How to Shop for Large Size Shoes

A girls guide to heels, heights and happiness

By Alex Oxborough

Co-Editor Isy B. Shoes, the shopping directory and blog for large size shoe shopping

There is nothing like a cute new pair of heels to put a spring in your step and a wiggle in your walk. Because heels give you a literal lift, they also give you confidence — or the illusion of confidence — so they are a key weapon in any woman’s armor. In the past shopping for heels could be tricky if you took a large size, but happily there are now some great brands and designers making beautiful shoes in larger sizes. 

Here’s our guide to buying your new favorite pair of heels:

Fit & Sizing 

Our number one tip for buying heels you will love to wear? Fit. It sounds obvious, but heels look great because they shift the weight of your body forwards, which straightens out your posture and gives your hips a natural swing. The catch is that any issues in their fit are more acute, and can quickly give you foot health issues that negatively impact your posture in the long run. 

If you have wide feet, then you might like to check out Samanta Shoes (up to size 14) who offer a wide fit option, or Ultimate Shoes, who have a basic website, but cute shoes in a great range of sizes and widths. For large sizes and narrow fittings, then you might like Ghigo Calzature (up to size 15), as Italian-made shoes often come up narrow. Just make sure you check your shoe size (it changes over time) and the exact product measurements before buying as size conversions between countries are not exact.

Balance

The key to feeling great in high heels is balance. Shoes that are not well made can often lack balance in the heel and leave your ankles feeling wobbly as you walk. Better quality shoes often have steel reinforced heels to keep you steady, and for styles such as very high heels and stilettos this becomes very important. To check whether the shoes you are trying on have good balance walk up and down on them on carpet or a rug for a while, if you can’t get into a swing with them by leaning back into the heel a little and loosening your knees, then they lack the balance you need. 

Brands that pay a lot of attention to balance include Stuart Weitzman (up to size 14), who prides himself on designing high heels you can walk in, and Sensational Soles (sizes 11-14), a new brand with great manufacturing values.

Heel Height

Killer heels can be just that. As Mr. High Heels himself, Christian Louboutin said, “High heels are beauty with pain.” And after a few hours in his signature Pigalle sky-high needle heels, anyone would agree. High heels are about feeling good and having fun with your look, so if you don’t feel confident in super high heels, then go for a low or medium heel to start. Many tall women find high heels scary (I did for years), but the good news — if you are tall — kitten heels really only suit tall people, so you have the option to make like Michelle Obama, and make the more wearable kitten heel your own.

If you fancy splashing out on your dream designer pair of shoes Christian Louboutin only goes up to a size 12, but Jimmy Choo goes up to size 13, and has the flirty Aza kitten heel style. If you dream of designing your own shoes, then check out Shoes of Prey (to size 15, great width options), their fun app lets you picks from dozens of style and materials options to create your own shoe design masterpiece — and they are a fraction of the price of luxury shoe brands.

Happiness!

At Isy B. we firmly believe buying cute shoes should be all about having fun and feeling beautiful. So experiment with what suits you, and what makes you feel good. Just remember — sexy does not have a size. 

So there you go, our guide to shopping for large size shoes. For more tips, tricks and big shoe brands check out Isy B. Shoes. Our community generated shopping directory has hundreds of large size brands for every size and occasion. You can search for your next favorite store, and pay it forward with your brand and designer reviews. We hope to see you there!

Wearing Christina Stambolian.

Femulating Princess Diana.

Stana's Got a Brand New Bag

My co-workers have seen me as a woman the last three Halloweens in a row in addition to two other Halloweens around the turn of the century. If they looked closely, they also may have seen me wear items of woman's clothing on days that do not fall on the last day of October including lady's shoes, hosiery, slacks, jeans and tunics. If they had X-ray vision, panties, bras, and girdles would also be seen on occasion.

If the weather is bad or if I have a doctor's appointment on a workday, I work from home. This necessitates carrying my laptop home everyday.

My computer bag is now carrying its third laptop. It is showing its age and features a broken zipper and a handle which is going to give up the ghost any day now.

When I received a new laptop a few weeks ago, I mentioned to my boss that I could use a new computer bag, too. She told me to buy a new one and expense it.

