Summer may be synonymous with easy living, but unless you’re getting dressed for the beach or a backyard BBQ, looking good while keeping cool can be hard. On the one hand, you want to be wearing as little as possible, and on the other (except in very few specific situations), you need to wear clothes. Ever has it been thus. There’s no better illustration of the opposing forces at play than the eternal conundrum of socks. Wear them, and your feet could become hot and sweaty. Don’t wear them and your heels might blister, or worse still, your shoes could start to stink. And what kind of socks should you wear with shorts, anyway? In a better world, perhaps, the no-show sock could have been the perfect solution, protecting shoes from sweat and odors while letting your ankles breathe freely. Unfortunately, they’re more likely to end up balled beneath your toes. Also—for reasons modern science has yet to fully explain—they give everyone the ick. So where does that leave us as we enter the sweaty, humid days of summer?
“For me sockless is okay but in, like, a very narrow, specific way,” says Brendon Babenzien, the founder of menswear label Noah and the creative director of J.Crew’s men’s department. “The context is very much, where are you going? What are you wearing? What’s your day?” For Babenzian, who grew up near the coast on Long Island, going sockless evokes the carefree swagger of the surfers, skaters, and assorted beach bums of his youth, and is best suited to a casual vibe. “It’s sockless with loafers. It’s occasionally sockless in a canvas sneaker, but even then, it depends on the day because, like, canvas sneakers get kind of stinky,” he says. Either way, he is a hard pass on no-shows. “I’ve never liked them. It’s like, I want to look like I’m not wearing socks, but I actually am. And something about that doesn’t sit well with me.”
The tradition of wearing loafers and sneakers without socks goes back to the dawn of Ivy style in the early 20th century, and the style has waxed and waned ever since. In the aughts, however, the casualization of office dress codes and the influence of Thom Browne’s ankle-bearing suits converged to create a new era of sockless abandon. From the peacocks of Pitti Uomo to Midwestern groomsmen, bare ankles were everywhere all at once, and not just in summer. A decade and a half later, things have calmed down somewhat, and even those who lived through the giddy highs of the #menswear era are back on the sock train.
“Growing up, I hardly ever wore socks unless it was with a pair of lace-ups,” says Atlanta haberdasher Sid Mashburn, who remembers admiring the highwater-pants-and-loafers look on his older brother in the late 1960s. “I used to go sockless with double monks all the time, but I’m probably wearing more socks today than I used to.” These days, Mashburn says, he’s in favor of going sockless with any kind of casual shoe, from a sneaker to a chukka boot, and will even go sockless with a pair of Belgian loafers and a tux, provided his ankles aren’t too pale. “I don’t like that disruption of dark leather and white skin, but with a tan, it changes everything.” For the record, Mashburn doesn’t wear no-shows, but (being the gentleman that he is) he doesn’t mind if you do.
The choice of whether or not to go sockless in summer is a personal one, but it also appears to break down along generational lines. In a highly scientific survey of FYP content, Gen Z’s well-documented devotion to crew socks appears to extend to all seasons and all kinds of footwear, including sandals. “As long as I’m leaving the house, I’ll always have socks on my feet,” affirms 24-year-old digital content creator Austin Chen. “I feel like going sockless is not only gross but also feels like a disservice to humanity. There’s something forbidden to me about having straight foot-to-shoe contact.” Chen is OK with no-shows, but only in extreme cases. “If you want a cleaner look without developing athlete’s foot, no-show socks are a good option [but] 9 times out of 10, I’ll still choose longer socks, even in the summer months,” he says.
The generational divide around socklessness, however, may not stand for much longer. The imminent return of flip flops foretells a summer footwear sea change that will put Gen Z’s crew sock allegiance to the ultimate test. Until then, if it’s hot outside and you need to look nice, wear some socks. For casual fits, you can skip ‘em. And if you’re absolutely set on wearing no-shows, you should probably just keep that to yourself.
