Sock Profile: Novelty Socks & Trends

In recent years, an entirely new category of socks has been gaining momentum: novelty socks.

Almost exclusively worn by women and children, novelty socks include socks of all lengths and sizes with special colors, designs or embellishments on them. Often popular TV characters, funny phrases, stripes, dots and a whole host of other patterns appear on novelty socks.

As new trends in fashion and culture develop, so too do new sock trends come onto the scene. Knee socks and thigh high socks have been in fashion for women at various times in history. Often these socks are worn with short skirts or shorts.

In the 1980's very big, thick, slouchy socks were in fashion along with leg warmers. Leg warmers were not socks, per se, as there was no foot, but the look was one of a very big, slouchy sock scrunched down on your leg.

In recent years, mismatched socks have even become more and more popular. A company called Little Miss Matched has stormed the fashion scene with novelty socks that are specifically sold individually, allowing the wearer to mix and match as many types of pairs as they'd like.

Slipper socks and lounging socks have also become popular. Slipper socks have a soft but rigid sort of heel sewn into them and can be worn around the house instead of standard slippers, which tend to be more shoe-like.

Novelty socks may also have embellishments on them such as little pom poms, bells or ribbons and bows. These are very common on socks for little girls and babies.

Reminiscent of gloves, "toe socks" are also now available now. Toe Socks wrap each toe individually, rather than a standard sock design that goes around your entire foot.

While novelty socks are both fun and fashionable, special care should be taken when laundering—particularly for any socks with embellishments. Make sure to separate your socks by color and for particular fragile fabrics or construction, hand washing is recommended.