Sock it to Me

The last time I wore socks with any sort of print on them was high school, when I went through an argyle and stripes phase and would help myself over in the mens' sections in places like Old Navy and J. Crew. But for years after that, when I wore nothing but black on my feet, I saw socks with any sort of personality to them as belonging either within the pages of Fruits or on a small child. Or a small child in Fruits.
Blame it on the fact that I will be celebrating my thirtieth birthday in all of six months, but I find myself becoming much more adventurous in the way I dress lately. Not in my boring corporate work life, but in every minute that exists outside of that. If I had to dig into the most honest parts of myself, there are several contributing factors as to why this is so. The biggest reason, I am somewhat ashamed to admit, would be the fact that I feel as though I am inhabiting a kind of twilight hour of freedom in my personal style, because we are socialized to view our twenties as the time when we can wear anything, even if it's kind of a bad idea. So I'm stuck in this mad sprint to cram in all the nutty things I've always wanted to wear before my license to be eccentric expires. "I'd better hurry up and wear this before I'm not a twenty-something anymore."
Of course, I know that line of thinking is mostly complete tripe. One could say the same thing about being a teenager, or an octogenarian, and that there is no fashionable license that is revoked once your birthday hits a certain milestone. I can't say how I'll actually feel about things once I reach the big three-oh, but I am enjoying these lovely socks, and figuring out how to pair them with shoes.
These socks, from L'atelier du Savon, have a kind of dolly/EGL vibe to them when I wear them with black shoes. The super tall socks from the very top are from Vivienne Westwood, and the darker ones with the metallic thread below that are by Ayame.

A trend that is really being forced upon us is the practice of wearing delicate, feminine socks with open toe heels. It's one of those things that I think looks fine within the pages of a magazine, but I have yet to see it pulled off in real life, and would not sport such a look in public unless you made it worth my while.

These polka dot numbers are by Happy Socks. I always wear them with pants, usually dark skinny jeans cuffed at the ankle. I shot it this way so the orange tops could be featured.

Oh hell. Well, if we're going to go down that road....

We might as well not be half-assed about it.