A ribbed sock and a chunky sandal has been a niche fashion-nerd trend for a while. Now it’s gone mass
Hey, don’t let the photo put you off. Hear me out. Socks as a fashion statement are a trend, but you don’t have to go quite as far as I have done, and wear sport socks in public. In real life, I would be wearing plain ribbed socks, or possibly fishnet or lace ones if I was feeling particularly jazzy. But in a photo on this page you’d hardly notice those; it would look as if I had written my 345th love letter to the ankle boot. So here I am, in a sport sock. Made you look, right?
Almost everything in fashion is a comeback, but I’m not sure that socks have ever had a moment before. The associations of socks are all vaguely loser-ish. Smelly socks, lost socks, novelty socks. Keeping your socks on in bed. Socks are not public-facing clothes, but neither do they have the thrill of a stocking. Hosiery can be a status symbol – silk stockings as a symbol of rationing-defying luxury; the late-20th-century obsession with expensive velveteen opaques – but until recently the only chic way to wear socks was as an invisible layer under trousers long enough to cover them.
Related: What I wore this week: the wide-leg trouser | Jess Cartner-Morley
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