During my formative years when I worked at Vogue, I was taught a very surprising fashion lesson by the very chic senior editors.
That was that sandals, and even stilettos, worn with socks could be very chic.
That was not an opinion shared by mother, who turned her nose up with distaste if she spied someone wearing socks and sandals, the ‘bird twitcher look’ she loathed and considered very ‘un-Aussie’, whatever that meant.
But when I started at Vogue, I noticed that one editor would arrive back from the ready-to-wear shows in Milan wearing short, very fine black or dark grey ankle socks with either a kitten-heeled pump or a chunky sandal.
It is a very Italian look, worn by the ridiculously stylish Milanese women with their tanned legs, Marni dresses and Prada pleated skirts, often seen on Miuccia Prada herself.
Bring that back to Australia and it’s like ‘what on earth were you thinking?’ Men in particular hate the look, well at least the men I talk to.
It’s like when beautiful Olivia Newton-John (bless) in Grease went from Sandy in bobby-sox to Sandy in stilettos and we all saw the effect that had on Danny.
When it comes to socks and ‘health sandals’ or Birkenstocks, that’s an even more controversial combination. I have tentatively tried the thick, cabled chunky sock and Birkie look at home, and I wore them out in public for the first-time last month.
I went to a café under my apartment block, so technically speaking it was only about 90 steps from my front door, but sure enough I ran into my neighbour and she made a comment. I felt like I was maybe entering the well-pulled-together, Earth Mother part of my life, but she clearly wasn’t buying it.
Even supermodel Bella Hadid attracts column inches earnestly discussing the subject when she sports the look, which she does quite frequently, and she looks incredible every time.
Post-war chic
I’ve always been a big fan of that 1940s socks and wedge sandals look, the post-war Paris look, or a short white anklet sock with black happy shoes and wide leg silk pyjamas – very Judy Garland, Katherine Hepburn bouncing gaily around the house look. But only real fashion lovers get the reference.
To a lot of people you just look like an idiot, or worse, mutton dressing as lamb.
Dolce and Gabbana did the most fabulous collection of navy and white-spot silk cropped pyjamas many years ago with wedge sandals and socks, and I lost my mind. But if I’d worn the look back in Sydney that’s what people would have assumed.
I could only afford the pyjama pants anyway so I wore them with a white shirt and sandals, but damn, I wanted to wear the socks too. However, I celebrated a significant birthday recently and the one present I gave myself was permission to wear absolutely anything I feel like, including socks and sandals. But I don’t think the pyjamas pants still fit.
