Socks. Hardly revered by the fashion world, they barely even get the status of underwear, mere ‘essentials’. In fact, socks have been historically seen as more of an embarrassment than a statement of one’s cool factor.

But recently they have been making somewhat of a comeback. This may have been sparked, like so many trends, by the fearless Japanese and their obsession with the ‘Alice in Wonderland on acid’ look – reproduced later (and a lot creepier) by Gwen Stefani. Soon the Indie kids of the UK had added frilly white ankle socks to their staple granny dresses, marrying the old and the young in a stroke of pure genius, that now actually looks a little, yawn, dull. In men’s case, it’s a sure sign of style panache when you catch a shock glimpse of a quality statement sock under a trousered leg. Where would MJ have been without his classic whites (unless he just started the bleaching process from the feet up!)?

Vogue did a photo shoot last summer revealing one way of working the sock/sandal look without looking like a German tourist on holiday in Spain with the kids. They used Transparenze Cinzia knee high socks (available from www.mytights.com) under chunky patent shoes with nude and neon colours to create a modern and graphic effect. The socks were longer and sheerer than most, which avoids the stumpy leg look.

Sox-populi (www.sox-populi.com) is a really good site for finding fashion forward foot warmers. The Oroblu flowery numbers are very pretty. The key to reworking childlike socks is to team them with open toed shoes and unfitted skirts and dresses erring on the scruffy side, or even shrunk-in-the-wash short drainpipes. Otherwise the problem lies in looking a bit twee, like a 1950’s housewife, or like a child who has been stretched… and an older face stitched on in place of the original child face… hmmm.

Happy Socks is a Swedish brand with a great catalogue, high quality products, and a mission to heal the world of its sock disdain. The checked pink and black ones would work brilliantly with the brothel creepers around in the current punk resurgence. The quality and fit of all the products means they wont end up flapping round your ankles and so any of the brightly coloured pairs would look great under a pair of platform shoes.

If you have the urge to channel the ‘novelty’ route at this time of year, try not to waste your pennies on socks that sing ‘We wish you a merry Christmas’. Where did they even come from? Whose crazy idea was it to make singing socks? Must have been someone who worked for JML. Anyway, you don’t have to lose all credibility or perceived sanity. Festive socks can be, dare I say it, not bad. Toast has some lovely long fair-isle socks minus a gimmicky pattern that look cosy without being like sheep legs. Actually, do sheep even have woolly legs? Hot Sox have some shorter fair-isle Crimbo specialities and button up wool leg warmers that make us want to wear leg warmers again, maybe. Maybe the cold weather is messing with my head

Words: Amelia Phillips