When you realize that socks make up a major piece to the puzzle of your outfit your world of opportunity is infinitely more complex in building the perfect combination. But creating your outfit is ultimately more fun too. Back in my more bold days, I had a friend that always wore Navy/Black socks and I always wondered why as he was very stylish guy, one of the most stylish in fact. Fast forward to present day, and the reality is that I wear 80% Navy/Black socks too and now understand why my friend was doing that. However, I do reserve that 20% for those really sunny days that I feel like expressing myself through color and when I actually put my mind to it, feel good about the combinations that I come up. I can imagine that many others feel the same as once you master the sock game, you have reached the peak of styling yourself as socks are pretty much the hardest thing to get right. It’s a fine line between hitting the bullseye and going overboard.
There are several trains of thought when it comes to using your socks to complement your wardrobe:
- Tonal against trouser: This is probably the most common form and is ultimately the safest and most conservative look as this essentially elongates your legs and ultimately is the most ‘elegant’ and classic. This is my ‘80%’ and probably also makes up that of 80% of the world that follows this too as it is the easiest since most of us wear navy trousers and navy socks are the most common.
- Contrasting: This is for the bold whereby you wear a sock that is neither matching your shoes nor your trousers but is contrasting in a complementary nature in tone to both your shoes and your trousers. The last picture, at the very bottom, represents this idea very well.
- Blending the sock to both shoe and trouser: This is my favorite but probably least seen as it involves the sock having the same tones as your trouser and shoes (see picture directly below), which is not an easy thing to find unless you are wearing black shoes/grey trousers, as there are a lot of socks out there with that color combination. I think that doing this offers the perfect blend of being bold yet subtle at the same time as the tonal, yet contrasting nature is not strong but ‘shows.’
If all that you have ever done is point 1, do yourself a favor and try step 2 or 3, whichever feels more naturally comfortable. After getting the hang of it, you won’t want to go back to being more subdued, at least not in the Spring/Summer!
All of the socks in this post are by Mes Chaussettes Rouges, who I feel offer the greatest selection of socks known to our industry. Never before has someone matched their size of inventory (in the higher-end realm) and they are constantly adding more and more pieces to their expanding collection. They are an advertiser of mine, but also my friends. I support them as they are two young amazing individuals who have built their company on great product and amazing customer service. I will never stop supporting them and truth be told, their socks are all that I wear. It’s not difficult to see why when you see the cool socks shown in this collection.
https://www.meschaussettesrouges.com/
