Bare Ankles...Acceptable?

A friend of mine the other day began giving me a ration of poop for not wearing socks with my white bucks.   I quickly informed her that this was a totally acceptable practice!  Which she quickly and politely disagreed.  She even sent me a picture of Matt Lauer sans socks which she thought looked ridiculous.  I thought he looked pretty cool!  So I figured I might shed a little fashionly opinion on the subject, because in the end, that's all it is...opinion.

I seriously doubt that our etiquette friend Emily Post ever wrote anything about the practice of not wearing socks.  However, if she had, seeing as most of her renderings were from long ago, she would probably have said that gentlemen, unless on the beach, should be wearing socks.  Well, this is 2011 and things have changed a bit...for most.  Although many would disagree with the exercise, we're now seeing gentlemen test the boundaries of fashion dictum by going sockless.

My sockless journey began about 1982 when the practice of wearing topsiders for daily wear came into preppy vogue.  Other than my baseball spikes, I lived in those sockless Sperry Topsiders.  I even, if Mom wasn't paying too much attention, would wear my penny loafers to church sockless.  So to this day, if possible not to offend, I bare my ankles to the world.  However, just to stay within the proper business fashion guidelines, even when I go sockless to the office on days without appointments, there is a clean pair of socks in the Tahoe ready to jump into action should the need arise.

There is a current practice of going sockless with brogues or wingtips which I think is a little excessive, even in the case of high fashion.  I believe that if a gentlemen is going to put on hard soled shoes with a nice suit, he should have appropriate hosiery included.  Of course, this is where a guy can get a little creative with his wardrobe by wearing socks with a nifty design or stripes.  But with white or dirty bucks, topsiders, casual loafers and obviously flip flops, throw those socks out.  Let me just say one thing here though about sandals.  I am not a fan of sandals for any occasion, but should you feel it necessary to don a pair of those heavy leather sandals, please...please do not wear socks of any kind.

So let's get back to the "is it right or wrong" question.  In my humble, professional fashionisto opinion, I believe that under certain circumstances, going sockless is perfectly acceptable.  And perfectly acceptable also assumes that your feet are not releasing any unpleasantries that might offend a neighboring nose.  So, if your feet and shoes are clean and fresh, and you feel like going commando down there, let those ankles have life!  Me and Mr. Lauer think it looks just fine!  And even our good friend Steve thinks it's a good idea...and I wouldn't tell him otherwise!