Something about Socks

The first thing people notice about you, is your face. The second is your shoes (remember the term “well-heeled”), and what’s right next to your shoes??? Look down. Socks!! Socks (called hosiery in finer men’s stores) protect your feet from rubbing against your shoes, keep your feet warm, and provide another style element in your wardrobe.

Foot Notes:

The word “sock” is derived from the Latin soccus, the Old English socc and the Middle English word socke. The “soccus” was a shoe worn by Roman comic actors. The Middle English socke meant a low shoe or slipper and later a knitted foot covering sometimes extending to the knee. “Hose” came from the Old English and Old High German word hosa, meaning leg covering. By 1583 the word "stocking" was used to describe a covering for the feet and legs. Stocking came from Middle English stok or stokke, meaning leg covering, from Old English stocc, tree trunk. A tree trunk isn’t too far from the shape of a human leg. The word evolved into “stock”, used to mean the covering for a leg. Upper stocks were breeches and netherstocks were the lower coverings or stockings. A pair of socks is referred to in the plural just like trousers. Coordination (for dress and casual):
Socks should match the color of your trousers not your shoes. Socks should be an extension of the trousers in color tone. They can be slightly darker than your trouser color. This gives an uninterrupted visual line from your waist to your shoes. Otherwise an observer's eye stops at your ankle; not an area we necessarily want to emphasize. You can use a secondary color in the sock (patterns, etc.) to match a tie, pocket square or shirt color. A burgundy tie for example with a touch of burgundy in your sock can be a great look. But no matter what kind of sock you're wearing, you have to be careful how you show them off. When you are walking or standing, the only way anyone should see your socks is if your trousers are too short. Obviously, guys in gyms don't have to sweat this detail, and if you're wearing shorts it doesn't apply, but otherwise your trousers should always be long enough to break on your shoes and cover your socks. One of the worst wardrobe gaffes you can make is to show skin at the ankle thus pulling the sock up to fashion prominence.

Here are the three categories of men's socks:

1. DRESS SOCKS. Rule of thumb: The dressier the situation, the darker the socks. In addition to being a dark color, dress socks are usually made from a fine fabric such as silk, although wool and cotton socks in a thin fabric are also appropriate. Some socks may also contain a percentage of Nylon for fit, durability and smooth appearance. It was the Victorians who insisted that men should wear dark socks. After Rev. William Lee of Nottinghamshire invented a machine to knit socks in 1589, all kinds of colors were worn. But the nineteenth century saw a return to more somber hues. Sock decoration became popular again after WWI, when shoes replaced ankle boots. Socks could again be seen, and an embroidered ankle decoration known as "clocks" became hot fashion stuff! The length of dress socks is more commonly over-the-calf (the longest available).

Weaves
Plain -- with no texture, it’s the most conservative
Ribbed – woven with raised vertical ribs
Cable -- a raised rib that intertwines.

2. CASUAL SOCKS. These are the socks you can wear in a wide range of situations -- whether you're wearing chinos, slacks or jeans. The rule still applies for matching socks with trousers, but with casual socks you can get into more color, pattern and texture. Heavier weight socks are perfectly okay in casual circumstances. For length, you can go for a mid-calf -- also known as crew socks. Just make sure your trousers fit properly so you don’t flash any leg skin when you sit down. Pattern. Socks can be any pattern imaginable – plaids, checks, dots, and stripes. The more pattern the more casual. Some Scotch for your ankle A note about Argyle. It’s a sporty multicolored diamond pattern reportedly first sold in the USA by Brooks Brothers in 1949 when the company president, John Clark Wood, noticed a Scottish golfer wearing them. The distinctive diamond pattern is derived form the original hosiery worn with Scottish tartans (plaids). They were cut from the same cloth as the kilt, but on the bias so that the squares on the kilt became diamonds on the stocking. The socks are not related to the clan Argyll (note the different spelling). Be wary of wearing dress socks with more casual outfits. Take it from Dashiell Hammett. Here's a clothing note from The Glass Key:

"He was looking at the blond man's outstretched ankles. He said, 'You oughtn't to wear silk stocks with tweeds.' Madvig raised a leg straight out to look at the ankle. 'No? I like the feel of silk.' Then lay off tweeds.' "

3. ATHLETIC SOCKS. Athletic socks are about the weight of casual socks, but they usually have a cushioned-sole or some other feature specific to the sport for which they were designed. Usually, they're white or white with colored stripes at top or with a logo. Athletic socks are mostly cotton, a natural fiber that lets your foot breathe and wicks away moisture. High tech fabrics may be incorporated into socks to provide superior wicking properties, warmth, and blister avoidance. Powder tip: If you use talc in your shoe, make sure it's in the shoe and not in your sock. Putting powder in your socks traps the moisture there.
Most Athletic socks are crew or mid-calf length, however for certain sports like running, an anklet (the shortest) is available. In other situations -- playing soccer, for instance -- over-the-calf is de rigueur.

Sock Care:

Machine wash in cold or warm water is fine. Remember socks take a beating, so don't expect them to last forever. Wash athletic socks in hot water to make sure you get the stains and smell out! Tip: When you buy a pair of socks get two or three pair of the same style and color. When the sock monster, who hides in the dryer and eats socks, consumes one of yours, you’ll still have others to match.

Fit:

There is such a thing as sock size! Really! Most men’s hose say “one size fits all” on the package thanks to the addition of some stretchy fabric like Nylon, but your real sock size is 1 ½ larger than your shoe size. If you wear a 9 shoe your socks should be size 10 ½. To ascertain sock quality and comfort, look for a flat seam across the toe. Go ahead, sock it to ‘em!


