Simon Crompton of Permanent Style once wrote that the dark green sock was the perfect sock for versatility. And truth be told, he wasn’t completely wrong. A dark green sock pairs well with most combinations of shoes/trousers. But I do personally feel that one color (or spectrum of color might be more accurate) is actually more suitable to hold the title of ‘Most Versatile Sock’ and that is the vast spectrum of the purple/burgundy sock.
The various tones of purple are very complementary to the majority of shoe leather colors out there and harmonize well between the footwear and the trouser. While dark green could be worn with everything, I think that in some pairings of shoe/sock/trouser say Black shoe/trouser and/or mid-brown trousers, would actually better suit a purple/burgundy hue to fully complement those colors of shoes/trousers and tie the ensemble together perfectly. And I think a lot of people are starting to understand this, too, as the color of purple is showing up more and more on the Instagram accounts of people that like to display their shoe/sock/trouser combination.
And more and more sock suppliers are incorporating this idea into their offering of socks, particularly one supplier, Mes Chaussettes Rouges, whose offering of purple/burgundy socks rivals that of their selection of blue socks. A few years back your grand offering on sock colors was often limited to blues, black and the greys. And if you were lucky one shade of the rest. But now, you have 50 shades of green and purple’s to choose from and on top of that the prevalent blending of two colors to make a more unique and interesting end product.
It is good to see the world of menswear highly evolving and doing so in a quick manner. This means progress. Progress means open-mindedness. And open-mindedness means a better world all around. So let’s keep opening our minds to the vast possibilities of what we can do, do it with pride and confidence and share the education.
The majority of socks shown are courtesy of the Mes Chaussettes Rouges offering.
Photos courtesy of @thatguysshoes , @mr.renworks, @jfitzpatrickfootwear on IG
Remember, socks make great easy Christmas Gifts and/or stocking stuffers!
