots and walking boots plus slippers- if I could get replacements for those when they wore out I considered it good luck.
happy days since the internet- I could buy shoes fairly easily…but old habits die hard and I haven’t bought any new shoes since 2018 🤣🤣🤣