As much as I love a bit of Dr Seuss, this post is actually about my ongoing obsession with socks, tights and footwear in general.
For years now I have had a serious (problem) obsession with socks and tights, I'm more obsessed with them than shoes, shoes are a mere accessory to wear with your wonderful socks and tights! It's all about the colour, the print and the styling, a simple hosiery item will not do!
I think I can pin point the obsession to the late 1990s. It was the Harajuku girl that had caught my eye and a bit of styling from The Face Magazine, which was also an obsession around that time (RIP The Face....I loved you). Both for me, made me want to start taking notice of socks and tights, I would buy every interesting pair I could get my hands on. This seems extreme now as it's easy to pick up interesting hosiery wherever you go but in those days it wasn't. The reason for this was simply that socks and coloured tights were not a big consumer thing- god, if you want interesting socks go to Sock Shop...Er, no thank you.... I remember over knee socks (nearly always in black) made a few comebacks during the early 1990s but coloured socks and legwarmers hadn't been a big thing since the 1980s and bright coloured tights hadn't been seen for years! It seems mad now but I used to get very over excited if I found a pair of red tights in the late 1990s let alone anything else!
Since the weather is about to change here in England, I have been looking forward to more socks and tights layering and trying to find new ways to wear them! I have collected a load of images on pinterest of how I would like to wear them. I hope you like these images and are inspired to take a bit more interest in your socks and tights!!
Let's start with the good old sporty tube sock. I always get mine from American Apparel, they are frankly the best and probably one of the only suppliers of the tube sock these days. This is why it would be a complete tragedy for me if American Apparel was to shut down, I'd have to buy a life time supply of tube socks!
The king of the tube sock is the Z-Boys skater Tony Alva circa mid-late 1970s -see skate image below. No-one rocked a pair of tube socks, Vans and shorts better than Tony Alva. My husband Phil pretty much works his look whenever we are on holiday, let me add Phil rarely decides to put on a pair of shorts, this never happens in England, it has to be sweltering hot and then he'll wear shorts....with some tube socks....
Layering tights, socks and wedges...Love it!
A couple of retro images found on pinterest. I'm loving the bright colours, mix prints and platforms! The above image is very Chorlton and The Wheelies (1970s UK kids programme -well worth a youtube glance) and I'm loving the high top boxing wedge boots below!! It's a great image!
Inspired by the above retro image and Meadham Kirchhoff's Autumn Winter Collection, I bought the above Lulu wedge baseball boots by Rocket Dog from Office. It was the stripey wedge that won me over! Below is one of my current style icons Susie Bubble from the Style Bubble blog - find her here www.stylebubble.co.uk (I shall be doing a Style Icon blog on this fantastic fashion outsider very soon) although Susie has forgotten her socks, I do love them high top wedges!
Eley Kishimoto always has fantastic collections of tights and socks, they often cost a fair bit but look great! I haven't posted any Henry Holland images this time but let's not forget his fantastic hosiery collections too! You can find both on asos.com. and the styling on Asos is worth a look for inspiration.
Catwalk Trends
Here are a some images that had caught my attention for the current A/W collections. The first image is from the inspiring Meadham Kirchhoff collection, I had originally posted about this in September, I love the stripey socks worn with rolled up jeans and wedges.
The second two images are from Bernhard Willhelm's A/W collection, I shall be blogging about this collection very soon so here's a quick look at the footwear. It's more urban this time with strappy, comfy trainer boots and graphic mix print tights, the collection is a full on print clash which will always catch my eye!
Hey! This obsession isn't just for adults, check out the kids images above that I have collected on Pinterest (mostly from my friend Selena I imagine -she's kids pinterest obsessed!!) I'm loving the mix print leggings, stripey tights with boxing boots and spots, stripes and Dr Martens. You can't go wrong!
I hope I have changed your mind about your footwear attire?? Next post may possibly be a look at what I have been wearing lately....It's been a while....ND xx