I began shopping for a new computer bag and was surprised that on the Staples website, there are  computer bags offered for men, women, girls and the unisexed. (Why not "boys" is the subject for another blog post.) Naturally, I checked out the women's computer bags and found a few that were decidedly womanly.

I thought about it for a day or two and finally ordered a women's computer bag that looks more like a woman's bag than a computer bag (see image above). I look forward to carrying it to work!

Alison St. John

Rain or Shine

May 2003, Dayton, Ohio

A few years ago, there was a study by the state of Connecticut to determine the average rainfall in various locations throughout the state. Turned out that my neighborhood has the highest average rainfall in the state.

My neighborhood is also located on one of the highest points in the county. As a result, spring comes late in my neck of the woods and there are still piles of snow hither and yon.

The last snow disappeared from my yard last week, so at the crack of dawn yesterday, I swapped snow shovels for rakes and began dealing with the mess Mama Nature left for me over the winter.

I tried to do too much and ran out of gas by mid-afternoon. So I relaxed the rest of the day and never touched a keyboard. As a result, I am composing Monday morning's blog post on Monday morning!

Wanda Weather is predicting rain for most of the week, which is kind of disappointing. Thursday, I am doing outreach at Southern Connecticut State University and before outreach, I was planning on stopping at Hubbard Park in Meriden, Connecticut, for a selfie photoshoot among the daffodils. (Hubbard Park is the site of Meriden's annual daffodil festival.) But if it is raining, I'll probably go shopping instead.

And as I mentioned here on Friday, Saturday I will be at the UConn Health Center for Transgender Lives: The Intersection of Health and Law Conference. So this girl has a busy week ahead of her, rain or shine.

Wearing T. Tahari.

Lou Diamond Phillips in the 2003 film Hollywood Homocide.

Nicole's Favorite Photos (of Nicole!)

I have followed your blog for a long time and have now summoned up the courage to send you a couple of pictures. 

I have been cd/trangender for ever it seems. Married to a very understanding wife and at 72, still trying. I am in the UK, but lived for many years in Canada and have attended Esprit in Port Angeles. 

The first pic was a few months ago going at a local group of Ladies "Lynx Ladies." 

Best Wishes,

Nicole


XXX

My open invitation to post your favorite photo along with the story behind it and the reason it is your favorite photo still stands, so don't be shy, send me your fave foto. ― Stana

Wearing Lulu.

Monika Catherine

Rhonda's Favorite Photo (of Rhonda!)

Hi Hon,

You have been an inspiration. Back in 2013 you posted a picture of a girl wearing this dress. I had to get it and wore it to my first Sin City Soiree, which is a week-long transgirl meeting that occurs every May in Las Vegas.

Thanks for inspiring. You rock!

Rhonda

My open invitation to post your favorite photo along with the story behind it and the reason it is your favorite photo still stands, so don't be shy, send me your fave foto. ― Stana

Wearing Light in the Box.

Terry Sweeney as Nancy Reagan on Saturday Night Live in 1985.

Transgender Lives Conference Next Saturday

The 9th annual Transgender Lives: The Intersection of Health and Law Conference is next Saturday, April 25 at the UConn Health Center in Farmington, Connecticut. Running from 8 AM to 5 PM, Fantasia Fair Friend Dallas Denny is the keynote speaker at 3;30 PM and yours truly will be co-presenting "Crossdressing in the Real World" with Jan Brown at 10:45 AM (the full schedule is here).

UCONN Health Center is exactly half way between Boston and New York City and is just off I-84 Exit 39.

I hope to see you there!

Wearing Eight Six

A dragkepnni celebration in Iceland, 2013

Throwback Thursday: His Hanes

Back in 1998, this pin-up girl artwork by Gil Elvgren inspired me to modify it in a femulating way and post it in my old blog nFem. I gave the girl a boy's haircut, modified her bra so that her bust appeared to be more boy-like and added the caption to parody the classic tagline from the Hanes' ads of the 1970s and 1980s.

The parody took on a life of its own and appeared on the Internet in places where girls like us hang out.

Also, my parody (or Elvgren's original) may have inspired a photographic version, which I found on Pinterest.