We remain with regards,
E-tailor at www.mycustomtailor.com

Preening Returns To Form -- And Thats Just Dandy

Its nice to know that American men havent taken recent corporate scandals lying down. No sir. They sucked in their guts, bade farewell to their families and hurried to the mall. The urge to look corporate -- sleek, commanding, prudent, yet with just a touch of hubris on your well-cut sleeve -- is an unexpected development in a time of business disgrace.

But surprising or not, sales of mens tailored clothing increased 23.7 percent last year to $4.3 billion, with suit sales alone jumping 34 percent. That halts an eight-year decline.

Some of the gain came from men replenishing wardrobes gone stale from casual Fridays. They probably also discovered that a suit, with its clean lines, was a more effective means of transmitting rank to a dull colleague than a golf shirt and a pair of khakis, and a much nicer way to spend ones bonus.

And though The Apprentice produced a type that represents to many in business the worst human qualities, there is no denying the impact of youth on suits, which are now more tapered, with narrower sleeves and flat-front trousers. This can transform seersucker or flannel into a sexy, yet still formal, package.

Young men are driving this trend, and its the guy in his 40s and 50s who needs to get moving, says Bill Downes, the mens buyer at Wilkes Bashford in San Francisco. In the business world, you want to project youth and vitality. Dockers and a baseball hat, thats not going to do it.

David Witman, the corporate merchandising manager for menswear at Nordstrom, does not agree that young men alone are behind the strong sales, but as he sees it, they now perceive tailored jackets and such accouterments as French-cuff shirts as cool. Its a completely new market for us, Witman says.

Beyond the dandy

But ultimately the timing of the suits return suggests a social shift, toward a climate of conservatism obviously, but also to a culture of money and business.

Theres a huge fascination with the corporate world, with big salaries and big businesses, says Tom Kalenderian, the general merchandising manager for mens fashion at Barneys New York. And that comes with the acceptance that you have to look the part.

To Kalenderian, the spike in tailored clothing recalls the 1980s, when New York was awash in Wall Street cash. Sales of made-to-measure suits at Barneys, which on average cost $2,200, have increased 59 percent during the past three years. More men are ordering custom shirts, suits with custom-color linings, jackets with real buttonholes on the sleeves and $2,000 custom-made shoes.

Its absolutely a keeping-up sort of thing, says Kalenderian, who describes the customer for all this excellence -- usually an investment banker or a chief executive but in any case rarely a middle manager -- as beyond valley of the dandy.

Many men dress well for the pleasure of it and because they know that clothes can telegraph all kinds of messages, above all belonging. Michael Millon, a venture capitalist in New York, recalls telling a friend in Paris who worked for Pierre Balmain that it seemed a waste of her talent to keep such a job just because she got nice clothes. Besides, he said, who would even notice the difference? To which she replied, Another woman in the same clothes.


That was an awakening for me, says Millon, 65, who wears well-cut, costly suits by Brioni and Kiton and admits to a weakness for shoes, especially in crocodile. At last count, he had 300 pairs.

As fashion commentators such as Anne Hollander, the author of Sex and Suits, and Tom Wolfe have observed, it is men, not women, who are more fashion-evolved, in part because of the 200-year-old tradition of the suit and in part because their clothes have more hidden esoteric details that a man can obsess over.

Peacock displays seem to come in 20-year cycles, reflecting the stock market as well as social changes. In the 60s, when Wolfe wrote The Secret Vice, about the mania for custom suits, Pop artists had come uptown, London was swinging, and it was cool to have your clothes made on Savile Row. Even Lyndon Johnson did, ordering six suits from the firm of Carr, Son & Woor, following the 1960 election, with the instructions, I want to look like a British diplomat.

Any outmoded term used to describe a current fascination invariably overstates the case, however. Just because a man splashes around color and pattern doesnt make him a dandy if the basic canvas -- the suit -- fits poorly. Similarly, a man can put on a $300 suit, and if he has gone to the trouble to have it properly fitted, and the rest of the picture isnt offensive, he will be noticed.

Even for those men who have mastered clothes, who perhaps realize its better to be in the hands of an obscure tailor than a flashy boutique salesman, there are limits to self-expression. Even in New York, the business world is still conservative, and dress is ruled by two areas, finance and corporate law. The most inflexible of rules is this: If youre a middle manager, you dont show up your boss or a client.

Im a banker at a branch, says Robert Magliulo, 35, a vice president at Citibank, who deals with private investors. Can I step out? Yes, but its not the norm. I have a Canelli suit that I bought at a discount. To me, its smoking. But I rarely wear it to the office and never if Im meeting with a client.

Magliulo, who has on a black Hugo Boss suit, a white shirt and a red Ferragamo tie as he speaks, continues: Its all perception. A client sees a guy in a $2,000 suit, and he thinks, He makes too much money; hes going to steal my money. So Magliulo considers the emotional response of a client, who very often may be dressed in a button-down shirt and khakis.

And as the corporate scandals have shown, its the chief executive who sets the tone, in both virtue and vice.

Its all about the CEO, Kalenderian says. If the CEO is a slob, then everybody is a slob. If hes immaculate, everybodys immaculate. A middle manager wouldnt get caught dead dressing against the CEOs sense of style.

Lets hope, though, that he will draw the line at cooking the books.

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