3 fine examples. photo: Amazon.com
Just about everybody wears them, hardly anyone sees them, and nobody talks about them...except me. I've always been a big fan of socks, for some reason, and as far as underpants go, even though I've been been back and forth about whether or not they're even necessary for the man with hot and cold running water in his house, I've grown very fond of a particular brand of gotchies. Today's (and tomorrow's) key phrases are "Gold Toe" and "American Apparel."
Socks
Much like shoes, a pair of socks, especially for men, are about as utilitarian as it gets. They cover, protect, and in all but the most extreme cases, keep the feet dry. Dry feet make it harder for blisters to form and help keep fungus at bay.
Since we're talking about the basics, I'm not going to go on about the wild and wooly world of sock fashion, instead we'll stick with white, black, and my personal favorite, gray socks. A few pairs of each will take the average man just about anywhere he needs or wants to be.
For daily use I recommend either the white or gray variety in what is known as "crew" length. Some people like shorter socks, but to me it always feels like my regular length socks have just fallen down too far (call me old fashioned, I guess). These socks will easily take you from day to evening in all but the dressiest of situations. Not much is expected of us men in this department and we should consider ourselves lucky.
When it is time to dress up, the basic black sock will fill the gap between a nice pair of dark dress shoes and those black trousers you keep tucked away for funerals and job interviews. A lot of people still think that the sock to fill this role has to be thin and synthetic like papa used to wear but I could not disagree more.
Gold Toe makes a sock specifically for casual Fridays called *shudder* Cotton Fluffies. Don't let the name scare you. Remember, almost no one sees them, so the chances of you having to own up to wearing something called a Cotton Fluffies is almost nil. Since these are basically just the dark version of the socks mentioned above they are made to do the same duty as well - be comfortable, stay put and keep your feet relatively dry and protected.
So, there you have it: Socks 101.
It looks like we're out of time for today. Please tune in tomorrow for the next installment of "The Basics - The Underpants Episode."
Comments
Converse low cut men's socks are the best socks I've ever worn. They're stylish, crazy comfortable, and the ones I own have stood up to hundreds of washes without losing any of their thickness or comfort. A lot of socks start out fluffy, but get paper thin and threadbare after half a years wear. Not these! Check them out @ www.converse.com and search for socks. The ones that come up on google shopping search aren't the right ones, for some reason.
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