Always trying to improve things, I took another stab at the parody in 2004. I changed the femulator's haircut, thickened her eyebrows, inserted falsies, added the package of Hanes hosiery and the blurb below the tagline.

Always trying to improve things, I may revisit the parody in the near future.

10 Million and Counting

Earlier this week, the hit counter for this blog passed the 10 million mark! I thank you all for making that possible.

On a typical day, Femulate gets about 5,000 hits, but as I write this midday on Wednesday, the blog has gotten over 36,000 hits so far! That's about a week's worth of hits in half a day! What is going on?

Wearing Sally LaPointe (coat), J.W. Anderson (skirt) and Vince (blouse)

Walton Goggins in television's Sons of Anarchy.

Amazed and Jealous

Stana in 1976

I am always amazed (and jealous) to see all the young women posting their photos and stories at Reddit's Crossdressing.

"Amazed" because there are so many girls coming out and they all look amazing. "Jealous" because there were no resources like it when I was coming out as a young woman. (Girlfriends helping boyfriends with their makeup just blows my mind. Back when I was young, if I asked a girlfriend to help me with my makeup, she would have dumped me posthaste.)

I came out very slowly... so slowly that I am still coming out. Coming out, I was discouraged from every direction... not in so many words, but rather by society's general attitude toward girls like us.

My peers were treated like freaks and bozos and that discouraged me from getting on board the bus. It was easier to deny my true self and live a lie pretending to be a "man." Despite my denials, my femininity was so imbedded in me that I did not fit in well with other men because of my girlish characteristics and mannerisms.

Being a man was a bad fit, which became obvious to me as my occasional crossdressing fit so well and I finally accepted the fact that I was a woman all along.

If Reddit's Crossdressing or just the Internet existed when I was young, it probably would have accelerated all that, but it did not exist, so I did the best that I could.

Wearing Nicole Miller.

Patrick Swayze power-suited in the 1995 film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.

Power Suit

Yesterday, I wrote about the power of wearing a short skirt and high heels. In addition to wielding the power in a home improvement store, I discovered that combination works in other places, too.

When I spent a long weekend in Manhattan, a short hemline and heels sure came in handy when hailing a taxi cab. I never failed to nab the first cab I hailed when I was wearing my "power suit."

My power suit is not necessarily a jacket and matching pencil skirt. My power suit consists of a skirt or dress with a hem at or above the knee and high heel pumps with a three-inch or higher heel.

My power suit is more than adequate to gain the upper hand over the male sex. Dressed so, I can wrap a male around my little finger. Even males who are aware of my birth gender have fallen under my power.

It is so easy! I don't even have to think about unleashing the power because males usually succumb to it automatically.

Women are the stronger sex, but we play along that we are the fairer sex because along with our uniforms, it is part of our strategy to have our way with the real weaker sex.

Wearing Ann Taylor.

Actor Steven Weber in television's The Comedians (2015)

(Thank you, Zoe)

Shopping for Hardware in Software

My shopping for hardware wear!

A number of girls wondered about the dress Christina Marie wore in her Favorite Photos post last week.

I wondered too, so I asked her and she revealed that she bought it at JCPenney “a few years back.  Just couldn’t resist buying it after trying it on.”

Here is a link to the dress, but bad news girls, it is sold out.

Christina Marie added, “So much easier to shop for things when in girl mode, huh?”

Yes, indeed!

You have your shapewear strategically in place, so you know how the item will fit when you try it on and you are in makeup and wearing a do, so you know how the item will look on madam.

Yes, shopping in girl mode is so much easier… even if you are not shopping for girly things!

Which reminds me of the time I visited a Lowe's home improvement store in girl mode to get a replacement part for a piece of plumbing that failed. I had no trepidation about going to Lowe's and I found my trip very revealing.

Whenever I go to Lowe's or Home Depot in boy mode, I have to find and ask a store employee when I need help. In girl mode, I had a male Lowe's employee practically at my beck and call without asking. 

When he saw me looking lost in the plumbing department, he asked what I needed and directed me to the exact location where the part was displayed. After I found what I needed, he came over and compared it to the old part I had brought along to make sure I got the right part.

That's the power of a short skirt and high heels!

Wearing Halston Heritage.

Actor Robert Sella in television's In Plain Sight (2012).