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Style Guide – The Minefield of Men’s Socks

August 24th, 2016

cad-and-the-dandy-socks

For the well dressed gent, the importance of selecting the right men’s socks is not to be underestimated. While some simply buy all their socks in the same colour – eliminating the need to search for a matching pair every morning – others will rifle through a jumble of mismatching odd socks in order to locate the first conveniently available pair. Neither is the ideal approach. A well dressed man can easily be identified by his choice of sock and the consideration with which it has been selected.

cad-and-the-dandy-blue-socks

At Cad & The Dandy we take the traditional approach to wearing socks, which is to match them to your trousers. This doesn’t need to be an exact colour match but using your trouser as a starting point, you can experiment with shades that are slightly lighter or darker. The benefit of this is to give the illusion of elongating the leg as well as helping to define your shoes. Men’s socks can also be worn to compliment an accent colour in the cloth of your trouser.

cad-and-the-dandy-socks

This rule of thumb mainly applies to solid colours but patterned socks can also be worn as long as one of the colours within the pattern is a close match. If opting for a patterned sock with a patterned trouser cloth (tweed, check, etc) always consider the scale of both patterns and contrast accordingly – along with and any other accessories in your ensemble. Avoid matching all your accessories but it’s wise to consider an overall harmony in your selection – stick to a theme with an overriding accent colour or shade.

Here are a few basic trouser to men’s socks shade guidelines ;

Black and dark navy trousers/suits – black, grey and darker blue
Grey trousers/suits – darker shades of green and darker shades of blue
Blue trousers/suits – purple, deep reds, darker shades mustard and darker shades or pink
Tweed trouser/suits – darker reds, olive and moss greens, mustards, tans and lighter oranges.

cad-and-the-dandy-coloured-socks

And a quick note on the novelty men’s socks – there is never, ever a reason to wear these. Ever.

More –

Shop our full Men’s Socks range on the website.
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