Sans Socks, Sans Cares: Some Maintenance Needed

By DAVID COLMAN

IT seems almost obscene, given the expanses of midriff, thigh and backside that too many people are all too willing to bare today, that the decision to show a little ankle with dress shoes should raise eyebrows. But almost obscene is just how it seems to many.

"It's the new male cleavage," said Thom Browne, the men's wear designer and a professed ankle exhibitionist. "You can't believe the snickers and comments I get because I'm not wearing socks. It sends people into a tailspin."

Mr. Browne is an extremist, given that he wears traditional suit pants, cut short, and pairs them with English wingtips. You don't expect to see a swath of naked skin separating the two. Nonetheless, many men are uneasy showing ankle, fearing perhaps that it smacks of the garish machismo of "Miami Vice." You can debate whether dress shoes without socks looks cool, but there is no question that your feet feel that way.

"It's nice to feel like you're not wearing anything," said Daniel Chu, a Manhattan advertising executive, who, come warm weather, deep-sixes the dress socks even with his Crockett & Jones lace-up, cap-toe oxfords. "It's more of a comfort thing than a fashion statement." He added, however, that he likes pairing the modern athleticism of bare feet with the Old World elegance of dress shoes, a clash concocted by those 1950's rebels who paired white athletic socks with loafers. "That's what makes people stare," he said. "They're totally unfamiliar with the look, which is the beauty of it."

Michael Macko, the men's fashion director of Saks Fifth Avenue, is also an avid sans-socker. "It's very old school," he said. "It says, 'I care, but I don't care.' I mean, your shoes get ruined if you wear them all the time without socks."

Still, when it comes to socklessness, there are varying degrees of acceptability. Wingtips and lightweight wool pants may be a little fast for wearing into the boardroom without the visual bridge of ribbed hose, but those same wingtips, worn with fashionable jeans or stylish trousers, have a wider appeal, suggesting a musician's aloofness to workaday rules.

Likewise, a dressy pair of casual pants, like this season's gentlemanly best seller in seersucker, is nicely offset by haute sneakers, like those from Tod's or the Y-3 line that Yohji Yamamoto designs for Adidas. And the two-tone shoes now making a comeback practically sneer at socks (unless they are fine white cotton lisle).

Smart men are also discovering the crucial difference between going without socks and appearing to. For a year or two men have been picking up white cotton no-show athletic socks, once the sole province of women's tennis, as a comfortable and stylish complement to athletic footwear. More recently the no-show has shown up (discreetly, as is its wont) as the official sock for the designer sneaker. And it seems ready for the next step. In May, Banana Republic introduced a low-cut men's cotton liner and sold out its entire stock in a matter of weeks.

Larry Holt, the owner of justsocks.com, based in Louisville, Ky., said that no-shows had jumped from 10 to 25 percent of his sales since last summer. For dress shoes he recommends Wigwam's extra-low-cut no-show in a breathable, moisture-wicking synthetic.

For all their bare-foot bravado, both Mr. Browne and Mr. Chu said they wear no-shows. Socks, after all, do serve a purpose. The thousands of sweat glands in the feet can produce enough moisture in a workday to dampen a pair of leather shoes fully. The edict that shoes should be given a chance to dry with wooden shoe trees inside is never more true than when they have been worn without socks.

That's the yin-yang of going sockless: it is a carefree look that requires at least as much effort as a careful one. As Mr. Macko noted, baring your ankles requires its own special vigilance. "You should always have a tan ankle," he said. "No one wants to see a bare white leg sticking out there."

Nakedness is one thing. Pallor is another.