Socklessness.

[denimdestroyedmylife]

Originally Posted by NY Times

Friday, Nov. 11, 1966 "The overall effect," explains Lloyd Chiswick, 27, a Stanford University senior, "is studied but complete nonchalance." Says a Princeton junior: "The whole thing is wrapped up in coolness, in both senses of the word." They were talking about the most widespread fad on U.S. campuses, which is not to wear socks—not with sneakers, loafers, sandals or even brogues. At Harvard, going sockless is to the "preppy-clubby" set what the armless sweatshirt is to the athletic crowd. Northwestern Student Leader Skip Mylenski wouldn't have thought of attending the homecoming dance at Chicago's Edgewater Beach Hotel any way but bare-ankled. Columbia University students skip the hose for Manhattan theater dates, and at Berkeley, when Theta Delta Chi threw a party, nearly all of the brothers turned up sockless. Maintains Theta Delt David Greenlee, 20: "When you walk down Telegraph among all the beatniks, and you're wearing a pullover sweater and Daks and no socks, it shows a relaxed attitude." Provocative Hairs. Nobody knows just where or when the fad first began. Easterners say that it started in the West; students at U.C.L.A., one of the few schools where the fad has not caught on, insist that "it looks like it came from New York." There is a suspicion that thousands of students have taken it up for no other reason than that their socks are in the laundry bag. Some now defend the fashion on esthetic grounds. "You have this break between your pants and your shoes," explains a Los Angeles display artist. "Two textures. Why ruin it by sticking a third texture in between?" Others now give the trend Havelock Ellis overtones, agreeing, as one Californian puts it, that "hairs on the ankle look provocative." Some girls agree. "It looks sexy," says Rosalie Netter, in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. "You can see the bone structure, like finely chiseled stone," says Wisconsin Sophomore Karen Knauf. Cultural Leftover. If anything could kill the look on campus, of course, it would be the news that adults are doing it too. West German Playboy Gunter Sachs, it was noted, married Brigitte Bardot in Las Vegas last summer with his socks off, and already there are signs of backlash. "Socklessness is a cultural leftover," fumes one Princetonian. Sock sales are even rising in some areas. Still, as the first snowstorms swirled across the Midwest last week the purists were standing fast. "If I could get a pair of lined desert boots," said one, thinking onward in Wisconsin, "maybe I could get by all year without socks."

 

[denimdestroyedmylife]

Originally Posted by Andy Spade

Founder, Jack Spade “Going sockless started when I was growing up in Arizona. It wasn’t a style choice—we just never wore socks unless we were playing sports. Now I wear a very slight break in my pants, so they just touch the tops of my shoes. When I’m standing up, I don’t want to have my ankles exposed; it’s when I sit down that you see the sockless thing. People ask me if I go through shoes fast, but I take care of my shoes and keep shoe trees in them. And it’s not like I play tennis without socks. But desert boots, brogues, or Wallabees—it’s the way I’ve always worn ’em.”

 

[denimdestroyedmylife]

 

[gmku]

Socks for me are mostly about comfort. Some shoes hurt without socks. Sometimes in warmer weather I'll do my Converse or other sneakers without socks, but it's problematic with anything leather, especially if it's not well broken in.

And rolling up my jeans?! Forget it. My friends think I'm gay enough just going with slim fits.

 

[constant struggle]

i've been slowly making the transition to a sockless spring/summer

i am a fan!

 

[denimdestroyedmylife]

Annapolis Welcomes Spring by Burning Socks ANNAPOLIS, Md., Mar. 21, 2006

(AP) (AP) Is that spring in the air _ or an old gym sock on fire? In sailing-crazy Annapolis, boaters celebrate the first day of spring with a ceremonial Burning of the Socks, signifying it will soon be warm enough to wear boat shoes without socks. "It's a good idea to stand upwind," warned John Morgan, 77. The tradition began in the mid-1980s, when an employee at Annapolis Yacht Yard tired of his winter days doing engine maintenance on yachts and power boats. He stripped off his stinky socks, put them in a paint can with some lighter fluid and drank a longneck beer while looking forward to warmer days ahead. "There's a whole industry of people who work all winter long on people's boats so that they'll be in shape for their owners to go out and play all summer," said Jeff Holland, director of the Annapolis Maritime Museum. But the sock-burning ritual _ which attracted more than 130 people Monday evening _ now draws more than boatyard workers. Even wealthy sailboat owners delight in throwing tube socks and panty hose on the flames in this town, whose residents have a special disdain for socks. Waterfront restaurants that serve big crab feasts draw men wearing leather loafers sans socks. On Monday, celebrants sipped red wine, ate oysters and speculated how long until they could go barefoot without their toes reddening from the cold. Annapolis resident Michael Busch, the speaker of the Maryland House, joked that socks constitute formal wear around here. The most hard-core sock haters refuse to wear them from the spring equinox until the first day of winter. "The uniform is deck shoes and khaki pants in winter. The uniform is deck shoes and khaki shorts in summer," Holland said with a laugh. The sock bonfire, he said, is a way of remembering Annapolis' bygone days of working-class watermen who brought in crabs in the summer and scraped the paint off wooden vessels in the winter. These days, waterfront lots go for millions, and the bonfire revelers retire for crab cakes and oysters after burning their socks. Prudent sailors might want to hold on to a few pairs of socks: Snow showers were forecast Tuesday in Annapolis, with highs only in the mid-30s.

 

[gmku]

Originally Posted by constant struggle

i've been slowly making the transition to a sockless spring/summer

i am a fan!

So what kind of shoes do you go sockless in?

 

[shoreman1782]

 

[constant struggle]

Originally Posted by gmku

So what kind of shoes do you go sockless in?
vans...
picking up sperrys soon though

 

[givemefive]

going sockless is a sure way to make sure your shoes and feet perpetually stink

I don't know about you but I don't want my friends associating me with foot odor no matter how cool I look...

 

[cocostella]

^^^^ that's why god invented oder-eaters

 

[Fade to Black]

yeah the thing about going sockless in leather shoes is that the foot area gets sweaty and ultimately will not have a pleasant odor. I like it when girls do it, for me, not so much.

 

[WhoKnewI]

Originally Posted by cocostella

^^^^ that's why god invented oder-eaters
. . . and loafer socks.

 

[Fade to Black]

i once bought 3 pairs of socks from Loblaws in Richmond Hill, Ontario that were titled "Odor Eater"...ironically that' the last thing they did and totally fell apart after one wear and a wash. I kept on wearing them for at least another 6 months.

 

[Nil]

My feet get far too sweaty during the summer to go sockless. So unless I feel like fumigating the area surrounding me with my foot stentch, I'll have to keep wearing socks. Though when it does get very hot, I tend to wear those short ankle socks.