Shocking Socks, Happy Feet for The Downtrodden, Great Gift Idea
Like muffin tops, the crazy, glary, iridescent, shocking and outrageous socks are the new trend for men who want to display a flash of the outrageous in the otherwise boring drab gray suit. The High-Tech IT tribe have taken to shock socks like penguins leaping onto ice-flows starting a new secret fashion trend that only shows in furtive glimpses.
Secretly wearing flashy, outrageous socks has become a trademark of a secret tribe. The occasional flashes of these shocking socks is like a secret handshake at arm's length, hidden tattoos or the tiny stud in the nose, lip or ear lobe. It is a recognition of belonging to a group, like the nod you get when someone acknowledges you for your clothes or kindness in the street.
But the acknowledgement is furtive because the socks are hidden away. At meetings, climbing stairs and on public transport people look down and see flashes or glimpses of these shocking socks which have become a universal sign of belonging to a group.
The response is to lift a trouser leg and show your own flashy socks secretly. There is a cheeky smile, a nod and a recognition of belonging to the shock socks tribe. What's this all about? Where's it heading? Why Socks?
Fancy socks date back to the 1700s, during an era when people wore outlandish colors and outfits. They were also popular during the 1960s, when colorful stockings were popular with women wearing shorter skirts which showed more leg. But while outlandish socks were always available on the shelves in clothing stores somewhere were only really popular at parties. Bright colors for golf socks have always been popular.
Recently, socks with brilliant colour and abstract designs have been spotted on many entrepreneurs including. Dick Costolo, Twitter's chief executive, who was spotted wearing colourful stripes; Om Malik, the founder of GigaOmniMedia, was seen with polka dots on his socks.
Sock sellers have reported that sales of wild and outrageous socks were up. Selling particularly well are colors such as pink and purple, geometric patterns, orange and black socks, socks with ninja patterns and socks with words and messages such as like 'bacon' and 'beer'.
Socks can be a sort of rebellion and provide a sense of bravado and anarchy against norm and conservatism. The most popular styles cost from $US12 to $US40 a pair and are made from a range of fibres such as combed cotton and wool blends by companies such as Anonymousism, Happy Socks, Sockwizard, Paul Smith and Corgi.
What is the next fashion trend? Will Socks Start Coming Out? Justin Bieber's been recently been photographed wearing patterned socks pulled over the bottom of his pants. Is this the future for hot socks?
This new fashion makes one think about socks which are probably the most misunderstood items of apparel. Similarly there are a lot of funny expressions about socks. A collection of them are provided below:
Quotes about Socks
- Who buys new socks for British men? It's mostly their mothers!
- The expression for 'Lift your Game' is 'Pull your Socks Up'.
- Soccer players are often told to work their socks off.
- Great bands are recognised for knocking everyone's socks off. (weird expression)
- If it weren't for women, men would still be wearing last week's socks.
- Never run in the rain with you're socks on
- Why are socks so lonely cos the dyer eats their partners
- Life was like a sock drawer; you never know what you’re going to get
- Sock it to Me
More Quotes
- It was not a blow-your-socks-off offer.
- "My socks DO match. They’re the same thickness" - Steven Wright
- True love is like a pair of socks you gotta have two and they've gotta match
- I washed a sock. Then I put it in the dryer. When I took it out, it was gone.
- He thought he could dry his socks in the microwave and he ended up training barefoot.
- Both of your socks should always be the same color, or they should at least both be fairly dark
- A man is about thirty-eight before he stockpiles enough socks to be able to get one matching pair
- "I have reached an age where if someone tells me to wear socks, I don’t have to.” - Albert Einstein
- Women speak because they wish to speak, whereas a man speaks only when he can't find any clean socks.
- "Life is not measured by the number of socks worn, but by the socks that take our breath away" - Maya Angelou
- Not I - Not anyone, can travel that road for you. You must travel it for yourself - With comfy socks of course. - Walt Whitman
- “Psychoanalysis is for hysterical pathological cases, not for silly rich American women who should be learning how to darn socks.” Sigmund Freud
- "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail - I recommend you wear Merino wool socks though" - Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “I got up one morning and couldn't find my socks, so I called Information. She said, “Hello, Information.” I said, “I can't find my socks.” She said, “They are behind the couch.” And they were!”
Extract from a patent application for a device to keep socks together in the wash:
Quote:
"The invention relates to a pair of socks and to connectors for joining socks
in a pair."
"It is recognised that there is considerable difficulty for wearers of socks in retaining two socks belonging to a pair together throughout the process of washing and storing the socks after use."
"In order to overcome this problem and difficulties associated in easily keeping pairs of socks together, it is known to provide a sock connector comprising a plate having two holes through each of which parts of a sock can pass. The rim of the holes comprises a series of resilient webs which allow easy insertion of a sock into the aperture by a user but which grip the sock sufficiently to inhibit removal for example in a washing machine. However, such known devices present the user with a problem of first locating such a device, some time after removal of a pair of socks, before the socks can be connected. Secondly, the device is rather large requiring significant material for manufacture and also taking up a significant amount of storage space compared to the size of the pair of socks."