Quote of the Day

"The reason I ask [about your relationship] is because relationships must be carefully tended, like a garden, or a nuclear reactor of some sort."

- Padma of Friendly Hostility looking out for his son.

Fashion III: Socks

Wherein telerib continues to navigate the treacherous waters of feminine fashion

Socks and engineers are ancient and bitter enemies. Usually, the socks win. Pants accidentally tucked into socks. White athletic socks. Socks with sandals.

I'm seriously not joking here.

For many years, my own special sin was wearing the white athletic socks. Not with sandals, because even I know that's just dorky. Not with heels, because clearly you wear hose with heels (although I tried to get away with knee-his even when it was a Bad Idea until the middle of college). But with loafers? Sure. Black sneakers? Sure. Boat shoes? Why not? My sock drawer was entirely full of white cotton.

And by "many years" I mean "until this past January, when I finally realized that white socks with brown loafers looks idiotic." Yes, real people, actual smart people that you know, actually live out this stereotype. So I betook myself to Target to acquire dress socks in black and brown.

(The Quest for Good Socks will undoubtedly be continuing. I insist on cotton or mostly-cotton blend, having had quite enough of icky nylon dress socks in Catholic school. Of the current set, half have a tendency to creep under the arch of my foot; that's what I get for buying discount brands at Target, I suppose. But that's an aside: I believe that the proper form of sock has been identified, and now it merely remains to hunt down actual wearable examples of the sock.)

I have two pairs of work shoes: the aforementioned brown loafers (which take brown socks) and a nice pair of black flats from Easy Spirit (which take black socks, although...). Today, since I'm trying out the spiffy Saks 5th Ave blazer I scored at Goodwill, I thought I'd wear some comfortable heels. They're actually dancing shoes I got when I enrolled in a flamenco class - black pumps with an ankle strap.

"Black shoes = black socks," I told myself as I got dressed. But... do they?

My feet are two size 10W ninjas. The shoes could have an ankle strap or not, or toe cleavage or not, or just about any other feature (or not), and you'd never know it. Because for these things to show, they need to be displayed on a field of not-black. These are shoes that are meant to be worn with hose.

Bleah. Icky nylon. Which raises the question: if one can find cotton dress socks in a color which approximates skin tone, might one...?

OK, probably not. But a girl can dream.

My provisional analysis: there is nothing wrong with ninja feet. There is also nothing particularly right with them. Since the shoes themselves, while attractive, aren't "super fantastic," it isn't a mortal sartorial sin to blend them in with the socks. But if I were somewhere like a conference, I should pair them with nylons.