How Socks Became the Unexpected Fashion Hero of Lockdown

  I’m calling it: socks are the new shoes.

    Just as staying in is the new going out, conference calls are the new birthday drinks and a flourishing sourdough starter is the new

    aspirational accessory in our topsy-turvy world, so outdoor footwear has been swiftly relegated in favour of its former deputy. Socks.

    It’s a dismal time in most respects, sure, but a really exciting time where your second drawer down is concerned. The

    underwear-as-outerwear trend, one of fashion’s most elusive legends, is finally playing out for real. But on feet.

    Of course, socks have been shuffling back onto the fashion agenda for a while now. It happens every decade or so, when the separate

    trend spheres of kitsch, preppy and 1970s all swing back into orbit around the same time. For the past few months, we’ve seen more and

    more statement pairs grace the catwalks and Instagram grids – thick, sturdy hiking socks casually rumpled above our lace-up Little Women

    boots, glittery neon guys dressing up our Dad sneakers, and sheer, lacy numbers peeking out from platforms and prim Mary-Janes. Once the

    preserve of the dowdy and blister-prone, pop socks are finally part of the outfit.

    Then came *All This*. Shoes became redundant for 23 hours a day, and suddenly socks have been propelled from supporting cast member to a

    starring role, the likes of which they haven’t enjoyed since the gymnasium “sock hops” of the 1950s. Especially now that so many of us

    have given up brushing and/or washing our hair for the foreseeable, and it’s easier to just point the camera at our feet (probably next

    to a slice of banana bread, improbably balanced on a duvet).

    As the days merge together into one continuous mass of stretchy grey, socks are a cheery way to punctuate the meh. Some mornings, I

    start with my socks and work upwards.