The Gold Block Heels We Keep Coming Back To

I bought my first pair of gold block heels for a wedding in 2019, wore them for exactly four hours before switching to the flip flops the venue thoughtfully left in a basket by the dance floor, and told everyone who asked that they were “just not my kind of shoe.” That was a lie. They were fine. I just hadn’t figured out yet that block heels aren’t one category, they’re at least three, and I’d bought the wrong one for what I actually needed that night, which was to stand on grass for six hours without filing a complaint with my own ankles.

What I keep coming back to now is a two and a quarter inch heel with a block wide enough that I’m not doing math on every uneven sidewalk in Charlotte. That number matters more than it sounds like it should. Anything under two inches on a block heel and you’re basically wearing a very shiny loafer, which is its own thing and fine, but not what I’m buying gold for.

Anything over three and the “stable block heel” premise starts lying to you, because a tall enough block can wobble just as hard as a stiletto, it just wobbles in a way that surprises you because you weren’t braced for it.

Stairs are where the whole category tells the truth. A good pair, I take stairs like a normal person, one foot after the other, no hand on the railing, no mental negotiation. A bad pair, and I’ve had a few, the negotiation starts on step two and it’s always the same conversation with myself about whether this outfit is worth a twisted ankle in a parking garage.

You Might Also Like

My Linen Trousers Came Out Of The Wash A Different Size Than I Remembered

My Sandals Dug In For The First Few Wears Before They Finally Gave

I Nearly Ruined A Swimsuit In The Wash And Learned Something About Shrinking

Brown Or Black Leather Jacket Turned Into A Longer Decision Than It Had Any Right To Be

There’s a running disagreement on my group chat about the finish, and it usually stays quiet until someone posts a flash photo from a party and it flares back up. Under bright office lighting, the good ones look like brushed brass, quiet, almost matte, easy to wear with actual work clothes.

Under flash, some of them go full disco ball, which one friend thinks is the whole point of buying gold in the first place and I think is how you end up looking like the shoe wore you. We have never resolved this. We are not going to.

I’ll say the gamble part plainly, because I’d rather you know going in, a shoe this shiny reads as a statement on some people and as trying too hard on others, and there’s no honest way to promise you which one you’ll get. On me, with the right pant length, it works. On a client I styled last spring who’s five foot eleven, the same exact heel looked like it was competing with her for attention, and we moved on to something quieter within about ten minutes. So it’s not universal. It’s just, when it’s right, one of the only shoes in my closet that makes an ordinary outfit look like I made a decision.