Socks

[gilana]

For as long as I can remember, I have worn sweat socks. At some point I tried to get classy and started getting some of them in black, although many of my pairs are now old enough that they're closer to grey. But I'm dressing a little better in general these days, and I'm starting to get a little self-conscious about my dingy sweat socks peeking out between my nice dress pants and my funky purple suede clogs. So, this week, I invested in several pairs of girl socks. You know the kind I mean... they're short, and thin, and they have pretty patterns on them. Stripes, and polka dots, and flowers, and minimalist argyles... no cartoon characters, but I may get there yet. I'm still trying to figure out how to choose socks for an outfit -- do they need to match? complement? or just not clash terribly? but I'm confident I can learn.

So! Talk to me of socks! What kind do you wear? Knee socks? Toe socks? Tube socks? Do they match? Do you choose them by thickness or height or color or what? Tell me all!

Comments

[skreeky]

Socks are a funny critter, aren't they? My sock decisions come down to the fact athat I am smack between sizes for womens' pants lengths. Too short to be "tall" but too tall to be "average." I generally end up with "average" pants which come to my shoe tops when they're new, as opposed to "tall" which rumple up wierdly. But then they shrink in the wash over time.

So a good deal of my dress pants are an inch too short. In the winter, I simply wear short boots All The Time. In summer, I aim to just wear dressy capris or skirts and sandals without socks.

When I sit down, however, the bottom of my pants generally hitch up high enough that you can see a bit of leg over my boot tops. In winter, I generally haven't shaved and it's scary-white, so this is bad.

My rule of thumb, thus, is that if I'm bothering to wear socks at all, they should be knee socks and match my pants or boots as closely as possible, so as to minimize my other fashion issues. I own a large number of black and brown knee socks the same color as my boots.

[vanguardcdk.livejournal.com]

My lifestyle (read=walking all over the place every day) tends to be very hard on my socks. I can't wear business or professional style socks at all..I blow out the heel within a month.
So it's always athletic socks for me. They last a good 6 months to a year before the heel starts to go. :)

[gilana]

Huh, I hadn't even thought of that. Wonder if these will go faster than my old ones? Oh well, we'll see.

[kalliejenn2.livejournal.com]

oh yes, they do wear out much more quickly! i have to wear "dress socks" - thin black ones, mostly - when i work @ AT - and they wear out in about 4 mos. they also don't provide much cushion or absorption, so i try to get out of them as soon as i'm out of work (because i hate them).

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Let's see...Mostly I wear black tights, because mostly what I wear is skirts. I'm not sure what the black socks are called that I wear with trousers--they are thin, but not as short as girl socks. They might be really cheap men's trouser socks. Anyways, they are all very boring and I should replace them with cute socks. With pictures of fish on. Or butterflies.

Re: matching. The more your outfit matches, the more formal you will look. So, purple shirt, black pants, plain socks that are the same shade of purple as your shirt, will look more formal than purple shirt, green pants, zany socks. You have lots of options. :)

[magid.livejournal.com]

I've given up on knee socks as knee socks; my calves are apparently too large. Or at least, when I can get the socks all the way up to my knee, there's definitely a constriction of blood flow. So I tend to stick to shorter socks, but not the absolute tiny short ones, when have a tendency to slide down my heel and into my shoe. Oh, and I can't stand tube socks for some reason.

I have a variety of socks ranging from sport to more interesting, plus plain black. Since I mostly wear skirts, I figure socks mostly don't look right anyway, so I can play around. I still tend to match the fun ones to my outfit when I wear them.

Oh, and I don't care about thickness, particularly, though I know that thin ones will wear out faster and thick ones may be cushier on the feet (but all the fun patterns are on thin ones).

[saraheeyore.livejournal.com]

I have lots of socks - athletic socks, hiking-type socks, socks with animals and patterns and stripes, wool socks, stripy knee socks...there are enough that they live in a basket instead of a drawer, because they crowded out my underwear. I like socks.

I tend to pick my socks on any given day based on my mood (well, unless I'm doing something requiring a particular kind of socks, like walking particularly far or dressing up more than usual). If it's going to be a crappy day, I wear more cheerful socks. It helps! Otherwise I sometimes match them to what I'm wearing. As much as I ever match anything, anyway.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

I have two bins of socks.

One contains plain black socks. These are in a variety of heights and weights and I chose between them based on the weather and my footwear (I have shoes that do not fit right with thicker or thinner socks and I want my socks to come between the top of the boot and my legs, when wearing boots). I wear black socks when I'm wearing a black top or with black pants when I don't want my socks to be noticed. Except for the black toe socks, which I wear to parties where I will take my shoes off.

The other bin contains non-black socks and black socks with stuff on them (fish, reindeer, moose, etc.). I often wear those socks to match my top or because they're fun and casual.

