Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette!
In today's video, we discuss dress socks and how you combine them with shoes and pants,
so you'll look dapper and stand out from the crowd.
After we filmed our in-depth dress sock guide which by the way, you can get to here.
People asked us "Well, how do I combine socks with black pants and brown shoes?"
You know, there are lots of basic rules out there, and we'll go through them and afterwards
we'll show you some advanced ways to pair socks with shoes and trousers.
Basic sock rule #1: Never wear white tennis socks unless you're at the gym or involved
in any other kind of physical activity.
No matter how casual, white socks are only good with shorts and never with long pants
or slacks.
Basic sock rule #2: get a quality pair of over the calf socks because they will stay
up and not slide down and not expose your hairy calves.
If you've worn short socks all your life, switching over to over the calf may seem like
an alienating or daring task but once you've worn them and earned your first compliment,
trust me!
You'll want to wear them all the time.
Basic sock rule #3: Match your socks to the pants you wear, not to the shoes.
Now, while that sounds like a very simple rule, it's easier said than done.
Most men out there either have black, navy, or charcoal socks.
Unfortunately, that shade hardly ever exactly matches your pants.
For example, look at this brown spectator shoes with brown socks and brown pants.
Now, if you're close in color to the pants but they're just in a different shad, and
it looks terrible.
For that reason, solid colored socks actually pair best with patterned pants such as houndstooth
or glen checks or stripes.
If you wear a lot of solid pants, you can still wear solid socks, just make sure to
pick a color that is quite contrasting so overall, it looks quite appealing.
For example, look at this combination of khakis with dark green socks and brown shoes, looks
great, doesn't it?
Now that we got the basics of the shoe, sock, and pant combinations covered, let's talk
about advanced ways to come up with different styles.
First, let's talk about solid pants.
Most men have them and the best kind of sock to wear with them, in my opinion, is a two-tone
sock like this.
The advantage of having two colors is that it basically creates a third in the middle
and that's even more like a gradient, so it works with all kinds of blue pants, and navy
pants, and it will always look good.
My first pair of two-tone socks was one with blue and red.
I was simply stunned by the different combinations that were available to me once I wore them.
To show you the power and the versatility of one single two-tone sock, let's take a
closer look at this charcoal and orange one from Fort Belvedere.
First of all, I can wear it with brown because the third tone between charcoal and orange
is a kind of brown.
Here, I'm wearing them with suit slacks in mid-brown with a split toe derby shoe, and
I can also have them with spectators.
Looks great, doesn't it?
Because the sock is charcoal, it works with all kinds of gray, including charcoal or light
gray because again, the gradient of orange makes it work with all shades.
In this picture, I'm wearing charcoal slacks with black shoes; It's a very business appropriate
combination, and you could easily pull it off at the office.
Alternatively, you can take the same slacks and the socks and pair them with an olive
green pair of shoes for a more casual look in a more relaxed office environment or on
a Friday happy hour.
See how the same pair of socks works with khaki pants or off-white pants and spectators.
It still looks good.
Now, you can also pair them with black pants or navy pants, and tan shoes just like here.
That sock also works well with olive green such as these green corduroys with a sand
chukka boot or a brown monk strap.
As you can see, this single pair of socks is so versatile that it can be literally worn
with 2/3 or more of your entire wardrobe.
Now, let's look at it the other way around.
Let's assume you have a navy pair of pants, and you want to combine it with different
socks to create a different look.
The advantage is that you can have just one or two quality suits to create different looking
outfits.
With socks, they're much less expensive than an entire suit.
For example, you can combine blue and red socks or burgundy and red which is a little
more subdued with a combination of oxblood shoes and navy pants.
For a slightly different look, you can do navy and yellow striped socks with black shoes,
or olive green ones if you want.
As you know, the mix of yellow and blue can create this green and so, you can use an olive
green shoe that works just fine even though there's no green in the sock or in the pants.
If you are in a traditional office environment and you want to be less bold, go with a navy
and blue striped, shadow stripe sock because it literally works with any kind of blue or
navy.
It's different enough to be unique and stand out in a very subtle way, but it's perfectly
office appropriate even in traditional white collar environments.
The blue and navy shadow striped socks from Fort Belvedere work well with navy, brown,
and black.
For example, if you want to spice up the look of your navy pants, you can go with red, or
you can have blue and yellow, or maybe go with light gray and light blue.
For example, with a classic black Oxford, it makes for an unusual business outfit.
On the other hand, you can use the same pair of socks and pants and pair them with a brown
pair of double monks for a more contemporary look.
Or you can pair them with a derby shoe to make for a very versatile travel outfit.
Of course, you can also use a pair of bold royal blue socks with a clock pattern to make
a bold statement.
Again, if you have enough contrast here, to make it not boring and not too close.
No matter what pants or shoes you have in your wardrobe, having a range of different
socks helps you to really create a number of different outfits and it's much less expensive
than buying either shoes, suits, or pants.
The opportunity of creating different outfits just by changing your socks is endless.
Please head over to our guide where we show you a lot more combinations.
All the socks you saw here are from Fort Belvedere; I designed them.
On top of working really well with solid pants, those shadow stripe socks also work supremely
well with patterned pants.
The only time it doesn't work is when you have a striped suit that has about the same
width as the socks because then it looks confusing.
If you have a fine stripe, a white flannel chalk stripe, a glen check, a houndstooth,
tweed, or any other classic pattern, the shadow stripe socks will work.
Ideally, you pick one color that's slightly similar and one that's contrasting.
On top of that, you can also decide to match your socks to a different accessory such as
your pocket square, your boutonniere, or your tie.
For example, the blue and red socks would work really well with the navy and red knit
tie.
Sometimes, people also pair their sock color to the lining color of their suit which can
also look quite stunning.
Another advantage of two-tone socks is that you can actually match the color mainly with
the shoes rather than the pants.
For example, look at this combination of burgundy derby shoes with a burgundy and stone colored
stripe shadow striped socks from Fort Belvedere paired with khakis.
Looks awesome, doesn't it?
Of course, the colors are not exactly the same, but you have that third undertone that
ties everything together.
All these socks you saw here are from Fort Belvedere, I designed them, I created the
color combinations, and you can find them here.