See, I should do this to. My son–without any prompting from his sartorially-offensive mother–rocked a pair of socks with fisherman sandals this week. Now, admittedly, the socks weren’t white.
I’m also down with the Keen love expressed earlier.
Well, the OP did say he’d cut off my feet if I wore white socks with Tevas; that sounded like fairly serious caring about the subject. What’s a pleather miniskirt? And to whom would I look like a damn fool? Anyone who’s opinion I might value?
Or hyperbole.
A miniskirt made of of fake, plastic-y leather. Trashy on it’s own merits, three-dollar hooker with fishnets, and absurd bordering on surreal when you add the mom loafers and a holiday-themed snowman sweater.
To just about everyone.
That depends on whether you value anyone’s opinion.
Pssst…I don’t think he meant it literally. Cutting off somebody else’s feet is an actual crime, not just a fashion crime like wearing white socks with sandals.
Nope, just some petty-minded fastidious jackasses on an anonymous message board. You know, the sort of people that if you really didn’t care about what they thought of other people’s sartorial choices, you would just silently ignore.
It amazes me how so many people seem to get genuinely miffed about other people’s anonymous and general critiques of the fashion landscape, even when they claim not to give a hoot what those other people think. If you really didn’t care what we think, I doubt you’d be rushing in here to tell us how shallow you think we are for thinking it.
That’s a fair point. However, it’s not like a pitting of a movie or some congressman: it’s a pitting of a group of which I am ocassionally a member. Should I not defend myself?
I think I’m mostly hanging around this thread to try to figure out if I care about the opinion expressed in the OP. Here’s what I’ve learned:
- The pitees (people who wear sandals with socks) are seen as unfashionable by people who care about fashion. I’m okay with that. I’ve never been fashionable, and will likely never meet up to those people’s standards.
- The pitees are seen as hippies, or sometimes as professorial/philosophical types. I’m okay with that. Sounds like a good image
- Even among people who are not all that fashion-conscious, some see the pitees as dorky. I’m still trying to figure out if any of these are people whose opinions I care about.
- If you are in San Francisco or points north, the pitees are so common as to be unremarkable. Good news for me.
- If you are in New York or nearby areas, the pitees really stand out. Fair enough; I’ll probably not take the Tevas to the East Coast when I visit. Unless I’m backpacking, of course.
'Kay, but I still think you may be devoting too much consideration to this. Fashion carping, for those who enjoy it, is simply an amusing pastime on the level of complaining about the voices of certain pop singers or the paintings of certain contemporary artists.
Yeah, we like to talk about it as though it’s a matter of life and death and public execution what you choose to wear with what, but that’s simply part of the game. Nobody (except perhaps professional designers and other linchpins of the commercial fashion industry) sincerely believes that serious humanitarian/ethical/mental health issues are involved. I’m quite sure you wouldn’t find anybody in this thread who would seriously claim that they’re entitled to chastise individuals in person for wearing unattractive garb, or even to think less of that person’s character or basic human worth for that reason.
In fact, most of us sartorial scolds are not even consistent about following our own rules in real life. I don’t bother to make sure every day that all my clothing choices avoid what I consider to be fashion errors. I’ve been a blot on the sartorial landscape plenty of times myself, and I don’t feel bad about it at all. If my fellow fashion-scolds get some enjoyment out of tsk-tsking behind my back when I wear something dorky, that’s just fine, and I feel free to do the same.
I think a lot of people take fashion-scolding too seriously because they associate it with taunting from schoolmates about not being “cool” or something, when it really was intended to hurt and ostracize the people who were being taunted. But this ain’t that. Nobody in mature adult life really intends to cause other individuals personal pain by offering up their general critiques on the fashion landscape.
Individuals who still can’t help taking it personally need to (a) grow a skin and/or (b) just avoid the places where fashion-scolds congregate. E.g., swampy wetlands, industrial brownfields, and Pit threads ranting about fashioh errors.
You’re not really defending yourself, though, by accusing people of caring about an issue more than they should. You would be defending yourself by providing some reason why someone should wear socks with sandals, or providing some evidence that it doesn’t, in fact, make a person look like a colossal dork.
