Socks

Socks – worn in lots of places all over the world, they offer a great opportunity to express yourself, even if the rest of your outfit is pretty plain. In the past few years I’ve gotten used to wearing boring old black socks (the duck prefers to go sockless altogether), sometimes because work clothing guidelines dictated it, sometimes because I wanted to look more ‘professional’ in a not at all professional environment (nothing beats professional looking socks in making a good first impression, right?!). In Japan, however, the sock-game seems to be strong with the people, even far beyond the, here not so frowned upon, socks-and-sandals combination (a thing that a friend of ours has held a multitude of passionate speeches against – little did he know that months later, in Tokyo, the duck and I would witness this so-called ‘fashion sin’ almost daily).
Well, in contrast to some other places around the world, Japanese fashion does have a history of socks in sandals, dating back centuries. Maybe that is why, here, it seems to be okay with the fashion police if you wear any kind of socks with any kind of shoes (including footies that transform peep-toe-shoes into peep-sock-shoes, etc.) and also if you accentuate your business attire with fun striped, polka-dotted, checked, or otherwise excitingly patterned socks – at least that’s what the train ads want to tell us. Don’t even get me started on all the cool socks you can buy here (for example with sushi or vending machine patterns)…!
Therefore, the duck and I have decided to take this Japanese chapter as an opportunity to add to our daring sock collection. But that’s enough blabbering for now.
Thanks for stocking by!