High heels completely eradicated from central London

[TheOGCCL]

I was in central London yesterday at lunchtime observing the office workers getting lunch. And not a single non flat shoe to be seen. Mostly the trainer and dress combo (all sorts of dresses and all sorts of trainers), also as its summer flat sandals. Same at the all-female conference I attended including all the speakers.

I've always been mystified by very high heels as they tend to look more unattractive than attractive as the wearer hobbles down the street like they've been hit by a car but think lower heels can look nice and add a bit of height and style. Clearly most people are not prepared to put up with uncomfortable shoes now.

I know of a number of people who went and got a blow-dry for their parents funerals. And why not? And to one such woman, the first thing I said wasn't 'I'm so sorry' but 'you look great!', much to my own embarrassment. I absolutely get the desire to look your best.

I went straight into trainers with dresses after DMs with dresses in about 1996. In terms of work, I used to go to the gym before work and only put my shoes on in the office, then found trainers were better for the commute anyway, or if I wanted to go and do a brisk walk in my lunch break.

I disagree

At my workplace people wear heels. From entry level staff to managers. Our dress code is smart casual so there’s heeled sandals/wedges, heeled boots and some wear pointed toe heels.

On nights out, people definitely still wear heels in my generation (I’m 24). Generally it’s some type of heeled sandal eg lace up, perspex

Out and and about during the day, overall people wear flats but there’s nothing wrong with wearing heels eg for lunch.

Heels haven’t been abandoned, I would just say people wear them less frequently and different kinds of heels now.

Yep - and there's a big difference between taking extra care of your appearance to look your best out of grief and respect vs dolling yourself up to the nines.

Plus, appearance can be armour against the emotion of the day.