Don’t scream, ladies, but socks with sandals is suddenly stylish
That’s what fashionistas say – and look who led the way
IT WAS once a look favoured only by geology teachers on holiday in Clacton, a fashion faux-pas guaranteed to cause children to point and stare. But – and brace yourselves here – this summer’s hot trend for men is the long-derided sock-and-sandal combo.
You can blame it on David Beckham, if you like. He was spotted last week leaving his Los Angeles gym in white socks and Adidas ‘sliders’ – footwear designed to help you avoid catching verrucas from leisure-centre swimming pools and now, inexplicably, a fashion item.
Yet Beckham is far from the only offender. Justin Bieber has been spotted in the outre pairing, so too Rihanna.
Then there is Jeremy Corbyn, showing impeccable on-trend credentials when pictured recently in charmless blue plastic sandals teamed, alluringly, with a pair of vermilion socks.
It all started as a catwalk curiosity, when the Versace Spring 2016 menswear show introduced the St Tropez-twinned-with-Margate vibe: a rolleddown cashmere sock poking above a leather braided sandal.
Then, in May, Vogue magazine found itself in paroxysms of delight after Kendall Jenner hit the red carpet in Cannes in a pair of Jimmy Choo stilettos and an ankle sock.
Cue an article entitled How To Wear Socks With Sandals And Not Look Like Your Dad At Disney.
Now, Topshop has declared Socks And Sandals Are Back. It is a virus embraced, too, by the likes of high street rival Zara and Asos.
The obvious question is why? But as with much else in the fashion industry, that remains a mystery.
Helping drive the trend is the rocketing popularity of the slider, or slide, sandal – an item of fashion that makes velour track pants appear as elegant as a three-piece suit from Savile Row.
Now in its 45th year, the Adidas ‘adilette’ was originally created for sportsmen to wear in the locker room. Wipe-clean, dirt-cheap and dog-ugly, they have now crept out of changing rooms and on to the pavements of Britain, increasingly teamed (as Beckham does) with a sports sock.
Even the language is absurd, as the look is said to combine two key trends of recent years: the so-called ‘normcore’ – a version of geek chic, which celebrates, well, the normal. Think Marks & Spencer Blue Harbour with a twist. And the ubiquitous ‘athleisure’ habit of wearing sports gear on all occasions.
And, no, I am not making these terms up.
Myself, I am far from convinced. Who wants to look like a mortuary technician or Jeremy Corbyn down on his allotment?
Yet, it is true, there is something dangerously comfortable about it all. Slipping Birkenstocks on to my besocked feet to take out the bins or pop to the end of the road makes my feet feel simultaneously liberated and cosseted.
But however snug my toes feel, it just looks awful.
What next? The return of the string vest and the knotted handkerchief?
You have been warned.