Comeback Dear Aargauer, white socks are back in fashion
No trace of shame: singer Billie Eilish also likes to wear white socks with shorter trousers.
Image: dpa
No longer a no-go: white socks and slippers are a trend for some people.
Image: dpa
White socks are in - they are pulled up to be clearly visible with shorts
Image: dpa
No trace of shame: singer Billie Eilish also likes to wear white socks with shorter trousers.
Image: dpa
No longer a no-go: white socks and slippers are a trend for some people.
Image: dpa
White socks are in - they are pulled up to be clearly visible with shorts
Image: dpa
Only sneaker socks go with sports shoes? Such supposed fashion certainties can quickly become outdated. White socks are back in fashion - the more visible, the better. A footwear counter-trend from GenZ?
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- White socks were long considered extinct and were only tolerated on the tennis court.
- Now the controversial fashion item is making a comeback.
- "Instead of almost invisible socks, they have to be socks that you can see from a kilometer away," noted the German newspaper Süddeutsche recently.
- Momoll, white socks are back in fashion - the more visible, the better.
For a long time, they were the nightmare of style experts and supposedly the distinguishing feature of German tourists abroad when wearing sandals: the white sock.
But fashion is always changing.
And so it is that sporty socks worn with pride or defiance are now trendy and no longer a no-go. They are even worn with shorts, pulled up high so that the brand is clearly visible (Nike, Adidas, Puma and co.).
The white sock is back.
In other words, they may never have gone, but they had a bad reputation. That's over now. Style icons from the so-called Generation Z (also known as GenZ or Zoomer; refers to today's 15 to 30-year-olds) - from pop star Billie Eilish to actor Paul Mescal - wear old-fashioned, classic socks as a matter of course.
By 2024 at the latest, the motto will be: leave the short sneaker socks (for millennials, meaning those aged between 30 and 45) in the wardrobe - and even more so the socks that make it look like we're barefoot in our shoes.
The people of Aargau have always known this
"Instead of almost invisible socks, we need socks that can be seen from a kilometer away," wrote the German newspaper Süddeutsche recently.
As a fashion show guest in Milan, Paul Mescal showed off an "uninhibited and untanned, bare-haired man's leg in a white baggy sock". "German pensioners have always known it."
And so have the people of Aargau, of course. After years of ridicule, the wind has changed. In Paris and New York, stars walk the catwalks with white socks on their feet. And pop singer Justin Bieber strolls through Los Angeles with white-covered ankles as if he came from Wettingen AG.
For the Gucci campaign, film and series star Mescal posed with white socks in loafers. He then wore them at the label's fashion show in mid-June. What caused even more of a stir was that the 28-year-old looked as if he had forgotten to put on pants. The Irishman was only wearing shorts. Very short (boxer) shorts.
The Viennese "Standard" commented that this was now chic: "Anyone who shows thighs in this heat has not lost control of their fashionable appearance."
W Magazine said that men could also "try out the trend of openly showing off their underwear". But that's actually another story. Back to the socks.
"The comeback of the visible sock is a counter-trend"
"The comeback of the visible sock is a kind of counter-trend to a phase in which it was chic to show ankles, wear booties or do without socks altogether and slip into shoes barefoot," says fashion editor Sebastian Schwarz from the trade magazine "TextilWirtschaft".
He continues: "A trend that could also be uncomfortable for the feet. And above all, it looked funny once you took your shoes off."
Clothing historian Julia Burde explains: "The man in sandals and white socks is a much-criticized figure. The criticism is directed less at the white and more at the wearing of socks in sandals, which does not correspond to the original meaning of either the sock or the sandal."
The mockery of white socks as a male fashion sin has virtually taken on a life of its own in recent decades.
For some time now, socks of all kinds have been a fashion statement again. Raised tennis socks are worn with sneakers, elegant loafers, but also with Birkenstocks and trekking sandals, as Schwarz explains.
"In the streetwear and hip-hop context, white socks are also boldly combined with pool slides and Adilettes." Show socks, yes or no? "It always depends on the style and the outfit. And of course on the trousers and shoes. Not every trend suits everyone."
Historically, white stands for boil wash and personal hygiene
Historically, white socks can be traced back to sportswear in the 19th century in the Anglo-American region, says Burde, who teaches the cultural history of clothing at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK).
"The color white indicates hot washing at boiling temperature, which no dyeing could withstand in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In this respect, white is synonymous with personal hygiene."
From around the 1940s, white socks became part of teenage and college fashion in the USA. "The white sock was inextricably linked to the penny loafer, the mandatory shoe for the school uniform of both sexes at elite American universities since the 1930s."
The visibility of the sock emphasized the fact that the loafer was a youthful loafer shape; bright white served above all to set the scene visually.
The youthful fashion style of wearing socks visibly corresponded to the tapered trousers of the 1940s, with the hemline of the pants being deliberately small, or the narrow ankle-length pants of Italian men's fashion of the 1950s and 1960s.
Socks in sandals as a rebellion against fashion consciousness?
"Alongside these counter-cultural practices, the white tennis sock retained a decidedly functional meaning as a mass-produced item that belongs in the context of sportswear and casual," says Burde.
Since the 1950s, Casual Friday has allowed middle-class American men to wear comfortable office clothes, such as short-sleeved shirts, once a month.
In this way, "casual" merged with sportswear to become the term for everything informal and comfortable that rejects dress codes and principles of elegance.
"This is expressed in the stereotype of unfashionable leisurewear for men in tennis socks and sandals, who thus set themselves apart from a supposedly feminine fashion consciousness."