Another reasonable comeback would be to admit that the socks-with-sandals look is ridiculous, but that you have some reason to do it anyway. That’s a defense.
Accusing the “it’s dorky” side of caring too much about it is silly, because nobody has been shown to really CARE about it. It’s an internet rant, not a bill before the legislature.
I love Teva’s, must be on my sixth or seventh pair and I recently got a pair of Keens that I’m liking a lot.
Would not allow myself to be seen wearing socks with sandals under any circumstance. Ever.
But I wouldn’t make fun of somebody that did. They’re just making me look cooler by comparison.
I’ve been wearing Tevas for the last 10 years (and I have the foot-tan-lines to prove it). Never, ever wore them with socks.
I’m on my fifth pair of “Spoilers”, and I have to say that the quality has gone downhill with the last couple of pairs.
Buncha sock snobs.
Everybody has a cross to bear.
Actually, I was just sounding off a little bit; what really miffed me was someone making a comment about older people dressing dorkishly. Now that I’m an older people, I’m sensitive. I don’t really care what other people wear and don’t understand why others do. And I didn’t really think anyone was going to cut anyone’s feet off. It just seemed like such a minor thing to open a pit thread about especially in view of the fact that GWBush is still our president.
For people who don’t understand why socks with sadals:
Waterproof sandals make the bottoms of your feet sweat more and prevent evaportion because your foot is against the rubber. For some people (including me) that means room clearing foot odor.
Leather footbed sandals keep the foot odor away but absorb all the sweat, ick.
The cracked heel callous thing.
Sandals with socks and the wind still blows through the socks so they are cooler (in temperature) than shoes.
Yeah, it looks kind of dorky but feet should be comfortable. No reason for the calf high socks though. Short socks are enough.
Well, that explains the need for socks. What it doesn’t explain is the need for sandals. Please help me to understand why not just wear sneakers or hiking boots or something OTHER than sandals with your socks. Hell, even Crocs are *almost * better, if there must be socks involved.
Look at one of the lines you quoted:
*Sandals with socks and the wind still blows through the socks so they are cooler (in temperature) than shoes.
*
I do wear socks with my Keens, but super-shorty socks and only sometimes. They are more comforatble on hot days than either sandals+ no socks or tennies+ socks.
I just don’t get the hate. Yes, there are some fugly things out there, such as
a gap between shirt and pants when you are so fat that rolls hang out of the gap. That’s fugly. But socks with sandals?* Not so much.
*
I mean if women can wear Uggs anytime anywhere and flip-flops with high fashion, then socks with sandals? eh. Big deal.
I mean, ripped up jeans look nasty to me, but they were recently high fashion. :dubious: 
:eek:
My WAG is that this hate seems to be really directed at the way older dudes dress, as LouisB said… Smells like bigotry, if so.
Let the bigotry be in plain view. That way we know whom to watch. 
I don’t wear sandals any more but if I did I would wear my elastic socks which are knee high. Of course I never wear shorts so who would know?
Now if you want to rant about those men who wear shorts anywhere but on the basketball court or at the beach, I’m your man.
I personally wear sandals year-round because of my peculiar living habits that require constant indoor/outdoor movement. I like being able to slip something on quickly. Coupled with high desert weather and no central air, and you may be able to see why I wear socks with sandals in the winter. (FTR, I don’t wear this look *out *much anymore now that I hobnob with lawyers and judges and dignitaries and whatnot, but the rainbow socks + Tevas were a standard in my JC days).
Amen, with somthing that ugly, the socks (white or otherwise) can only be an improvement.
Status symbol namebrand snootiness is even sillier than paying way too much for the status symbol namebrand in the first place.
So what? They feel nice.
Well when someone paid 90 bucks for something that looks like it came out of their ass, it doesn’t really surprise me that they’d vehemently defend it.
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Where in this thread was any “namebrand snootiness” besides that implied in the OP?
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What do you wear most of your time in Alaska? I’m genuinely curious to hear if you have any footwear peculiar to your climate. I spent 4 years in the Colorado high country and everyone wore Sorels or similar. Feel free to enlighten me.