At the moment I'm wearing some of my current-favorite socks, which no one else would find remarkable. They are a soft, denim blue and I am wearing them with denim jeans, blue suede shoes and a navy tee.

[elizabear.livejournal.com]

With white sneakers, I wear either white socks or socks to match my shirt or pants. With black shoes, I wear black socks. Since women's socks are more expensive and thinner weave, I buy black athletic socks in the men's department.

On days when I'm in the mood, I will wear Muppets or zoo animals or something else entertaining.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

I adore socks, and generally buy what are considered "novelty socks" -- with Stuff on them. Doggies! Penguins! Flowers! Sometimes just patterns, too. Or pretty colors.

Most of my socks are... I don't know what they call it, mid-calf length? Not knee socks, though I have a few pairs of those also. And I buy a lot of men's socks, because (a) I have big feet that kind of max out women's sock sizes depending on how stretchy the socks are, and (b) they are good for funky yet understated patterns.

[bacall.livejournal.com]

This discussion fascinates me, as I do not wear socks (except with gym shoes) and had no idea there was such a wide variety of options out there!

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

My sock drawer is like a dreary singles bar with nobody being a match for anyone else. I don't know how I manage to lose one sock from almost every pair, but I do. All the socks are a shade of black, so I can get away with wearing an almost-matching pair. But it's rare when I get to wear two socks that were actually made for each other!

[bookly.livejournal.com]

I wear pants 364 days a year, and right now all my pants are black. Most of my socks are black women's socks from Target; I don't know what type they are, but when I fold them, the bit below the heel and the bit above the heel are the same length. I also have some funky socks of the same type in various colors: a couple of pairs of gray with red patterns, a green pair, a nice patchwork-y blue pair, some solid blues... So, not very exciting, I'm afraid.

Good luck!

an enunciation excercise

[awhyzip.livejournal.com]

"Give me the gift of the grip top sock.
A drip drape, ship shape, tip top sock.
Not your spinslick, slap stick, slip slop stock;
But a plastic elastic, grip top sock.

None of your fantastic slack swap slop
From a slap-dash, flash-cash, haberdash shop;
Not a knick knack, kit-lock,
Knock-kneed knickerboxers sock
With a mock-shot, blob-mottled tricktickertock clock;

Not a rucked-up, puckered-up flop-top sock;
Not a super-sheer, seersucker ruckasack sock;
Not a spot-speckeled, frog-freckled cheap sheik’s sock
Off a hodge-podge, moss potched, botched
scotch block

Nothing slip shod, drip drop, flip flop, or glip glop,
Tip me to a tip top, grip top sock! "

:-)

Re: an enunciation excercise

[gilana]

Funny, that just showed up elsewhere on my friends list -- had never seen it before. Or is that where you got it, too? I forget who posted about it...

Re: an enunciation excercise

[awhyzip.livejournal.com]

oh yes, i copied this over from a comment in greenlily's lj. it seemed a great coincidence to share [and enjoy]!

[alfie1981.livejournal.com]

I love socks...more than anyone has a right to. I own two (or three) white pairs, two black pairs, and a beige pair...beyond that they are ALL colored and patterned. And I have a ton of socks, which mitigates the wear-out factor - I'm able to cycle through them at a slow enough rate.

I have patterns (stripes, dots, argyles) and pictures (milk and cookies, pigs with wings, three different pairs of penguin socks...), and I mostly wear them in pairs, having passed my whichever-two-come-out-of-the-drawer-first phase of a couple of years ago. They are mostly ankle to calf-height, with some knee socks thrown in. I usually try for some modicum of matching, but I really enjoy the reaction I get when my pants ride up to reveal some truly outrageous socks (especially from 6th graders).

[kjc007.livejournal.com]

The idea of my giving advice about socks made me laugh and laugh and laugh.

Just wanted to share that.

About halfway between the Porter Sq. T stop & Linnaean St. there is a little shoe shop that specializes in clogs. They have hundreds of socks in all different styles and colors.

If your dress socks wear out quickly, you could wear comfy socks for walking, then switch to dress socks when you get into the office, then switch out again before going home.

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

This is one of the most amusing and fascinating set of comments to a post that I have seen in a while. Who knew that a discussion on sox could inspire such a vast range of creative responses? No one has yet mentioned Red Sox - so I do, just for the fun of the baseball season. My favorite pair(s) of sox are knitted, patterned, gaily colored - the right sock does not match the left sock, although they co-ordinate with each other by using similar colors and patterns. I have one pair in red-yellow-royal blue-and-black and another in bright pink-purple-aqua-yellow-and-orange. They always make me smile - and other people smile, too, when they see them. I wear them with pants during the day, with PJs at night, with a skirt when I am feeling silly, to keep my feet warm anytime - but never with a bathing suit.